Study of Doctrine of Legitimate Expectation

Abstract

Legitimate expectation was first used by the Supreme Court of England and Wales in Schmidt vs. Secretary of State for Home Affairs, which was the first time the term was used in a legal context. In this specific situation, the government had reduced the amount of time that a foreigner was authorised to enter and reside in England by a significant amount. The court concluded that the person had a real expectation of staying in England, which could not be violated without first completing a procedure that was fair and reasonable in all the circumstances of the situation. As
an alternative to the word right, Lord DENNING used the phrase reasonable expectation to describe the situation. However, in the case of Breen v. Amalgamated Engineering Union, the notion of reasonable expectation was given a proper position in the law. Specifically, the “District Committee of a trade union had declined to approve a members election as shop steward in this particular instance. Although a person can be denied access to a privilege without being heard, the court found that in this case, the individual has something more than a mere privilege; he or she has a legitimate expectation that his or her election will be approved unless there is a compelling reason to deny access. As a result, the natural justice principles are applied to the case in order to ensure fairness”, the court concluded.