The Administrative Procedure Amendment (Statement of Reasons) Law, 1958 imposed on every public servant, the duty—subject to certain exceptions—to give the reasons in writing, for a negative decision, when requested to use his statutory authority.
However, no time-limit for furnishing its reasons was laid upon the administrative authority and no legal sanction was placed on failure to perform this duty except in the case of litigation, where the burden of proof that the public servant has legally used his authority was placed on the public servant. In other words, the presumption of legality was thus in favour of the citizen and not of the decision (sec. 6(A)). This measure is certainly important, but it is already within the field of litigation, while the importance of the Law is in the realm of non-litigious procedure.
In that situation, deliberate or negligent silence on die part of a public servant was enough to make the Law's provisions ineffective. The citizen could only bring an action before the High Court of Justice, a proceeding which is available in every case. Does this mean, therefore, that the 1958 Law did nothing more than to add another action, for failure to give reasons, to those generally available to the individual? If so, it set about it in a very roundabout way!