Chapter 1
Chapter 1
DIA renaissance Law College renaissance Law College
Meaning and Classification of Statutes
Meaning and Classification of Statutes
Justice A.K. Shrivastava, Delhi High Court
"Words spoken or written are the means of communication. Where they are possible of giving one and only one meaning there is no problem. But where there is a possibility of two meanings, a problem arises and the real intention is to be sorted out. If two persons communicating with each other are sitting together; they can by subsequent conversation clear the confusion and make things clear. But what will happen if a provision in any statute is found to convey more than one meaning? The Judges and the Lawyers whose duty it is to interpret statutes have no opportunity to converse with the Legislature which had enacted a particular statute. The Legislature, after enacting statutes becomes functus officio so far as those statutes are concerned. It is not their function to interpret the statutes. Thus two functions are clearly demarcated. Legislature enacts and the Judges interpret. The difficulty with Judges is that they cannot say that they do not understand a particular provision of an enactment. They have to interpret in one way or another. They cannot remand or refer back the matter to the Legislature for interpretation. That situation led to the birth of principles of interpretation to find out the real intent of the Legislature. Consequently, the Superior Courts had to give us the rules of interpretation to ease ambiguities, inconsistencies, contradictions or lacunas. The rules of interpretation come into play only where clarity or precision in the provisions of the statute are found missing. Good enactments are those which have least ambiguities, inconsistencies, contradictions or lacunas. Bad enactments are a gold mine for lawyers because for half of the litigation the legislative draftsmen are undoubtedly the cause. The purpose of the interpretation of the statute is to unlock the locks put by the Legislature. For such unlocking, keys are to be found out. These keys may be termed as aids for interpretation and principles of interpretation."
The term interpretation means "To give meaning to". Governmental power has been divided into three wings namely the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. Interpretation of statues to render justice is the primary function of the judiciary. It is the duty of the Court to interpret the Act and give meaning to each word of the Statute. The most common rule of interpretation is that every part of the statute must be understood in a harmonious manner by reading and construing every part of it together. The maxim "A Verbis legis non est recedendum" means that you must not vary the words of the statute while interpreting it. The object of interpretation of statutes is to determine the intention of the legislature conveyed expressly or impliedly in the language used.
The object of interpretation of statute is to determine the intention of the legislature conveyed expressly or impliedly in the language used in Santi swarup Sarkar versus pradeep kumar sarkar, the Supreme Court held that if two interpretations are possible of the same statute, the one which validates the statute must be preferred. Interpretation is the primary function of the court. The court interprets the legislature whenever a dispute arises before the court. Since the will of the legislature is generally expressed in the form of statutes, the prime concern of the court is to find out the intentions of the legislature in the language used by the legislature in the statute.
The court is not expected to interpret arbitrarily and consequently there have to be certain principles which have evolved out of the continuous exercise by the courts. These principles are renaissance Law College sometimes called rules of interpretation. The words interpretation and construction are generally used synonymously even though jurisprudentially they are perhaps different. Interpretation means the art of finding out the true sense of an enactment by giving the words in their natural and ordinary meaning whereas construction means drawing conclusion on the basis of the true spirit of the enactment even though the same does not appear if the words used in the enactments are given their natural meaning. To ensure that justice is made available to all, the judicial system has been evolved in all nations. It is extremely important and indeed necessary also that the Courts interpret the law in such a manner that ensures access to justice to the maximum. For this purpose, the concept of Canons of Interpretation has been expounded. The Canons are those rules that have been evolved by the Judiciary to help Courts determine the meaning and the intent of legislation.
SALMOND has defined it as "the process by which the Courts seek to ascertain the meaning of the Legislature through the medium of authoritative forms in which it is expressed." A Statute is an edict of the Legislature and it must be construed "to the intent of them who make it" and "duty of the judicature is to act upon the true intention of the Legislature- the mens or sententia legis".