Strict interpretation - Indian Laws - General

Strict interpretation In Black s Law Dictionar y (10th Edn.) strict interpretation is described as under: 1. An interpretation according to the narrowest, most literal meaning of the words without regard for context and other permissible meanings. 2. An interpretation according to what the interpreter narrowly believes to have been the specific intentions or understandings of the text s authors or ratifiers, and no more. Also termed (in senses 1 2) strict construction, literal interpretation; literal construction; restricted interpretation; interpretatio stricta; interpretatio restricta; interpretatio verbalis. 3. The philosophy underlying strict interpretation of statues.Also termed as close interpretation; interpretatio restrictive. See strict constructionism under constructionism. Cf. large interpretation; liberal interpretation (2). Strict construction of a statute is that which refuses to expand the law by implications or equitable considerations, but confines its operation to cases which are clearly within the letter of the statute, as well as within its spirit or reason, not so as to defeat the manifest purpose of the legislature, but so as to resolve all reasonable doubts against the applicability of the statute to the particular case . Willam M. Lile et al., Brief Making and the use of Law Books 343 (Roger W. Cooley Charles Lesly Ames eds., 3d ed. 1914). Strict interpretation is an equivocal expression, for it means either literal or narrow. When a provision is ambiguous, one of its meaning may be wider than the other, and the strict (i.e., narrow) sense is not necessarily the strict (i.e., literal) sense. John Salmond , Jurisprudence 171 n. (t) (Glanville L. Williams ed., 10th ed. 1947). COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS (IMPORT) , MUMBAI VERSUS M/S. DILIP KUMAR AND COMPANY ORS. - 2018 (7) TMI 1826 - SUPREME COURT (LB)