Amendment status not verified — confirm the current text below against the official source.
Four principles to be considered:-- For the sure and true interpretation of all statutes in general (be they penal or beneficial, restrictive or enlarging of the common law) for things are to be discerned and considered- (i) What was the common law before the making of the Act. (ii) What was the mischief and the defect for which the common law did not provide. (iii) What remedy the Parliament has resolved and appointed to cure the mischief. (iv) The true reason of the remedy. The duty of judges is always to make such construction as shall suffer subtle invetions and evasions for continuance of the mischief and which will help to remove the defect for which the legislation was made. It is not only legitimate but highly convenient to refer both to the former Act and to the ascertained evils to which the former Act had given rise and to the later Act which provided the remedy. Bengal Immunity Co.v State of Bihar, 1955 (2) SCR 603 ; AIR 1955 SC 661.