Exclusionary Rule and Enlisting External Aids

Exclusionary Rule and Enlisting External Aids

Statutory interpretation is the process of interpreting and applying legislation. Some amount of interpretation is always necessary when case involves a statute. Sometimes the words of a statute have a plain and straightforward meaning. But in most cases, there is some ambiguity or vagueness in the words of the statute that must be resolved by the judge. To find the meanings of statutes, judges use various tools and methods of statutory interpretation, including traditional canons of statutory interpretation, legislative history, and purpose. In common law jurisdictions, the judiciary may apply rules of statutory interpretation to legislation enacted by the legislature or to delegated legislation such as administrative agency regulations. Parliamentary Debate is an academic debate event. The prime question that is being looked into is if the reference to the extrinsic Material is permissible for the sake of statutory interpretation and for the removal of the doubts and the obscurity. read more

Generally speaking the usage of Parliamentary debates, as a material to be relied upon is fairly debatable one. The general exclusionary rule prevails. But the parliamentary debates and proceedings can be allowed only as an aid to interpretation. The major argument against these kinds of references was on account of the fact that these materials are fairly lengthy and bulky and would consume lot of time in case a question in point has to be resolved. The speeches made by the Minister cannot deemed to have any legislative authority and are meant to make the other members see the point and are, therefore, persuasive in nature. Added to this is the fact that the entire debates may not be of relevance to answer the point in question. read more

However, the practice is very uniform all over the globe and that is referring to these debates when the construction of any provision leads to absurdity or is ambiguous.In Pepper v Hart [1993] 3 WLR 1032,[1993] ALL ER, 42, HL(E), the House of Lords had done away with the ‘exclusionary Rule’ according to which the Debates could not be referred to for seeking guidance in the matter of interpretation of the piece of legislation. The rule has been replaced by the ‘inclusionary Rule’ as per which the use of Hansard can be made in certain circumstances. In Pepper v Hart the Court has prescribed a rule as to which speeches are to be admissible as an aid to interpretation.To be precise it was the statement of the Minister that clearly stated the mischief at which the legislation in point is aimed at:

" ..Reference to Parliamentary material should be permitted as an aid to construction of legislation which is ambiguous or obscure or literal meaning of which leads to an ambiguity. Even in such cases the material should only be ppermitted where such material clearly discloses the mischief aimed at or the legislative intention lying behind the ambiguous or obscure words….[1]”read more

List of Extrinsic Aids

The following can be considered as extrinsic aids:

(1) Parliamentary material

a)Debates

b)Statement of Objects and Reasons

c) Reports of Parliamentary Committees and Commissions

(2) Reference to other statutes

3) Usages and Practice

(4) Dictionaries

(5) Foreign Decisions

(6) Historical facts and surrounding circumstances

(7)Later development International convention

(8)Other

These are discussed in Details in the subsequent chapters.

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[1] Per LORD BROWNE-WILKINSON at 1056 B-C

What are Extrinsic Aids

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