General Rules and Principles of Interpretation of Statutes

As Montesquieu has propounded the famous theory of ‘Separation of Power’, which provides that there should be Separation of Power in any government because if the powers are concentrated in a Single person or authority then it may result in a tyrannical form of government. On the same lines almost all the nations throughout the globe in modern times have adopted this theory and created three branches of government, namely Legislature, Executive and Judiciary which are endowed with the functions of enacting the law, enforcing the law and administering Justice respectively. The Judiciary, while administering the law according to the laws enacted by the legislature who enjoys the sole authority of making the laws, faces certain situations where the true intent of the legislature is not expressed clearly by the letters of the law or the words used in the statute express more than one meaning. In these cases, Interpretation of laws or statutes is necessary as the laws enacted by legislature is not explained to the Judiciary and therefore Judiciary has to Interpret the same in cases of conflict or ambiguity relating to the true meaning, ambit and Scope of the statutes enacted by the Legislature.