Purposive Approach

S. P. SRIVASTAVA
 Intruduction
• The purposive approach is a modern version of
the mischief rule.
• It is certainly more flexible than either the literal
rule or the golden rule which tend to concentrate
upon the meaning of individual words or phrases.
• This rule allows a judge to add or ignore words in
an Act to help them give a decision that supports,
in their view why the Act was created.
 Continued:
• . The mischief rule: Heydon’s case 1584 1.
What was the common law before the making
of the Act? 2. What was the mischief and
defect for which the common law did not
provide? 3. What is the remedy now provided
by the Act of Parliament to deal with the
mischief or defect for which the common law
did not provide a cure? 4. The true reason of
the remedy The court then interprets the Act
in such a way as to cure the “mischief”
 The Modern Approach
• The modern approach to the interpretation of
an Act of Parliament is what is termed the
Purposive Approach. • The Purposive
Approach takes account not only of the words
of the Act according to their ordinary meaning
but also the context. • ‘Context’ here does not
mean simply ‘linguistic context’; the subject-
matter, scope, purpose and (to some extent)
background of the Act are also taken into
consideration.
 Continued:
• Very similar to the mischief rule
• It goes beyond ‘filling the gaps’ in a statute
• It looks at what Parliament meant to achieve.
• It looks for the purpose of the Act
 Meaning
• the purposive approach to statutory interpretation seeks to
look for the purpose of the legislation before interpreting the
words.
• Purposive interpretation was employed as the mischief rule,
i.e., to be used by the courts to understand the intent of the
Parliament when the statute to be interpreted was meant to
remedy certain mischief. The judgment of the nine judge
bench on right to privacy is an example that can illustrate the
tussle of the Supreme Court with literal and purposive
interpretation when deciding on the status of right to privacy
as in the Constitution of India.
 The Literal Rule Vs. Purposive
Approach
• • The literal approach takes each word
literally. The purposive approach is very broad
and does not look at the precise meaning of
each word. Golden Rule vs. Purposive
Approach • Golden rules look to the actual
wording of the statutes. The mischief and
purposive approach go beyond that.
 Continued:
• 1. The Literal Rule – Every day meanings of
words 2. The Golden Rule – Words interpreted
to avoid absurdity 3. The Mischief Rule –
Words interpreted to fill in the gaps in the
original Act 4. The Purposive Approach – Very
wide interpretation to give meaning to
purpose of the Act
Adoption of Purposive approach by
Indian Courts
• In India, Supreme Court had in the case of
Tirath Singh V. Bachittar Singh approved and
adopted the purposive rule of approach.
• The Bombay High Court in Shamrao V.
Parulekar V. District Magistrate, Thana,
recaptulatesmaxwell.
 Fertilizing Egg

• The House of Lords held that the cloned embryos

were covered by the statute taking a purposive
approach to statutory interpretation.
• Lord Bingham: • "The court's task, within the
permissible bounds of interpretation, is to give
effect to Parliament's purpose.
• Provisions should be read in the context of the
statute as a whole, and the statute as a whole
should be read in the historical context of the
situation which led to its enactment
 AllIndia Reporter Karamchari Sangh v. All India
Reporter Ltd. AIR 1988 SC 1325
• It is difficult to agree with the submission made
on behalf of Respondent that the law reports do
not carry any news and that the public is not
interested in them.
• We are of the view that any decision published in
the law reports of Respondent contain
information about the recent events which have
taken place in the Supreme Court or in the High
Courts which are public bodies and these are
matters in which the public is interested.
 Continued:
• We find it also difficult to agree with the
submission made on behalf of Respondent.
• They do possess the character of works
containing news.