An assignment on

The methods of Interpretation of Statute

Course Title: General Clauses Act and Interpretation of Statute
Course Code: LJ 3107

Submitted to:

Md. Mosharaf Hosen

Assistant Professor
Law Discipline
Khulna University
Submitted By:

Md. Shehabul Islam

Student Id: 202820

3rd Year 1st Term
Law Discipline
Khulna University

Date of Submission: 16-03-2023

Table of Contents

Introduction ............................................................................................... 3
What is statute?.......................................................................................... 3
What is interpretation? .............................................................................. 4
What is interpretation of statute? .............................................................. 4
Method of interpretation ............................................................................ 4
Literal rule of interpretation ................................................................... 5
Golden Rule of interpretation ................................................................. 6
Mischief rule of interpretation ................................................................ 7
Rule of Harmonious construction........................................................... 7
Rule of Reasonable Construction: .......................................................... 8
Rule of Beneficial Construction: ............................................................ 9
Logical Interpretation: .......................................................................... 10
Conclusion: .............................................................................................. 10
References ............................................................................................... 11
Introduction

The main purpose of forming a sentence is to convey a meaning. If the sentence is

formulated in simple language, it does not need to be explained but if the sentence’s
meaning is complicated, interpretation or explanation is necessary. Again, to err is
human. Always, we have to keep in mind that the legislature are also human being
like us. They are not any artificial intelligent that they may not make any mistake.
Every Act of the parliament or statute is made for a certain purpose. An act is not
made in vain. But sometimes, for various reasons, the original purpose or objective
of an act is not fulfilled. There are many reason behind that such as missing of the
words, misuse of the words, ambiguity of the words, absurdity of the words. So, it
is not always covered the real intention of the legislature by making an act or statute.
Besides, the words used in a contract, lease, mortgage, bill of exchange etc. are very
technical. That is why the words need to be interpreted in simple and core language.
By considering many problems, the court is given the power of interpretation
otherwise ensuring of justice is not possible because everyone wanted to take out the
meaning of the law according to their advantages.

What is statute?

Normally, statute means the law, the act, which is generally enacted by the
legislatures. According to the need of society when a bill is moved and passed in the
parliament. It is called a statute. (1)
What is interpretation?

Interpretation is the act of exampling, reframing or otherwise slowing your own

understanding of something. Interpretation is a process by which the courts seek to
ascertain the meaning of the legislation. (2)

What is interpretation of statute?

According to Salmond, “Interpretation on construction is the process by which the
counts seek to ascertain the meaning of the legislation through the medium of the
authoritative from in which it is expressed.” Interpretation of statute is the primary
function of judiciary to interpret the statute and ascertain the correct meaning of the
provision of the statute in their true spit as intended by the legislature.

Method of interpretation
In a broad sense, we can categorize the method of interpretation of statute in two
ways.

Firstly, the Literal rule of interpretation and secondly the Golden rule of
interpretation.

Mainly, the general rule of interpretation of a statute is that interpreting any statute
as it is enacted. There is no scope to insert, remove or change any word in a statute.
This is the basic rule of interpretation and it is called the literal rule or the
grammatical rule of interpretation. But in many cases the strict/literal/grammatical
interpretation is inconsistent with the real intention of the act or the legislatures. In
that case, to recover the exact and real meaning of the statute, the Golden Rule comes
forward. In that case, the golden rule can be applied.

So, in this sense, we can say that mainly there are two methods of interpretation of
a statute. Under the golden rule of interpretation of statute, there are many kinds like
Mischief rule of interpretation, Rule of Harmonious constructions, Rule of
reasonable construction, Rule of beneficial interpretation, logical interpretation etc.

Now, I am going to discuss all the classifications of the rule of interpretation below.

Literal rule of interpretation

In this rule, interpretation must be strict, direct. According to this rule, the words
used in this text are to be given or interpreted in their natural or ordinary meaning.
After the interpretation, if the meaning is completely clear and unambiguous then
the effect shall be given to a provision of a statute regardless of what may be the
consequences. (3)

In this rule, the courts have no power to remove or insert any word in any act. Where
the law is clear and unambiguous, it is strictly followed. For example, if a murder
case is proved, the accused is given a sentence to life imprisonment or death under
section 302 of the penal code 1860 and how the death sentence is executed it is
mentioned in the section 368 of the code of criminal procedure. In this case,
obviously the law is interpreted literally or grammatically not in any other way. This
is the Literal Rule of interpretation. (4)

Case References: Maqbool Hussain v. State of Bombay. 1953 AIR 325,

1953 SCR 730. 1

In this case, the appellant, a citizen of India after arriving at the airport did not
declare that he was carrying gold with him. During his search was carried on, gold

1
DATE OF JUDGMENT: 17/04/1953
was found in his possession as it was against the notification of the government
and was confiscated under section 167(8) of Sea Customs Act.

Later on, he was also charged under section 8 of the Foreign Exchange Regulations
Act, 1947. The appellant challenged this trial to be violated under Article 20 (2) of
the Indian Constitution. According to this article, no person shall be punished or
prosecuted more than once for the same offence. This is considered as double
jeopardy.

It was held by the court that the Seas Act neither a court nor any judicial tribunal.
Thus, accordingly, he was not prosecuted earlier. Hence, his trial was held to be
valid. (3)

Golden Rule of interpretation

The main theme of the golden Rule is to modify the literal interpretation and then to
identify the original meaning of the statute. (4)

Sometimes, for various reasons like by the mistake of legislature, they don’t use
proper word. Actually, they want one thing but the words they used refer other
things. Then the judiciary has to interpret the word to identify or implement the true
intention of the legislature. Like the said situation, in other cases, the golden rule
helps the court. It is called Golden Rule because it solves all the problems of
interpretation. If the interpretation given through the literal rule leads to some or any
kind of ambiguity, injustice, inconveniences, hardship, inequity then in all such
events the literal meaning shall be discarded and interpretation shall be done in such
a manner that the purpose of the legislation is fulfilled. The manner is the Golden
rule of interpretation.
Mischief rule of interpretation

The main focus of the mischief rule is on curing the mischief. This rule was
originated in Hydon’s case in 1584. In the Hydon’s case, it was held that there are
four things which have to be followed for true and sure interpretation of all the
statutes in general, which are as follows-

 What was the common law before the making of an act?

 What was the mischief for which the present statute was enacted?
 What remedy did the Parliament sought or had resolved and appointed to
cure the disease of the commonwealth.
 The true reason of the remedy.

The purpose of this rule is to suppress the mischief and advance the remedy.

To interpret and identify the true meaning of a statute, the importance of mischief
rule is indisputable. The rule fills the gap of any act and helps the court to give
justice. The rule of mischief was established on the priciness of equitable justice.
Having the rule, the court gives people complete justice.

Rule of Harmonious construction

Generally, when there are two provisions in a statute, which are in apparent conflict
with each other, the interpretation must be carefully. The two provisions should be
interpreted such that effect can be given to both. Every statute has a purpose and
intent as per law and should be read out as a whole. While using the harmonious rule
the interpretation should be consistent with all the provisions of the statute. In the
case in which it shall be impossible to harmonize both the provisions, the courts’
decision shall prevail. The basis of principles of the rule is that the legislature must
not have intended to contradict itself. The intention of legislature is that every
provision should remain operative. But when two provisions are contradictory, it
may not possible to effectuate both of them and in result and then one will prevail.
(5) But the court tries to remove the enlisting inconsistency and tries to keep in force
the two provisions harmonizing with each other.

Case reference
In the case, Kameshwar v. province of Bihar, the high court of Patna says that it is
established principles that when in one statute, those are contradictory provisions,
the interpretation should be in such a way that the au provisions can be effective
simultaneously and removing the inconsistency.

Rule of Reasonable Construction

Every statute should be enforced as it is enacted. To do this, the imprecator must

keep in mind the rule of reasonable constructions. Reasonable construction
follows the principle of ‘Ut Res Magis Valeat Quam Pareat’ which means when
the interpretation of the statute is made it should be done in a meaningful and
sensible manner. If a statute is having a two interpretation where one is completely
vague and absurd and other is perfectly making sense then that meaningful
interpretation should be used.

A provision of law cannot be so interpreted where it is made without using common

sense. Every word or expression used in an act should receive its natural and fair
meaning which was made in accordance with the legislator.

Case reference: Al-Amin and others vs. State. 51 DLR 155, 166.
In this case, Justice A.K. Badrul Haque clearly described that “Interpretation
postulates the search for the true meaning of the words used in the statutes as a
medium of expression to communicate the particular thought for which the statute
is enacted. The Rule of Reasonable Constructions must be applied while construing
a statute. Literal and grammatical constructions should be avoided if it defeats the
manifest object and purpose of the Act and leads to injustice. In other words, it may
be coined that there must be a liberal interpretation and construction in favor of the
persons for whose benefit the Ain or Act has been enacted. The Court must adopt
beneficial rule of construction which would promote the purpose of the Act, rather
than dry literal construction which could in many cases defeat the purpose of the
law. Law is a social science and it reflects social ethos.”

Rule of Beneficial Construction

The rule of beneficial construction will benefit individuals. Whenever there is an

ambiguity or when which would take the benefit away from the individual, so the
meaning which prevails over the benefit to the individuals should be adopted Here
it involves the judges to give the widest meaning to the statute in order to protect the
interest of the parties, if we look into certain statutes the main purpose is to benefit
and protect the interest of the person, for example, The Premises Rent Control Act,
Consumer Protection Act, Juvenile Justice Act and all labour-related laws. Provision
is capable of giving two meanings where one would preserve the benefit and another.

Case Reference:
Hindustan Level Ltd v Ashok Vishnu Kate

In this case, the court held that in a case which is related to the prevention of unfair
labour practices it should be made completely in accordance with the labour point
of view as they are benefitting people here and while interpreting Social Welfare
Legislation also they should consider the benefitting people of the society.

Logical Interpretation

If anytime, by reading a whole act it is presumed that the true intention of the
legislation is understood but in that act, any word is missing or used by mistake, in
that case the court can interpret the statute with logically by keeping the true
intention of the legislation in mind. But the court must show the appropriate reason
behind this. This is called the logical interpretation of statute.

Case Reference: Thompson vs. Goold & Co. (1910), A.C. 409, 4110.
In this case, the description of the Justice Lord Mersey is very important. He says
that “It is a strong thing to read into an Act of parliament, words which are not there,
and in the absence of clear necessity it is a wrong thing to do.”

Conclusion:
From the above discussion, we have seen that there are many rules of interpretation
in various senses. The judiciary is not the law maker and it has no jurisdiction to
insert, remove or substitute any word from any statute directly but for the purpose
of fulfilling the true intention of the legislature it can interpret the statute so that
everyone can get justice.
References

1. Talukder, DR. S. M. Hassan. Interpretation of Statutes . s.l. : Bangladesh Law Research Centre .

2. Vocabulary.com. [Online]

3. Kapur, Pooja. Interpretation of Statutes and its Rules. ipleaders. [Online] June 26, 2019.
https://blog.ipleaders.in/rules-interpretation-statutes/#Literal_or_Grammatical_Rule.
4. Akhtaruzzaman, Dr. Md. Principles of Interpretation. আইনের ব্যাখ্যা ও জেনারেল ক্লজেস অ্যাক্ট .
s.l. : Alif Publications .

5. Legal Service of India . [Online]