The law will assist only those who are vigilant about their rights and not those who sleep over them. The importance of legal maxims as guiding principles can hardly be underestimated. “The principle forming the basis of Section 10(1) of The General Clauses Act, 1897 also finds a place in Section 4 of The Limitation […]
Read more "Vigilantibus Non Dormientibus Jura Subveniunt"The issue of limitation for enforcement of foreign awards, being procedural in nature, is subject to the law of the forum where the foreign award is sought to be enforced. The Arbitration Act, 1996 does not specify any period of limitation for filing an application for enforcement of a foreign award. Section 43 provides, The […]
Read more "The Plea of Limitation XIV: Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards / The Revival of Ray LIII"“Diwan Bros. v. Central Bank of India, (1976) 3 SCC 800 referred to the well-known dictum of Lord Buckmaster in Barras v. Aberdeen Steam Trawling and Fishing Company, 1933 AC 402. “It has long been a well-established principle to be applied in the consideration of Acts of Parliament that where a word of doubtful meaning […]
Read more "Lord Buckmaster"“We cannot obviously feed into a judicial computer all such… astrological imponderables in an imperfect and undulating society.” – Bachan Singh v. State of Punjab, (1982) 3 SCC 24. _____ Rule 55A of The Motor Vehicles Rules, 1994, framed and published by Madhya Pradesh, prescribes ₹ 10,000/- for reservation of a large series of registration […]
Read more "Life of Numbers"Most jurists draw distinction between ‘direct application’ of treaties in domestic law, and national legal systems that mandate and require ‘act of transformation’ for an international treaty to apply and be a part of domestic law; ‘direct application’ means and mandates that the treaty norms, either wholly or to some extent, are directly treated as […]
Read more "Act of Transformation"“Doctrine of Contemporanea Expositio is applied as a guide to the interpretation of a statute or even document by referring to the exposition that the same had received from competent authority at the relevant point of time. An exposition standing for a long length of time is considered to be a law settled and is […]
Read more "The Doctrine of Contemporanea Expositio II"E.P. Royappa, (1974) 4 SCC 3 is clear that the burden of establishing mala fides is very heavily on the person who alleges it. Courts should not uphold a plea of mala fides on the basis of mere probabilities. _____ It is said, a Judge must not alter the material of which the Act is […]
Read more "The Tenth Schedule"“As per Concise Oxford English Dictionary (Twelfth South Asian Edition, Page 307), one of the meanings assigned to the verb ‘consume’, derived from latin ‘consumere’ (con – ‘altogether’ + sumere – ‘take out’), is ‘eat, drink or ingest – use up – (especially of a fire) completely destroy’. The noun derived from this verb is […]
Read more "Consume"“Ramnath & Co., who had been engaged in providing services to certain foreign buyers of frozen seafood and/or marine products and had received service charges from such foreign buyers/enterprises in foreign exchange, claimed deduction under Section 80-O of The Income Tax Act, 1961. As noticed, Section 80-O of the Act has a unique purpose and […]
Read more "The Dictionary Meaning / The Revival of Ray XLVII"“The expression ‘shall not be necessary’ is used in various statutes and even in the Constitution. This expression is used in the first proviso to Article 311(2) and in proviso to Article 320(3). Some of the cases in which similar expression occurring in statutes was taken into account and effect was given to its plain […]
Read more "Shall Not Be Necessary / The Revival of Ray XLV"“S. Ambika Devi entered into a tripartite agreement with M/s. Nandan Biomatrix Ltd. and its franchisee M/s. Herbz India. She purchased 750 kilograms of wet musli at the rate of Rs. 400/- per kilogram. M/s. Nandan Biomatrix Ltd was to buy back the produce at a minimum price of Rs. 1,000/- per kilogram. It […]
Read more "Harassment of Agriculturists"“Reliance has been placed on Sri Nasiruddin v. State Transport Appellate Tribunal, (1975) 2 SCC 671. The word ‘or’ was given grammatical meaning. It was held that the word ‘or’ cannot be read as ‘and’. They should be considered in an ordinary sense. If two different interpretations are possible, the Court will adopt that which […]
Read more "Article No. 800: The Revival of Ray XL / Disjunctive, Conjunctive II"“The maxim is quite well-known. The rule flowing from the maxim ‘generalia specialibus non derogant’ has been i) considered in Hari Shankar Jain, (1978) 4 SCC 16 and ii) explained in Mary Seward v. Owner of “Vera Cruz”, (1884) 10 AC 59, 68. “Where there are general words in a later legislation capable of reasonable […]
Read more "Generalia Specialibus Non Derogant"Five Judges in Dr. Shah Faesal v. Union of India, [Writ Petition (Civil) No. 1099 of 2019] have decided the following. “The rule of per incuriam means a Judgment passed in ignorance of a relevant statute or any other binding authority [See, Young v. Bristol Aeroplane Co. Ltd., 1944 KB 718 (CA)]. The view that […]
Read more "Per Incuriam III"“It will be noticed that the definition is an exhaustive one as it uses the expression “means and includes”. It is settled law that such definitions are meant to be exhaustive in nature [2014 (10) SCALE 394].” “It will be noticed that the definition is a ‘means’ and ‘includes’ one. It is well settled that […]
Read more "A “Means and Includes” Definition IV"Section 362 begins with the words “save as otherwise provided by this Code or by any other law for the time being in force”. Legislature was aware that there are situations where altering or reviewing of a Criminal Court Judgment is contemplated in the Code itself or any other law for the time being in […]
Read more "Section 362 of The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973"“It is not quite accurate to say that the word ‘may’, by itself, acquires the meaning of ‘must’ or ‘shall’ sometimes.” – Dharti Dhan, (1977) 2 SCC 166. “It is not to be taken that once the word ‘may’ is used, it per se would be directory. In other words, it is not merely the […]
Read more "May & Shall"An unfortunate incident occurred at Pemberton Soaring Centre at Pemberton in British Columbia. The following were considered: The Aircraft Act, 1934; The Aircraft Rules, 1937; The Aeronautics Act, 1985 [Canada]; The Canadian Aviation Regulations [SOR/96433], Concise Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary [9th Edition, 2015] and Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary [4th Edition, 2013]. SC reached the conclusion: […]
Read more "The Contra Proferentem Rule VI"“This Court has held that Judgments of Courts are not to be construed as statutes, neither are they to be read as Euclid’s theorems. All observations made must be read in the context in which they appear. This Court in Amrit Lal Manchanda, (2004) 3 SCC 75 held as follows: “Judges interpret words of statutes. […]
Read more "Euclid’s Theorem III"“It is a well established position that when statutes are unambiguous, the Court must adopt plain and natural meaning irrespective of the consequences [Nelson Motis v. Union of India, (1992) 4 SCC 711]. On a bare reading of Section 207 of The Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 no other interpretation is possible. We hold that the […]
Read more "Cloned Copy of Electronic Record"