Report No. 183

The Commission concluded at para 1.31 as follows:

"Our conclusion, therefore, is that the revision or amendment of the General Clauses Act, 1897 will not in any way, affect the operation of the Article 367; and the General Clauses Act, 1897 as it stood immediately before 26 January, 1950 (subject to adaptations made under the Constitution) will continue to apply."

In this background, the Law Commission in its 60th Report recommended insertion of new section 3 A and section 29A which states that proposed changes, in the definition section and rules for construction of Acts etc. would not affect the existing Central Laws and would apply only to future enactments.

The Law Commission in its 60th Report has suggested few changes only. The Commission has observed at para 1.26 that the recommendations given in the report are not numerous or radical. The provisions of the said Act cause no serious difficulty which may necessitate any radical change in the Act.

Therefore, the recommendations contained in the 60th Report will not affect in any way the construction of any enactment which has been made before the date of implementation of the proposed amendments suggested in the 60th Report.

The result is, that the most of the changes proposed in the General Clauses Act 1897 in 60th Report of the Law Commission will be applicable only and only to statutes which will be enacted after the proposed amendments are enforced and not on the existing enactments. Therefore, the Commission does not consider it necessary to undertake a fresh review of the aforesaid recommendations contained in the 60th Report.

We recommend accordingly.

Justice M. Jagannadha Rao
Chairman

Dr. N.M. Ghatate
Member

T.K. Viswanathan
Member-Secretary

Dated: 01 November, 2002