Why Interpret?

The need for Interpretation,

Intention in Interpretation
Ms. Pallavi Mishra
Symbiosis Law School, NOIDA
Intention of Legislature/Sententia Legis
• Most important thing while interpreting any statute is to find the intention of the
legislature who has framed the said statute.
• It is only after knowing the intention of the legislature from the words of the Statute,
effect can be given to it.
• Every word, phrase or sentence in the Act is to be construed in light of the general
purpose of the Act itself.
• Statute must be read as a whole and in context. Context here means the Statute as
a whole, the previous state of law, other statutes in Pari Materia, the general scope o
f the Statute and the mischief that it was intended to remedy.
Intention of Legislature/Sententia Legis
• Context must be identified before actually interpreting any provision.
• Statute must be construed to make it effective and workable.
• There is always a presumption of constitutionality of any statute when its validity is
challenged. If meaning of any provision is plain, clear and unambiguous, effect must
be given to it.
• “A statute must be construed in such a manner so as to ensure that the Act itself
does not become a dead letter, and the obvious intention of the legislature does not
stand defeated, unless it leads to a case of absolute intractability in use.”-
State of Gujarat v Hon’ble Mr. Justice R.A. Mehta (Retd.) AIR 2013 SC 693
Intention of Legislature/Sententia Legis

It is a cardinal principle of construction of a statute that when the language of the statute is plain
and unambiguous, then the court must give effect to the words used in the statute and it would
not be open to the courts to adopt a hypothetical construction on the grounds that such
construction is more consistent with the alleged object and policy of the Act.“
The function of the Court is only to expound the law and not to legislate vide District Mining Offi
cer vs. Tata Iron and Steel Company, 2002 (7) SCC 358”
Intention of Legislature/Sententia Legis
The intention of the Legislature is primarily to be gathered from the language used, which means
that attention should be paid to what has been said as also to what has not been said. As a
consequence, a construction which requires for its support, addition or substitution of words
or which results in rejection of words as meaningless has to be avoided. As observed in
Crawford v. Spooner (1846 (6) Moore PC 1), Courts, cannot aid the Legislatures’ defective
phrasing of an Act, we cannot add or amend, and by construction make up deficiencies
which are left there.
Thus, while interpreting a provision the Court only interprets the law and cannot legislate it.”
Modes to ascertain sententia legis
1. If the intention is not obvious words of the statute must be seen.

(i) National Federation of Blind (2013) 3 SCC 1 discusses legislative intention in detail.
“The language employed in a statute is the determinative factor of legislative intent. The first and
primary rule of construction is that the intention of the legislation must be found in the words
used in the legislature itself…...”
(ii) Hardeep Singh v. State of Punjab, (2014) 3 SCC 92:
“To say powers under Section 319 of CrPC can be exercised only during trial would be reducing
the impact of the word ‘inquiry’ by the court….. The legal maxim “ A Verbis Legis Non Est
Recedendum which means “from the words of law, there must be no departure” has to be kept i
n mind”
Modes to ascertain sententia legis
Cont..

(iii) Thalappalam Ser. Coop. Bank Ltd. v. State of Kerala 2013 (12) SCALE 527:
“The interpretation of Section 2 (h) of RTI Act, 2005 was in question. The question was that
whether the cooperative societies would fall within the definition of Section 2 (h) of the Act. The
court began its inquired into the intention of parliament with words ‘means’ and ‘includes’ as
under:
Court observed: ‘As powers exercised under the Cooperative Societies Act are only regulatory or
supervisory in nature, which will not amount to dominating or interfering with the management
or affairs of the society so as to be controlled as required in the second part of Section 2 (h).
These things indicate the parliamentary intention was not to include cooperative society.’
Modes to ascertain sententia legis
2. Intentions through amendments:

In Lalita Kumari v. Govt. of U.P. (2014) 2 SCC 1, while deciding whether registration of
FIR is mandatory or discretionary also seeks legislative intention through amendments:
‘”Para 74: the insertion of sub section (3) of Section 154 by way of an amendment,
reveals the intention of the legislature to ensure that no information of commission of a
cognizable offence must be ignored or not acted upon which would result in unjustified
protection of the alleged offender/accused.”

Section 154(3) CrPC was incorporated by amendment in 1973. This incorporation

indicated that the intention of Parliament was never to make FIR discretionary.
Modes to ascertain sententia legis
3. Intentions by Inferences: Hardeep Singh v. State of Punjab, (2014) 3 SCC 92

4. Intent of the contract: Rajasthan State Industrial Development, (2010) 14 SCC 1

and DLF Universal Ltd. v. Director, T. and C. Planning Department, Haryana (2013) 2 S
CC 357
Reading Materials

• Anurag Deep, Legislative Intention- A Critical Study of Recent Trends, Tools and
Techniques in India 24 ALJ (2016-17) 162 available at:
http://www.scconline.com/DocumentLink/PKP8gLqP, last accessed on July 23, 2020

• Justice Singh G.P., Principles of Statutory Interpretation, , 12th ed., Lexis Nexis
Publishing. 2010 Pp.1-15