Internal Aids To Construction (Interpretation of Statute)

Internal Aids To Construction:-
( Interpretation of statute)

Statute:-
- A law or a rule
- The sovereign authority of the state having power to make it.
- Typically status command or prohibit something,or declare policy.

Part of the statute

1) Title -

i ) Long Title - 
- The heading of the statute is long
- Long title of the Act is a part of the Act

ii ) Short Title-
- merely used for the sake of convenience
- It is for reference only
- It has no role in Interpretation

2) Preamble

- It is a part of the Act
- The Act starts with Preamble
- The preamble is expected to express the scope, object and the purpose of the Act more comprehensively.
- The main object and purpose of the Act are found in the preamble of the statute.
The preamble is an intrinsic aid in the Interpretation of an Ambiguous act.
- A preamble is a key to open the mind of the legislature .
- The preamble sets out the gist of summary of a statute.

3) Heading-

- A group of sections are given under a heading with acts as their preamble.
- They are considered as a preamble to those sections.

Ex.:- Section 200-377 of IPC - Offenses against the human body.

Case:- Durga Thathera V. Narain Thathera AIR 1931 Allahabad 597

          In this case the Allahabad High Court has held that the heading are like preamble which supply key to the mind of the legislature but do not control the substantive section.

4) Marginal Notes (Side Notes) 

- Marginal Notes are thoda notes which are printed at the side of the section in the act.
- These notes summarize the effect of the section.
- They are not part of the statute.

5) Proviso 

- It merely carves out something from the section,a section as a whole is never destroyed by the proviso.

- A proviso should never be construed in a manner which would nullify the effect of the main section.

6) Definition section and Interpretation cause 

- The definition and Interpretation clauses are generally put in the beginning of the section which define and interpret the words used therein.
- The legislature can lay down legal definition of it's own language if such definition are embodid in the statute itself,it become binding on the Court.
-It is a common practice for legislature to define words used in the statute and provide Interpretation clause also in the Statute.
- The only exception to this rule is that if the court feels that in the context of a particular provision the definition clause if applied will result in an absurdity the court will not apply the definition clause while interpreting that provision.

7) Schedules-

- Schedules are generally placed at the end of the Act .
- They connected with section and sub section of the Act.
- They contain minute details for working out the provision of the Act .
- They must be read together with the section for all purposes of Interpretation.

8) Punctuation Marks 

- No punctuation Marks were used in England before 1850
- When a statue is carefully punctuated and there is no doubt it's meaning a weight should be given to the punctuation.
- At the most they can assist in the construction on ambiguous statutes.

9) Illustration

- The main purpose of illustration is to make the meaning of the section clear by giving examples.
- Valuable aids to understand the real scope.

10) Non-Obstante clause 

- Non- obstante means notwithstanding
- a non-obstante clause restrict or controls the enacting provisions of a statute.