HIMACHAL PRADESH NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, SHIMLA

DISCIPLINE: LAW OF INTERPRETATION OF STATUTES

A CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF USE OF PARI MATERIA AS AN

EXTRINSIC AIDS TO INTERPRETATION OF STATUTE
TERM ASSIGNMENT (2024-2025)

Submitted By: Submitted to:

Abhishek Bisht Dr. Arun Klair
B.B.A LLB (Hons) Assistant Professor of Law
9th Semester Himachal Pradesh National
Enrollment No. 1120202156 Law University, Shimla

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I Abhishek Bisht a fifth year law student would like to express my sincere gratitude towards Dr.
Arun Klair Sir, Assistant Professor of Law, who always stand for us and helped me at every possible
step of my assignment. And without whose guidance I would not have completed my assignment
successfully. I would also like to sincerely thank Himachal Pradesh National Law University, Shimla
and its faculty for guiding and encouraging me at every step of my assignment.

I would also like to extend gratitude to my seniors and friends who played an important role and
assisted me with the insights they had. Last but not the least I bestow my heartfelt gratitude towards
my parents and family members whose instant motivations kept me going throughout the
assignment.

Abhishek Bisht

B.B.A LLB (Hons)

9th Semester

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 DECLARATION

I, the undersigned solemnly declare that the present assignment on the topic “A critical appraisal
of use of Pari Materia as an extrinsic aids to interpretation of statute” is purely based on my
own work as it has been carried out during my study under the esteemed guidance and
supervision of Dr. Arun Klair Sir, Assistant Professor of Law, at the Himachal Pradesh National
Law University, Shimla and also from the help of various online websites and research papers. I
would like to make clear that the whole assignment is typed by me on my own words after
taking the help from the mentioned sources. Itis important to note that plagiarism may be
found as I haven’t done the assignment paraphrase. I further certify that:

1. The work contained in the assignment is not purely original but has been done by my
efforts and hard work.
2. The work is not submitted to any other organizations, journals, websites, etc.
3. I’ve followed the guidelines provided by the university in writing the assignment.

Abhishek Bisht
B.B.A LLB (Hons)
9th Semester

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 ABBREVIATIONS

& And

Ad. Advertisement

AIR All India Reporter

BCI Bar Council of India

Del Delhi

Etc Et cetera

i.e. That is

Org. Organization

Ors Others

S. Section

ULB Urban Local Bodies

UOI Union of India

US United States

v. versus

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT………………………………………………………………2

2. DECLARATION………………………………………………………………………..3

3. ABRREVIATIONS……………………………………………………………………..4

4. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………6

5. OBJECTIVES………………………………………………………………..………….7

6. AIDS TO INTERPRETATION……………………………………………………..……….7

7. EXTERNAL AIDS TO
INTERPRETATION…………………......................................................................…..8

8. USE OF PARI MATERIA AS AN EXTERNAL AID TO INTERPRETATION…..….9

9. CONDITION PRECENDENTS………………………………………………….……10

10. CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………..12

11. REFERENCES…………………………………………………………….…………..13

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 INTRODUCTION

Interpretation is the process to determine the meaning of the statutes or other legal provision. Statutes
are also known as legislative enactment or backbone of any legal system. These statutes are the
primary source of most of the law jurisdictions. And statutes play the vital role in regulation of all
aspect of the society. The judiciary holds an essential responsibility of interpreting the existing
statutes and laws. When courts administer justice in disputes they strictly adhere to the boundaries
established by the framework, which includes various laws, statutes, the Constitution and delegated
legislations. In nations, like India, the legal framework comprises a multitude of legislations and
regulations. This interpretation of statutes is challenging and complex but this is the most important
part to ensuring that, law is applied fairly and uniformly. Interpretation of statutes is the backbone of
our legal system. This is the process of determining the meaning of any law. This interpretation of
statues is challenging and complex but this is the most important part to ensuring that, law is applied
fairly and uniformly.

Statutes are the primary source of most jurisdiction in law. It is a law enacted by a legislative body.
Statutes play the most vital role in regulating all aspect of our legal system. But at the same time it
can be quite complex, that time interpretation of statues comes in. Statutory construction also referred
as Interpretation of statutes. It is a fundamental legal processor. The use of Constructed of Statutes is
to determining the meaning and application of statutes. It is also challenging and complex in task but
it ensures that the law is applied uniformly and fairly. To understand a statute, courts use variety of
tools and techniques. There are a set of principle and rules use to interpret the statutes. Court
generally give the plain and ordinary meaning of the statutes, unless the statute is confusing or that
meaning would lead to a wrong result. Sometimes courts may consider the legislative history of a
statute like committee reports and debates to help to understand the statute’s meaning.

The process of understanding the meaning of a law or legal provision is known as interpretation. It is
an aspect of our system enabling courts and other bodies involved in adjudication to apply the law to
specific cases and resolve legal disputes fairly. Interpretation plays a role, in preventing the exercise
of power and ensuring that duties are fulfilled. If a statute is written in ambiguous language
government officials may interpret it in ways that allow them to wield their powers arbitrarily.
However, when courts interpret statutes they can ensure fair application of the law while preventing
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abuse of power by government officials. Interpretation is also instrumental, in preventing crime and
safeguarding welfare. If criminal statutes are interpreted narrowly, they may not effectively deter
crime. Conversely if they are interpreted broadly individual’s rights may be violated. Courts have a
role to play in interpreting statutes in a manner that both prevents crime and safeguards individual
rights. Lastly interpretation contributes to expediting the delivery of justice. If the courts struggle to
promptly and accurately understand the law it can result in delays, within the proceedings. Such
delays can have effects on both plaintiffs and defendants eroding trust in the judicial system. To
guarantee justice courts should establish consistent guidelines, for interpreting the law.

Objectives:

The goals and objectives which interpretation of statutes seeks to be achieved can be summarized as
follows;

1. Understanding the intent of the legislators: The main goal of interpretation is to

comprehend what the lawmakers intended when they made and passed a law. This involves
analysing the language used in the statute taking into account its context and examining the
circumstances surrounding its creation.
2. Achieving the purpose for which the statute was brought into force: Once we have
determined the intent the next objective is to ensure that the statutes purpose is fulfilled. This
means interpreting it in a way that aligns with the goals intended by lawmaker.
3. Protecting rights and freedoms: Statutory interpretation should also prioritize safeguarding
individual’s rights and liberties. It entails interpreting laws in a manner that does not
unreasonably infringe upon people’s rights and freedoms, but rather help them
In addition, to these objectives there may be aims to certain cases. For example, a court might
interpret a statute in a way that minimizes its impact, on the economy or promotes welfare.1

AIDS TO INTERPRETATION
An Aid, 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. 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

1
LEXISNEXIS available at https://www.lexisnexis.in/blogs/interpretation-of-statutes/ (last visited Nov. 05, 2024).
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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. B. Prabhakar Rao and
others v State of A.P. and others , AIR 1986 SC 120 O.Chennappa, Reddy J. has observed : “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.”2 District Mining Officer and others v Tata Iron & Steel Co. and another ,
(2001) 7 SCC 358 Supreme Court has observed: “It is also a cardinal principle of construction that
external aids are brought in by widening the concept of context as including not only other enacting
provisions of the same statute, but its preamble, the existing state of law, other statutes in pari materia
and the mischief which the statute was intended to remedy.” 3 K.P. Varghese v Income Tax Officer
Ernakulam, AIR 1981 SC 1922 The Supreme Court has stated that interpretation of statute being an
exercise in the ascertainment of meaning, everything which is logically relevant should be
admissible.4

EXTERNAL AIDS TO INTERPRETATION

External aids to interpreting statutes are sources of information and guidance utilised by courts and
legal professionals to understand the meaning and intent behind a particular statute. These aids are
external to the statute’s text and provide supplementary context for its interpretation. External aids
provide valuable assistance in the interpretation of statutes. They help resolve uncertainties and fill
gaps in the statutory text. The legislative history, including committee reports, debates and statements
made by lawmakers during the drafting process, is a commonly used external aid. It provides insights
into the statute’s objectives, purpose and context, assisting in determining the lawmakers’ intent Case
law is another important external aid. Judicial decisions on related statutes or similar legal issues can
help understand the interpretation given by courts in previous cases. These precedents serve as a
guide for future interpretations and contribute to the development of legal principles. Other external
aids include dictionaries, legal treatises and scholarly articles. Dictionaries help ascertain the ordinary
meaning of words used in a statute. Legal treatises and scholarly articles provide academic analysis
and expert opinions on statutory interpretation, aiding in understanding complex legal concepts.
Before the admissibility of the 183rd law commission report, various questions were raised as to the

2
B. Prabhakar Rao and others v. State of A.P. and others , AIR 1986 SC 120.
3
District Mining Officer and others v. Tata Iron & Steel Co. and another , (2001) 7 SCC 358.
4
K.P. Varghese v. Income Tax Officer Ernakulam, AIR 1981 SC 1922.
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credibility of external aids. Doubts were raised as to the reliability of external aids of interpretation
while construing any statute. In cases such as A.K Gopalan v. State of Madras,5 it was pointed out
that external aids are not permissible unless statute was vague or ambiguous. It was settled that
proceedings or discussions in assembly, reports, and debates are to be used with great caution and
only when latent ambiguity are to be resolved. The basic premise was that the intention of the
legislature is to be gathered from the language of the statute itself and no external evidences is
admissible to construe those words. After the 183rd Law Commission Report and the historic
landmark judgment of Pepper v. Hart,6 external aids became admissible for the interpretation of
statutes. Thus, whenever literal construction leads to absurdity, external aid of construction can be
resorted to. However, recourse to extrinsic aid in interpreting a statutory provision would be justified
only within well recognized limits and primarily the effect of statutory provision must be judged on a
fair and reasonable construction of the words used by the statute itself. Thus, where the words of the
statute are clear, unambiguous, and explicit, there is no scope to have recourse to external aid for their
construction. The courts would not be justified in putting up external aid in such cases as it would
lead to violence of the plain language of the provision. 7 Henceforth, where the language is vague and
ambiguous, or does not clearly spell out the object and spirit of the act, external aids in the nature of
parliamentary debates, reports of drafting or select committees may be permissible to determine and
locate the real intention of the legislature. Thus, external aids are used when a statute is not clear,
cloudy, uncertain, or susceptible to one or more meanings or shades of meaning. 8

USE OF PARI MATERIA AS AN EXTRINSIC AID TO INTERPRETATION OF STATUTES

The concept of pari materia is built on the idea of a continuation of the legislative method in those
acts and regular terms that had been utilize. No meaning change is required unless this was
previously intended. It is an established rule of interpretation; there is no uncertainty: where statutes
are pari materia, that is, as long as they are related to make a code of legislation or system, this type
of act is taken jointly as to form system and as a rewrite and application together. When the
provisions of the two acts are in sync, it is permissible to study them together. Lord Mansfield
observed that “statutes in pari materia are to be taken as a single system to defeat the mischief.”

5
A.K. Gopalan v. State of Madras, AIR 1950 SC 27.
6
Pepper v. Hart, [1992] UKHL 3.
7
Pratiksha Vidyadhar, External Aids to Interpretation, V IJRPR, 8398-8404 (2024).
8
SOUTH CALCUTTA COLLEGE available at
https://www.southcalcuttalawcollege.ac.in/Notice/50488AIDS%20TO%20INTERPRETATION.pdf (last visited Nov, 05,
2024).
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Those two laws are simply different aspects of the same provision. This doctrine consequently gives
that all legislations pertaining to labor regulatory system or taxation, inter alia, others can be utilized
to interpret the legislations having a place with the same sort. There are certain cases wherein the
Court has utilized the said doctrine to derive the meaning for certain words not characterized in the
Act being referred to.
At the point when a word isn’t characterized in the Act itself, it is permissible to allude to dictionaries
or any similar legislations to discover the sense in which that word is perceived. Notwithstanding, in
selecting one out of the various meanings of a word, regard should always be to the context as it is a
fundamental rule that ‘the meanings of words and expressions utilized in an Act must take their color
from the context in which they appear’. Thus, ‘when the context makes the meaning of a word quite
clear, it becomes unnecessary to search for and select a particular meaning out of the diverse
meanings a word is capable of, according to lexicographers. Where a term is used without definition
in one Act, but is defined in another Act which is in pari materia with the first Act, the definition may
be treated as applicable to the use of the term in the first Act. This may be done even where the
definition is contained in a later Act. Pari materia will be used only when the subject matter of the
statutes is similar. The principle underlying the treatment of Acts which are in pari materia is based
on the idea that there is continuity of legislative approach in such Acts, and common terminology.

Condition Precedents:
There are certain considerations discussed in Statutory Interpretation for terming acts to be
paramateria and the same has been referred to by the Delhi High Court in Raees-Uz-Zama and Anr.
v. State NCT of Delhi and are:
1. Acts which have been given a collective title. This is a recognition by Parliament that the Acts
have a single subject matter.
2. Acts which are required to be construed as one. Again, there is parliamentary recognition of a
single subject matter.
3. Acts having short titles that the identical (apart from the calendar year).
4. Other Acts which deal with the same subject matter on the same lines. Here it must be
remembered that the Latin word part or paris means equal, and not merely similar. Such Acts are
sometimes described as forming a code. This does not mean that the Acts are codifying Acts
however.

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If the Acts are in parimateria it is assumed that uniformity of language and meaning was intended,
attracting the same considerations as arise from the linguistic canon of construction that an Act is to
be construed as a whole. This principle governing Acts in parimateria was thus expressed by twelve
judges to mean such Acts ‘are to be taken together as forming one system, and as interpreting and
enforcing each other. In other words they are to be construed as one, whether or not the relevant
enactment expressly requires this. This has been applied even to repealed Acts within a group’. The
doctrine of parimateria is a useful tool for interpretation of statutes that work towards the same
objective. It is an ordinary rule of interpretation of statutes that the words of a statute when there is a
doubt about their meaning are to be understood in the sense in which they best harmonize with the
subject of the enactment and the object which the legislature has in view. The doctrine helps in
harmonizing the aim and subject of the legislations. In the matter of J.K. Steal Ltd. v. Union of India
and Ors, 9 the Hon'ble Supreme Court, while considering parimateria provisions of Central Excises
and Salt Act, held that Acts being in parimateria must be taken together as forming one code and as
interpreting and enforcing each other.

Where there are different statutes are in pari materia though made at different times, or even expired,
and not referring to each other, they shall be taken and constructed together, as one system, and as
explanatory of each other. In State of Madras v. A Vaidyanath Aiyer, 10 section 4 of Prevention of
Corruption Act 1947 was held pari materia with the Indian Evidence Act 1872. The phrase “shall
presume’ of Indian Evidence Act was utilized to construe the meaning of “it shall be presumed” of
section 4 of Prevention of Corruption Act 1947.
Later Statutes in pari materia with earlier act:
Subsequent laws are regarded as supplementary or complimentary to the earlier enactment. Later Act
will become relevant only when there is some ambiguity or confusion with the meaning of the earlier
Act. In State of Bihar v S. K. Roy case confusion arose regarding the definition of “coal mine” under
the Coal Mines Provident Fund and Bonus Scheme Act 1948 before its 1948 amendment. Court took
the assistance of the amendment Act 1948 to define “coal mine”. 11
Situations wherein acts are not in pari materia:
When a new statutory provision is used in the text of existing statute, it should be read as one. When
the new legislation although re-enacting many provisions from earlier statutes, contains a good deal

9
J.K. Steal Ltd. v. Union of India and Ors, 1970 AIR 1173.
10
State of Madras v. A Vaidyanath Aiyer, 1958 AIR 61.
11
State of Bihar v S. K. Roy, AIR 1966 SUPREME COURT 1995.
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of fresh materia and deals with a subject on which social views have drastically changed. Use of one
state legislation to construe another state legislation on the same subject matter is not commendable
because there can be variation in the language. When the two Acts are not in pari materia, then
decision rendered with reference to one Act cannot be applied with reference to the provisions of
another Act. In the matter of C.A. Abraham v. I.T.O.,12 Kottayam it was observed that “In
interpreting a fiscal statute the Court cannot proceed to make good deficiencies if there may be any;
the Court must interpret the statute as it stands and in case of doubt in a manner favourable to the tax
payer.

CONCLUSION

The utilization of external aids in the interpretation of statutes is a fundamental aspect of legal
analysis, serving to elucidate legislative intent, resolve ambiguities, and ensure consistent application
of the law. Through a multifaceted approach that draws upon various sources, including legislative
history, precedent, dictionaries, treatises, maxims of construction, and official interpretative aids,
courts and legal practitioners, endeavour to glean the true meaning of statutory provisions.
Legislative history stands as a beacon for understanding the intent behind statutory enactments,
shedding light on the motivations, debates, and compromises that shaped the law. Precedent provides
valuable guidance by offering insights from prior judicial interpretations, establishing patterns of
application, and promoting consistency in legal outcomes. Dictionaries serve as linguistic guides,
defining terms and clarifying language to ascertain the ordinary or technical meanings of statutory
text. Treatises and commentaries offer scholarly analysis and expert opinion, enriching understanding
with historical context, legislative background, and nuanced interpretations. Maxims and canons of
construction provide interpretative principles to resolve ambiguities, reconcile conflicting provisions,
and ensure fidelity to legislative intent. Official interpretative aids, issued by legislative bodies or
governmental agencies, offer authoritative guidance and clarity on statutory interpretation. By
employing these external aids, courts navigate the complexities of statutory language, harmonize
conflicting interpretations, and uphold the rule of law. While each aid possesses inherent strengths
and limitations, their collective application facilitates a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of
statutory provisions, fostering legal certainty, predictability, and fairness in the administration of
justice. Thus, the judicious use of external aids in statutory interpretation stands as a cornerstone of

12
C.A. Abraham v. I.T.O, 1961 AIR 609.
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legal reasoning, promoting fidelity to legislative intent and the effective functioning of the legal
system.

REFERENCES

Books:

1. NS Bindra, INTERPRETATION OF STATUTES, 90 (2024).

2. T. Bhattacharya, THE INTERPRETATION OF STATUTES, 315 (2023).
3. Justice GP Singh, PRINCIPLES OF STATUTORY INTERPRETATION, 415 (2024).

Data bases referred:

1. SCC OnLine
2. LexiNexis
3. Manupatra

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