Effect of Amendment- Prospective or retrospective - Indian Laws - General

The following principles guide in determining as to whether an amendment is prospective or retrospective: (i) In determining as to whether an amendment is to take effect prospectively or with retrospective effect, the date from which the amendment is made operative does not conclusively decide the question. The Court has to examine the scheme of the statute prior to the amendment and subsequent to the amendment to determine whether an amendment is clarificatory or substantive; (ii) An amendment which is clarificatory is regarded as being retrospective in nature and would date back to the original statutory provision which it seeks to amend. A clarificatory amendment is an expression of intent which the legislature has always intended to hold the field. A clarificatory amendment may be introduced in certain cases to set at rest divergent views expressed in decided cases on the true effect of a statutory provision. Where the legislature clarifies its intent, it is regarded as being declaratory of the law as it always stood and is therefore, construed to be retrospective; (iii) Where on the other hand, an amendment seeks to bring about a substantive change in legal rights and obligations, the Court would not readily accept an interpretation of the amendment that would render it retrospective in character. Clear words will be necessary in order to enable the Court to reach to such a conclusion; (iv) Where the amendment is curative or where it is intended to remedy unintended consequences or to render a statutory provision workable, the amendment may be construed to relate back to the provision in respect of which it supplies a remedial effect; (v) Where an amendment essentially provides a rule of evidence such as a method for the valuation of the property by adopting one among a set of well known and well accepted methods of valuation with a view to achieve uniformity in valuation and avoiding disparate valuations resulting from the application of different methods in respect of properties of a similar nature and character, the Court would place a construction on the statutory provision, giving the retrospective effect. (Godrej Boyce MFG Co. Ltd.- 2010 (8) TMI 77 - BOMBAY HIGH COURT)