ASSIGNMENT

ON
Aids to Interpretation

Subject – Interpretation of Statutes and Principles of Legislation

Subject Code - 704

Submitted By- Submitted To-

TANMAY GARG Mr. Saurabh Arora
Roll No. – 2001118 Assistant Professor
Section – B DBRANLU, Sonipat

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 ACKNOWDLEDGEMENT
I would like to convey my heartfelt gratitude to Mr. Saurabh Arora for his
tremendous support and assistance in the completion of my project. I would also
like to thank our Vice Chancellor for providing me with this wonderful
opportunity to work on a project with the topic ‘Aids to Interpretation’. The
completion of the project would not have been possible without their help and
insights.

I would like to acknowledge that this project was completed entirely by me and
not by someone else.

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 TABLE of CONTENTS

Introduction………………………04

Interpretation……………………..04

Aids to Interpretation…………….06
 Internal Aids…………………..06
 External Aids………………….10

Conclusion……………………….13

References………………………..14

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INTRODUCTION
In India the power to make laws is given in the hands of the legislature. The court has the
power to implement these laws and serve justice. There is a separation of power which means
that courts cannot play the role of making laws and the legislature cannot play the role of
courts. It is presumed that that the laws made by the legislature are clear and unambiguous.
However, in some case where the meaning of a provision is unclear then court has been given
power to find the intention of the legislature to form a clear meaning. This brings the role of
interpretation. Internal and External Aids are two forms of interpretation which helps courts
in finding out intention of legislature.

How far beyond the actual words of the statute itself is it permissible for courts to roam in
their efforts to interpret legislation? Put another way, what is the proper context in which to
interpret legislative directives? It is a question that is unavoidable intertwined with the more
general problem of the proper approach to statutory interpretation, which in turn raises
question about the proper constitutional functions of a court and the exercise of judicial
discretion.

Does a willingness to broaden the statutory context by consulting extrinsic material mean that
the court is advocating a change in the court's function vis-a-vis the legislature and the
executive. Unfortunately, the courts in India have not adopted a consistent and uniform
approach to the use of extrinsic materials in the sense of determining what aids to
interpretation, external to the statute under consideration, are legitimate and permissible, and
the purpose for which this material might be used.

Unfortunately, the courts in India have not adopted a consistent and uniform approach to the
use of extrinsic materials in the sense of determining what aids to interpretation, external to
the statute under consideration, are legitimate and permissible, and the purpose for which this
material might be used.

INTERPRETATION
Salmond says that “interpretation is the process by which court seeks to ascertain the
meaning of legislature through medium of authoritative form in which it is expressed”. 1
1
Salmond, Jurisprudence, 11th Edition, p.152.

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Interpretation means the process of ascertaining the true meaning of the words used in a
statute. The object of interpretation of statutes is to determine the intention of the legislature
conveyed expressly or impliedly in the language used. The function of the court is to interpret
the document according to the intent of them that made it. From that function the court may
not resile, however ambiguous or difficult of application he words of Act of Parliament may
be, the court is bound to endeavor to place some meaning upon them.2

According to Blackstone, “The most fair and rational method for interpreting a statute is by
exploring the intention of the legislature through texts, the subject matter, the effect and
consequences or the spirit and reason of law.”3

Construction, in strict sense, is the process by which the court assign the meaning to the
ambiguous provision which is beyond the letter of law for the purpose to resolve the
inconsistency. The judges after taking into consideration the factual circumstances before the
court give a particular meaning to the expression or word or phrase in question. Although,
such meaning must be within the ambit of the objective of statute and could not be directly
explained by the statute. The word interpretation and construction are used interchangeably
but there is thin line of difference between both the concepts.

The need of interpretation only arises is cases where meaning of an enactment is not clear and
is ambiguous. This is case where a particular enactment gives more than one meaning. So, by
interpretation we can find the true meaning of enactment. This helps us in finding out the true
intention of the legislature. The court has their own discretion while interpretation but they
should focus only in finding out the intention of legislature and should not change the
meaning of an enactment according to their own thinking. This helps in achieving the justice
and helps in finding the logical meaning to an enactment.

A judicial interpretation process can be done through various tools or principles of statutory
interpretation, including the request of assistance from internal or external interpretative aids,
and the application, by the court over a period of time, of primary or secondary rule of
interpretation.

AIDS TO INTERPRETATION: INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL

2
Langan P. St. J., Maxwell on the interpretation of statutes, LexisNexis Butterworths, Twelfth edition 2002, P.1.
3
Blackstone, Commentaries on the laws of England, vol.1, p.59.

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An Aid is a device that helps or assists. The aids to interpretation help a judge find out the
true intention of the legislature behind a statute. These also help in deriving proper context in
which a statute is to be applied.

Judges take the help of both Rules and Aids in the interpretation of Statutes. As stated by the
Supreme Court in K.P. Varghese v. Income Tax Officer, Ernakulam4, interpretation of
statute being an exercise in the ascertainment of meaning, everything which is logically
relevant should be admissible. A Rule is a uniform or established course of things. There are
three rules of interpretation of statutes- Literal, Golden and Mischief. An Aid, on the other
hand is a device that helps or assists. For the purpose of construction or interpretation, the
court has to take recourse to various internal and external aids.

For the purpose of construction or interpretation, the court has to take recourse to various
internal (those within statute) and external aids (those outside statute).
Internal aids mean those materials which are available in the statute itself, though they may
not be part of enactment. These internal aids include, long title, preamble, headings, marginal
notes, illustrations, punctuation, proviso, schedule, transitory provisions, etc.
When internal aids are not adequate, court has to take recourse to External aids. External
Aids may be parliamentary material, historical background, reports of a committee or a
commission, official statement, dictionary meanings, foreign decisions, etc.

The court has observed in B. Prabhakar Rao and Ors. v. State of Andhra Pradesh and Ors.,
“where internal aids are not forthcoming, we can always have recourse to external aids to
discover the object of the legislation. External aids are not ruled out. This is now a well
settled principle of modern statutory construction”.5

INTERNAL AIDS
The internal aids to interpretation are those which may be contained in the statute itself
forming a part of it or may not form the part of the statute. They are generally taken as
important aid to interpretation whenever there is ambiguity in the language of the statute and
meaning of the words are not clear. However, they have no role to play in case where
meaning of the statute is clear. They are much more valuable than external aid to
4
AIR 1981 SC 1922
5
AIR 1986 SC 120

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interpretation. Internal aids are those that derive meaning from the internal structure of the
text and common dictionary meaning. Internal aids would include interpretation sections of
the Act, which state the meaning of words used in the Act.6

Some of the internal aids are: -

1. TITLE - The role of the title is to give some description of the act. Statutes usually have
two titles: Long Title and Short Title.
 Long Title - Every Statute is headed by a long title at the head of the statutes and
it gives the description about the object of an Act. For example, the long title of
the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, is – “An Act to consolidate and amend the
laws relating to the procedure of the Courts of Civil Judicature”. In recent times,
long title has been used by the courts to interpret certain provision of the statutes.
However, it is useful only to the extent of removing the ambiguity and confusions
and is not a conclusive aid to interpret the provision of the statute. In olden days
the long title was not considered a part of the statutes and was, therefore, not
considered an aid while interpreting it. There has been a change in the thinking of
the courts in recent times and there are numerous occasions when help has been
taken from the long titles to interpret certain provision. 7 It is now settled that Long
Title of an Act is a part of the Act and is admissible as an aid to its construction.
The long title which often precedes the preamble must be distinguished with the
short title; the former taken along with the preamble or even in its absence is a
good guide regarding the object, scope or purpose of the Act, whereas the
latter being only an abbreviation for purposes of reference is not a useful aid to
construction. In Re Kerala Education bill 8, the Supreme Court held that the policy
and purpose may be deduced from the long title and the preamble.
 Short Title - The short title of an Act is for the purpose of reference & for its
identification. It ends with the year of passing of the Act. For example, Section 1
of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, says – “This Act may be cited as the Code
of Civil Procedure, 1908. It shall come into force on the first day of January,
1909.” Even though short title is the part of the statute, it does not have any role in
the interpretation of the provisions of an Act. Neither can it extend nor can it

6
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1766556 visited on 28/11/2023
7
Bhattacharyya Prf. T., the interpretation of statutes, Central Law Agency, Tenth edition, 2017, P.-196
8
1959 1 SCR 995

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 delimit the clear meaning of particular provisions.9

2. PREAMBLE - The preamble is very useful aid to interpretation as it tells us about the
true intention of the legislature for which the act was enactment. Its role comes into play
in case where the meaning of the enactment is not clear and more than one meaning is
formed but not otherwise. It doesn’t extend the scope of an enactment nor does it restrict
it. Courts in the past had taken help from the preamble for interpretation however its role
has decreased in the recent times. For example, The Indian Evidence Act, 1872 has
preamble saying that “Whereas it is expedient to consolidate, define and amend the law of
Evidence; it is hereby enacted as follows”. Many old statues have preambles in which the
main objects of the Act are set out, and there are legitimate aids in construing the enacting
parts. 10By a long catena of decisions, it is now well settled that preamble is not a part of
enactment. It is a recital to the intent of the legislature as it enumerates the mischiefs to be
remedied. Though it is considered as a key to the construction of the statute, whenever the
enacting part is open to doubt, it cannot restrict or extend the enacting part when the latter
is free from doubt. However, in India, it is well settled in the field of constitutional law
that the preamble to the Constitution of India and Directive Principles of State Policy are
the guidelines for interpreting the constitutional provisions. In Kashi Prasad v. State11,
the court held that even though the preamble cannot be used to defeat the enacting clauses
of a statute, it can be treated as a key for the interpretation of the statute.

3. DEFINITION AND INTERPRETATION CLAUSE - Generally we take the ordinary

meaning of the words while determining the meaning of the words given in the
enactment. However, in some cases where the definition given by the legislatures forms
different meaning of the words other than the ordinary meaning. In such cases the
definition given by the legislatures has to be used and it will override the ordinary
meaning. These do not take away the ordinary and natural meaning of the words, but as
used: to extend the meaning of a word to include or cover something, which would not
normally be covered or included; and to interpret ambiguous words and words which are
not plain or clear. It is a common practice to provide an interpretation or definition clause
in every statute and the normal canon of interpretation of statutes lays down that while
9
Ibid 7
10
Langan P. St. J., Maxwell on the interpretation of statutes, LexisNexis Butterworths, Twelfth edition 2002,
P.6-7.
11
AIR 1950 All 732

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 interpreting a particular word in a statute the best guide is the definition of that word in
the concerned statute itself.12

4. PROVISO - The proviso to a section has the natural presumption that enacting part of the
section would have included the subject matter of the proviso. In CIT vs. Ajax Products
Ltd.13, it was held that whether a proviso is construed as restricting the main provision or
as a substantive clause, it cannot be divorced from the provision to which it stands as a
proviso. It must be construed harmoniously with the main enactment. The proviso serves
four different purposes- qualify or exempt certain provision, provide mandatory condition
to be fulfilled by to make enactment workable, act as optional addenda and become
integral part of the enactment. The rule of interpretation of proviso is that it can neither
nullify the implication of main enactment nor can enlarge the scope of main enactment
and can only be referred in case of ambiguity in the section. In case of conflict between
main enactment and proviso, it must be harmoniously construct or in the view of many
jurists’ proviso will prevail as it is the last intention of the legislature.

5. PUNCTUATION - Punctuation are put in the form of colon, semi colon, comma, full
stop, dash, hyphen, brackets etc. Punctuation is a minor element in the construction of a
statute. Only when a statute is carefully punctuated and there is no doubt about its
meaning can weight be given to punctuation. The rule of interpretation is that while
interpreting the provision in punctuated form, if court feels repugnancy or ambiguity the
court shall read the whole provision without any punctuation and if the meaning is clear
will so interpret it without attaching any importance. In Aswini Kumar Ghose v.
Arabinda Bose14, expressed himself as follows: “Punctuation is after all a minor element
in the construction of a statute, and very little attention is paid to it by English Courts-. It
seems, however, that in the vellum copies printed since 1850, there are some cases of
punctuation, and when they occur, they can be looked upon as a sort of contemporancea
expositio-. When a statute is carefully punctuated and there is doubt about its meaning, a
weight should undoubtedly be given some cases, but it cannot certainly be regarded as a
controlling element and cannot be allowed to control the plain meaning of a text.”

EXTERNAL AIDS
When internal aids are not adequate, court has to take recourse to external aids. The external
12
Bindra N.S., Interpretation of statutes, the law book company (P) Ltd., Eighth edition, 1997, P. 39.
13
1965 SCR (1) 700
14
AIR 1952 SC pp.369, 383

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aids are very useful tools for the interpretation or construction of statutory provisions. As
opposed to internal aids to construction there are certain aids which are external to the statute.
The court may seek help to the external aids in case of repugnancy or inconsistency in the
statutory provision. The history of legislation, the enactments which are repealed, the
parliamentary debates, dictionary commentaries etc. are external aids to construction. It is
important to point out here that the legislature adopts the device of making a statute by
“reference” and by “incorporation”. When the statute is incorporated in another statue by the
legislature, the incorporated statute or statute referred to therein is external aid for
interpreting the statute in question.15

The role of external aids to interpretation comes into play in case where internal aid fails.
Internal aid is considered more valuable in interpretation as compared to the external aid.
External aid doesn’t form a part of the enactment itself like some internal aid and neither they
are connected to any specific provision. However, in some cases where internal aid fails, help
can be taken from external aids to ascertain the intention of the legislature as generally they
talk about the history of an enactment and reasons for its introduction.

External aids include: -

1. PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY, HISTORICAL FACTS AND SURROUNDING
CIRCUMSTANCES - Historical setting cannot be used as an aid if the words are plain
and clear. If the wordings are ambiguous, the historical setting may be considered in order
to arrive at the proper construction. Historical setting covers parliamentary history,
historical facts, statement of objects and reasons, report of expert committees.
Parliamentary history means the process by which an act is enacted. This includes
conception of an idea, drafting of the bill, the debates made, the amendments proposed
etc. Speech made in mover of the bill; amendments considered during the progress of the
bill are considered in parliamentary history whereas the papers placed before the cabinet
which took the decision for the introduction of the bill are not relevant since these papers
are not placed before the parliament. In Express Newspapers Pvt. Ltd. v. Union of
India16, it was observed that the Parliament history may be considered for the purpose of
the interpretation in case where the meaning of a provision is not clear. It includes –
Reports, Parliamentary Debates, and Bills. The historical facts of the statute that is the
15
Ibid 12
16
AIR 1958 SC 578

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 external circumstances in which it was enacted in should also be taken into note so that it
can be understood that the statute in question was intended to alter the law or leave it
where it stood. Statement of objective and reasons as to why the statute is being brought
to enactment can also be a very helpful fact in the research for historical facts, but the
same if done after extensive amendments in statute it may be unsafe to attach these with
the statute in the end. It is better to use the report of a committee before presenting it in
front of the legislature as they guide us with a legislative intent and place their
recommendations which come in handy while enactment of the bill.

2. SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS AND SCIENTIFIC

INVENTIONS - A Statute must be interpreted to include circumstances or situations
which were unknown or did not exist at the time of enactment of the statute. Any relevant
changes in the social conditions and technology should be given due weightage. The
doctrine of “Contemporanea Expositio” is used for very ancient statutes for the
interpretation of the ambiguous language. It is presumed that when the statute was passed
in the olden days, persons who were living there, at the time of passing of the statutes,
knew the circumstances under which the statutes were passed, better and more efficiently
than the persons of the later generations, who were living after the passing of the Act. 17
Courts should take into account all these developments while construing statutory
provisions. The laws made in the past are applied in the present contemporary society in
the light of changed social, political, legal and economic circumstances taking into
consideration the advancement in science and technology. The court held in S.P. Gupta
v. Union of India18, Statutes must be interpreted in accordance with the spirit of the
Constitution of India even though the statutes were passed before independence of India
or before the commencement of our Constitution. The interpretation of every statutory
provision must keep pace with changing concepts and values and it must, to the extent to
which its language permits or rather does not prohibit, suffer adjustments through judicial
interpretation so as to accord with the requirement of the fast-changing society which is
undergoing rapid social and economic transformation. It is elementary that law does not
operate in a vacuum. It is, therefore, intended to serve a social purpose and it cannot be
interpreted without taking into account the social, economic and political setting in which

17
Singh G.P., Principles of Statutory Interpretation, 221 (Wadhwa and Company, Nagpur,
Tenth Edition, 2006)
18
AIR 1982 SC 149

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 it is intended to operate.

3. DICTIONARY - In the absence of any judicial guidance or authority, dictionaries can be

consulted to find out the meaning of a particular word or a phrase. In the absence of there
being anything contrary to the context the language of a statute should be interpreted
according to the plain dictionary meaning of the terms used therein. It is true that
“dictionaries” are not to be taken as authoritative exponents of the meaning of words used
in Acts of Parliament, but it is a well-known rule of Courts of Law that word should be
taken to be used in their ordinary sense, and we are therefore, sent for instruction to these
books.19 Though dictionaries are not to be taken as authoritative exponents of the meaning
of the statutory language, it is permissible to seek instruction from these books to
understand the ordinary sense of the words in an enactment. Dictionaries cannot be
considered as a safe guide to statutory interpretation. They can help in a very limited
manner. They cannot be a perfect aid because dictionaries provide us with the literal
meaning of a word and nothing more than that.

4. REFERENCE TO OTHER STATUTES - Statutes must be read as a whole in order to

understand the words in their context. Problem arises when a statute is not complete in
itself i.e., the words used in the statute are not explained clearly. Extension of this rule of
context permits reference to other statutes in pari materia i.e., statutes dealing with the
same subject matter or forming part of the same system. In the case, State of Punjab v.
Okara Grain Buyers syndicate Ltd., Okara20, the Supreme Court held that when two
pieces of legislation are of differing scopes, it cannot be said that they are in pari materia.
However, it is not necessary that the entire subject matter in the statutes should be
identical before any provision in one may be held to be in pari materia with some
provision in the other.21

5. PRECEDENTS, JUDICIAL DECISIONS AND FOREIGN LAWS & DECISIONS -

Under this rule, a principle of law which has become settled by a series of decisions is
generally binding on the courts and should be followed in similar cases. The rule is based
on expediency and public policy. It is however not universally applicable. For example, if
19
Rao, Swati, External Aids to Interpretation of Statutes: A Critical Appraisal (July 27, 2010).
20
AIR 1964 SC 669
21
Singh G.P., Principles of Statutory Interpretation, 275(Wadhwa and Company, Nagpur, Tenth
Edition, 2006)

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 grievous wrong may result, a court will not follow the previous decisions which, they are
convinced, are erroneous.
When judicial pronouncements are been taken as reference it should be taken into note
that the decisions referred are Indian, if they are foreign, it should be ensured that such a
foreign country follows the same system of jurisprudence as ours and that these decisions
have been taken in the ground of the same law as ours. These foreign decisions have
persuasive value only and are not binding on Indian courts and where guidance is
available from binding Indian decisions; reference to foreign decisions is of no use.22
Reference to decisions of the English Courts was a common practice in the administration
of justice in pre independent India. The reason behind this was that the Modern Indian
Legal System owes its origin to the English Common Law System. But after the
commencement of the Constitution of India as a result of the incorporation of the
Fundamental Rights, the Supreme Court of India gave more access to American
precedents.

CONCLUSION
The chief source of law is legislation, though there are other sources of law such as
precedents and customs. Every source of law finds its expression in a language. Often the
language has a puzzling effect, i.e., it masks and distorts. The importance of use of these aids
is manifest. In any case, where difficulty arises as to finding out the true intention of the
legislature, the use of these materials could be made by the Courts. Of course, in India, there
is no consistent and uniform approach to the use of these materials in the sense of
determining as an aid for the purpose of interpretation of a given statute.

While interpretation we determine the intention of the legislature. After considering all the
aids to interpretation we can conclude that internal aid of interpretation is more reliable
source of interpretation than the external aid to interpretation. Internal aid forms the part of
the enactment whereas external aid is separate from the provision. Internal aids are
considered as first option for interpretation and when they fail only then external aids come
into play.

REFERENCES
22
Setalvad M.C., The Common Law in India, 61 as cited in Singh G.P., Principles of Statutory
Interpretations, 327(Wadhwa and Company, Nagpur, Tenth Edition, 2006).

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