- GOLDEN RULE -

REGARD TO
CONSEQUENCES
Regard to Consequences

A modification of the literal

rule

Judge is allowed to depart

from a normal meaning

Only to avoid absurd

consequences
 Regard to Consequences
Hardship

Absurdity or Golden Serious

Anomaly Inconvenience
Rule
purports
to avoid
such
results

Inconsistenc
Creates friction
y or in the system
Uncertainty
Golden rule comes in between the two
rules but is not a compromise between
them

Literal

Golden

Mischief
 Circumstances of use

Golden
When …then the
rule gives
plain judge may
words
words give depart
their plain,
irrational from this
ordinary
results… meaning
meaning
Something which was unlikely to be the
legislative intention
 History and evolution
The rule is usually based on part of Becke v Smith
(1836) per Justice Park, which states:

It is a very useful rule in the construction of a statute to

adhere to the ordinary meaning of the words used, and
to the grammatical construction, unless that is at
variance with the intention of the legislature to be
collected from the statute itself, or leads to any manifest
absurdity or repugnance, in which case the language
may be varied or modified so as to avoid such
inconvenience but no further.
 History and evolution
Becke v. Smith (1836) Justice Park

Grey v. Pearson (1857) Lord Wensleydale

Hardship, Injustice, Absurdity, Anomaly,

Inconvenience, Repugnance to be Avoided
 Sensible Interpretation Rule
To avoid hardship,
departure
permitted

Sensible Modification of the

interpretation that word as well as
least affects our sentence structure
sense of justice is permitted
 For Instance…
U.P. Zamindari
Abolition & Court construed
Land Reforms it as meaning
Act, 1950 ‘lawfully held’

Land ‘held’ by
an individual
There is a presumption that law makers enact laws which
the society considers as honest, fair and reasonable
 Another instance…

• ‘Whosoever being married shall

The provision marry another person during the
reads… life of the former husband or wife’ is
guilty of bigamy.

• The word ‘former’ may mean that

Interpretation the original marriage no longer
exists.
of the word • But then the person marrying
‘former’ again would not be guilty of
bigamy.
 Interpretation of the Court

A person who purports to marry

another while his/her wife or
husband is still alive is guilty of
bigamy.
Lee v. Knapp
(1966), 3 All ER 961
 S. 77(1) of the Road Traffic Act,
1960
If any case owing to the presence of a motor
vehicle on a road an accident occurs whereby
damage is caused to a vehicle other than that
motor vehicle, the driver of the motor vehicle
shall stop and, if required so to do by any
person having reasonable ground for so
requiring, give his name and address and also
the name and address of the owner and the
identification marks of the vehicle.
 Lee v. Knapp

Construction • Stopping temporarily

of the word would not fulfill the intent
“stop” of the provision.

Sensible • The driver of the vehicle shall stop it

meaning of and remain where he has stopped it for
a reasonable period of time so as to be
the word able to provide information as required
“Stop” from him under the section.
 The Court arriving at the decision

Literal reading of Hence golden

the word ‘stop’ rule of
Therefore... would create interpretation
absurdity to be adopted

Modification Sec. envisaged A momentary

to be done to necessity of
pause will not
live up to the stopping for
providing exempt the
intent of the
information driver
statute
 Central India Spinning Weaving & Manufacuring Co.
Nagpur v. Mun. Comm., Wardha, 1958 SCR 1102
Sec. 66(1) of the
Central • Authorized imposition of
Provinces and terminal tax on goods or animals
Berar ‘imported into or exported from’
Municipalities the limits of a Municipality.
Act, 1922

• Whether the said clause

Issue empowered the Municipality to
levy a tax on goods in transit?
 The High Court
Arrived at a derivative
meaning of the word ‘import’
and ‘export’ i.e. to bring in and
to carry away and therefore
held that the municipality had
the power to levy tax on goods
in transit.
 The Supreme Court held
Ordinary commercial understanding of ‘import’
and ‘export’ do not refer to goods in transit.

Effect of the HC’s ruling would make transit through a

railway station within the limits of a municipality liable to
imposition of tax on their arrival as well as departure.

Hence, commercial meaning to be applied over

derivative meaning, to avoid absurdity.
 V.V. Shivprasad v. Kothuri
Venkateshwarlu, AIR 2000 SC 434

Prohibits
Bigamy

Hindu Widows
Remarriage Madras Hindu
Act, 1856 (Bigamy
Prevention) Act,
Widow’s rights on her
1949
deceased husband’s property
ceases on her remarriage
 Functioning of the two legislations

Hindu widow re-

She married a
married & ceased
man whose wife
to remain an heir
was alive, thus
to her deceased
void marriage...
husband
 The High Court

Such a marriage amounted to ‘re-

marriage’ within Sec.2 of the 1856 Act
and the widow ceased to hold any
rights in the property of her deceased
husband.
 The Court: Sensible Meaning has to be
given
This right
crystallizes
The Act only when the
prevents marriage is
double benefit valid

As on her re-
marriage she gets
rights in the
property of her new
husband.
 Avoid Construction which leads to
anomalies

The anomaly
Parliament Language is
Clear & can be
could not susceptible to
obviated
gross have
without
modification
anomaly envisaged to cure the
detriment to
such anomaly anomaly
leg. objective
Bhatia International v. Bulk Trading SA,
AIR 2002 SC 1432

Part- I • This part shall

Sec.2(2)
Arbitratio apply where
n& the place of
Conciliati arbitration is
on Act,
1996 in India.
 The various High Courts
The High Courts of Bombay,
Orissa, Madras, Delhi and
Calcutta took the view that
Part-I of the Act does not apply
where the place of arbitration
is not in India.
 The Supreme Court in Bhatia
International
The views of the High Courts would lead to anomalous results
and will leave a party remedy-less in obtaining an interim relief
in international commercial arbitration.

The Court noted that the Sec.2 does not

categorically exclude India in International
Commercial Arbitration

“Part-I would apply to all arbitrations and to all

proceedings relating thereto.”
 The Court concluded
“Where such arbitration is held in India the provisions of
Part- I would compulsorily apply and parties are free to
deviate only to the extent permitted by the derogable
provisions of Part-I.”

In cases of international commercial arbitrations held out

of India provisions of Part-I may still apply unless the
parties by agreement express or implied exclude all or any
of its provisions.
 Nyadar Singh v. Union of India, AIR 1988 SC
1979

• Pursuant to disciplinary
proceedings the penalty of
The ‘reduction in rank’ was imposed
on the appellants, reducing them
Matter to a post lower than the one to
which they were directly and
initially recruited.
 Rule 11 (VI) of the Central Services (Classification,
Appeal and Control) Rules, 1965

Empowers the imposition of

the penalty of “reduction to a
lower time scale of pay, grade,
post, or service”.
 Contentions of the Parties
The Appellants The Respondents
Due to the penalty, they The word ‘reduction in
were reduced in rank to rank’ is distinct from
posts lower than the one ‘reversion’ as the
to which they were former was imposed by
initially recruited. way of penalty.
 Hence, reduction in rank
Hence, inappropriate to a post below the one
construction. that the appellant
initially held was
appropriate.
‘Reversion’ & ‘Reduction’ in post
Reductio Reversio
n n
To a post means
Wider than
a post held
reversion
earlier

Reduction in
rank extends Back to the
even to a rank
which the officer original
concerned never post
held.
 The Supreme Court noted

Reduction A wide
ILLUSTRATION

Recruitment Policy

Prevent absurdity
means and meaning of the
Could a refers to
Doctor be word
promotional ‘reduction’
reduced in posts, otherwise
rank to the does not get
the policy of
recruitment along with the
post of a
itself will larger scheme
Compounder? of things
become
meaningless, within the
hence policy of
producing recruitment.
absurd results.
 Therefore…the court held
A person initially recruited to a higher time scale,
grade, post or service cannot be reduced to a post
in a lower time-scale, grade, post or service or to
a lower post.

Though the language of the rule is wide, a

restricted construction was placed to avoid the
anomaly which a wider construction would have
produced.
 Sardar Amarjit Singh Kalra v. Pramod
Gupta, (2003) 3 SCC 272

Order 22 of the Code of Civil Procedure,

1908
Abatement of appeal, when the legal representatives of the
appellants die during the pendency of the appeal.

In the present case

The entire appeal was abated, on the death of one of the
representatives, as it was not brought on record in time.
The Constitution Bench of the Supreme
Court observed
“Laws of procedure are meant to regulate effectively,
assist and aid the object of doing substantial and real
justice and not to foreclose even an adjudication on the
merits of substantial rights of citizens. Procedure has
always been viewed as the handmaid of justice and not
meant to hamper the cause of justice.”
“Technical objections which tend to be stumbling
blocks to defeat and delay substantial and effective
justice should be strictly viewed for being discouraged
except when mandate of the law inevitably necessitates
it.”
WORDS SHOULD NOT BE
MODIFIED WHEN NO
ABSURD CONSEQUENCES
ARE ENVISAGED
 S.Narayanswami v. G.
Pannerselvam
• The appellant contested and
FACT won election to the Madras
Legislative Council from the
S Madras District Graduates’
Constituency.

• Whether he was qualified to

ISSUE stand for election to the
Graduates’ Constituency.
 The High Court

Set aside the election by

holding that the appellant
didn’t possess the requisite
educational qualifications.
 Observations of the Supreme
Court

Graduates are It is a body of For elections to

not an persons with each house, the
Parliament has
occupational or particular prescribed separate
vocational educational qualifications for
group qualifications elector & elected
Observations of the Supreme Court
Legislative Council
Elections qualifications in
Art.171(3)

Electorate: - It is a body of
persons who elect

Enumerates functional or
occupational representation in
a heterogeneous group
Observations of the Supreme
Court

The High Court erroneously travelled outside

the four corners of the statutory provisions
when there was no ambiguity at all in the
language, and by resorting to a presumed
legislative intent, it added a qualification to
those expressly laid down in the Constitution
and other statutory provisions contravening
the rule of plain meaning.
Decision of the Supreme Court
A deliberate
omission of the
requirement that
the representative
Language used
of the Graduates No
should also be a
is plain and graduate.
absurdity
history of results if we
Art.171 clearly presume
gives us such
intention
intention
Therefore,
election of
Appellant is
valid in law
Applying the rule with caution
Consideration of
hardship etc. must
be applied with
great care

Individual cases of Inconvenience not

hardship have no only great but
bearing only “absurd” or ab
general hardship inconvenienti.
 Applying the rule with caution

Individual cases of hardship or injustice

have no bearing for rejecting natural
construction, and it is only when the natural
construction leads to a general hardship or
injustice and some other construction is
reasonably open that the natural
construction may be departed from.
***