The General Clauses Act 1897: What It Is, and Its Definitions
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Syllabus topic 4.3, "General Clauses Act, 1897"
Pages 283 to 289 of 314
In one line
The General Clauses Act 1897 is a statute about statutes: it fixes the meaning of words used across the whole statute book and supplies rules of construction, so that every Act does not have to repeat them.
In the wording a student can write in an exam: the General Clauses Act 1897, Act 10 of 1897, received assent on 11 March 1897; its long title is "An Act to consolidate and extend the General Clauses Act, 1868 and 1887"; and section 3 provides that in that Act, and in all Central Acts and Regulations made after its commencement, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context, the words it lists bear the meanings it gives them.
Why a statute about statutes exists
Three reasons, and giving all three is the difference between describing the Act and explaining it.
Economy. Without it, every Act would have to define "person", "month", "offence", "writing", "immovable property", "Official Gazette" and fifty other words for itself, and would have to carry its own saving clause for repeals and its own rule about gender and number. The statute book would be several times its size.
Uniformity. A word defined once for the whole statute book means the same thing in every Act, so a lawyer who has learnt the definition has learnt it for good. That is worth more than economy.
Safety. A draftsman who forgets to save accrued rights on a repeal would, without section 6, destroy them. The General Clauses Act is the standing net beneath the drafting of every Central Act, and most of its accidents are ones nobody ever notices because the Act caught them.
The shape of the Act
Learn the shape, because a question asking "what does the General Clauses Act contain?" is answered by the headings.
| Sections | Heading, as printed | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | Preliminary | Short title; section 2 is repealed |
| 3 to 4A | General definitions | The definitions, and their application to earlier enactments |
| 5 to 13A | General rules of construction | Commencement, repeal, revival, references, time, distance, gender and number |
| 14 to 19 | Powers and functionaries | How powers and appointments are read |
| 20 to 24 | Provisions as to orders, rules, etc., made under enactments | Subordinate legislation |
| 25 to 31 | Miscellaneous | Fines, double punishment, service by post, citation, savings, Ordinances |
The Act has thirty six sections in all. Seven of them are shown as repealed: sections 2, 5A, 13A, 30A and 31, and the Schedule.
Section 1: short title
Section 1(1): this Act may be called the General Clauses Act, 1897. Sub-section (2) was repealed in 1914.
The Act carries no commencement provision of its own in the form modern Acts use, and it received assent on 11 March 1897.
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