Chapter BASIC TECHNIQUES OF LEGISLATIVE DRAFTING GENERAL Good legislative drafting is an art rather than a science and the constraint imposed by the drafting environment many a times present situation that require deviation from accepted drafting conventions. But as a general rule the legislative drafter must follow accepted norms while drafting a legislation. Legislative drafting is, therefore, a skill acquired by the drafter through years of experience obtained through painstaking labour and work. This skill consists in using a proper language which establish an instant rapport with the people or citizen who are the subject-matter of the legislation. It is the paramount duty of the drafter to see that the legislative intent and policy is easily understood by the citizen and common man. The drafter is an important link between the Executive Government and the Legislature or Parliamenc of the country. The legislation is the document which signifies the policies of the Government in power and once assented to by the Head of the State becomes the law of the land till it ig modified, changed or repealed by successive Governments through Legislature. The drafter’s job is, therefore, to transmit the legislative policies of the Executive into the draft legislation which is then introduced in Parliament for discussion and debate and passed as an Act, The drafter has, therefore, to take utmost care in drafting the legislation and has to take into account the Constitution of the country, Bill of Rights or the provisions relating to the fundamental rights, the general laws of the land and socio-economic aspirations of the society for which the law is being enacted. The drafter should never forget the fact that the draft once it becomes an Act, is interpreted by various bodies a Scanned with CamScannerand individuals such as lawyers, courts, international institutions, Parliamentary committees and other legal fora. In order to achieve the excellence that is needed from him the drafter must equip himself with certain necessary tools and learn certain techniques to produce a draft legislation which will be acclaimed by Parliament, the Government and the society for whom the legislation is made. The drafter before undertaking the task of preparing the draft legislation— (1) must acquire thorough knowledge of the Constitutional Law of the country; (2) should have complete familiarity with the Statute Book of the country; (3) must be well versed in the precedents with reference to anatomy of financial, corporate or socio-economic legislation; (4) should get himself acquainted with the Interpretation Acts (The benefits of shortening particular enactment by general interpretation provisions of the Interpretation Act or the General Clauses Act can not be lost sight of by the drafter and for appropriate and definite interpretation of the provisions of the statute he should always make use of the country’s Interpretation Act)'; (5) should give meticulous attention to details and a clear systematic approach to the problem at hand; (6) must acquire an analytical mind which is very much essential to good drafting; (7) must always be prepared to accept the criticism with tolerance and good humour and must be ready to modify and improve the legislation to meet genuine criticism; (8) should undertake, before drafting of legislation, extensive research on the subject and should understand the scope of the problems with which he has to deal with. As already stated above the drafter must take into consideration the judicial decisions on the subject, specially— (a) ambiguities revealed by judicial decisions on the analogous provisions so that these ambiguities are removed while drafting the intended legislation; Scanned with CamScanner(b) settled interpretation of words and expressions used in the existing legislation, by the courts and follow them to minimise the litigation and improve the clarity of the legislation. Where necessary the drafter must provide new interpretations for words and expressions to override the judicial decisions where narrow interpretation is given. Scanned with CamScanner