Bill
A ‘bill ‘ can be contemplated as the initial stage of an act. It is basically a proposal to draft a new law. Generally, a bill is in the form of a document that summarizes what is the policy behind the suggested law and what the said law is going to be.
- A Bill can be introduced by Parliament or State Governments itself or proposed by a member of the Parliament.
- Once passed in the lower House after discussions, the Bill moves to the Upper house for approval.
- Once the bill is passed by the Upper House, then it is sent to the Indian President for his assent.
- Ultimately, a bill becomes a law (Act) or a statute of the land after it is passed by the Parliament and assented by the President. However, not all bills become acts, some bills do lapse and need to be reintroduced.
Act
Once the Bill has been passed by the legislature, it is sent to the President or the Governor in case of Central law or State law respectively for the approval. After receiving the assent, it becomes an Act.
- An Act is a law that is made by the legislature such as Parliament or State Legislative Assembly.
- It is a law passed by Parliament whereas a bill is proposed legislation under consideration by a legislature. Therefore, a bill is a draft and acts are a law by the government. In this sense, a bill becomes an act when it is passed through the government.
Ordinance
Article 123 of Indian Constitution gives the President “Ordinance making power” whereas Article 213 of Indian Constitution gives the Governor “Ordinance making power”. These are valid for a period of six months+ six weeks. Within 6 months it must be introduced in parliament and within 6 weeks it must be passed by parliament if not then it will be declared invalid.
- Ordinance is a temporary law that is circulated by the President on the recommendation of the Union Cabinet.
- They can only be delivered when the Parliament is not in session. They authorize the government to take immediate legislative action.
- These are generally passed when the Central Legislature is not in session and there is a need to make an act in emergency. In these cases, the government refers a proposal to the President or Governor of a State, and if they approve of them, it becomes an Ordinance. The legality of an ordinance is that it is equal to the Act.
Rules
When any Act is introduced and passed, it is not mandatory that it is a complete code in itself. So, there is a requirement for the enactment of rules for defining the procedures of performing and implementation of the Act. In short, rules provide procedural laws.
Like legislature makes the law and executive implement the laws so to implement the laws executive make rules regarding the laws. If parliament is making laws then rules will be made by central government and if state legislature is making laws then rules will be made by state government. It is not necessary that every act should have rules and regulations.
- Rules are necessary because it is very complex for the legislation to include each and every detail in a single Act making it lengthy. Hence, a separate set of rules are made, in compliance with the provisions of the Act.
- Rules are secondary in nature to their parent act. Therefore, the rules cannot go beyond the parent Act and in case if any conflict arises between the provisions of an Act and rules, then the provisions of the Act will prevail. Example: The Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 gives powers to the appropriate Government to make rules to carry out the purposes of this Act. Thus, The Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Central Rules, 1946 were drafted by the Centre.
Regulations
Basically, rules and regulations are quite similar, however, regulations are more rigid than rules. Regulations have a force of law as these are the orders passed by Executive authority on the conduct of any legislation.
In India there are some independent authorities and statutory bodies they decide how they will implement the act, it’s in their own hands, for example RBI (Reserve Bank Of India), SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India), Competition Commission, Press Council of India. Now how these bodies will govern themselves or regulate themselves or function themselves or what will be there standards, so for themselves they make regulations.
- They are based upon the Act. Such regulations are passed for the application of the Act and thus, there can be more than one set of regulations.
- Regulations are not passed before the Houses of Parliament but are needed to be published in the official Gazette to become legal.
- The Act is the parent law and the regulations passed is the supplement and are subordinate in nature and acts as an in- charge for enforcing the laws.
The main difference between rules and regulations is that regulations are legally binding, whereas rules are not. Example: The Competition Act, 2002 confers powers on the Commission to make regulations to carry out the purposes of the Act. The Competition Commission of India made The Competition Commission of India (Manner of recovery of monetary penalty) Regulations, 2011 exercising this power.
Law
The word ‘law’ generally refers to the set of regulations or rules to be followed. It can be in any form such as an act, ordinance, order, by-laws, rule or regulation etc.
An act is a subset of law. It has the power to confer legal rights, obligations, liabilities, etc.
Law can be any provisions of every valid Acts passed by the legislature whether acts and codes from pre-independence India or Ordinances passed by a Governor of a State or the President of India or decisions of the High Courts or Supreme Court, authorized orders, notices, rules, etc. made by government bodies.