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TMI Blog2008 (4) TMI 734X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hi. 4. It appears that there were arrears of telephone dues in connection with line No. 5416493 which was in the name of the appellant's wife. For non- payment of the telephone dues in connection with this line, the other two lines in the name of the appellant being 5121187 at his residential premises and line No. 3265301 at his business premises were disconnected. 5. The contention of the appellant was that the telephone lines in his own name being line No. 5121187 at his residence and line No. 3265301 at his business premises should not be disconnected on account of non-payment of dues in connection with the line in the name of his wife being line No. 5416493. He contended that he and his wife are two separate legal entities, and he could not be penalized for the fault of his wife. 6. The appellant filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court which was dismissed by a learned Single Judge by his judgment dated 25.9.2001 and his appeal before the Division Bench of the High Court was also dismissed by the impugned judgment dated 10.1.2002. Hence, this appeal before this Court. 7. Learned counsel for the appellant has relied on Rule 443 of the Indian Telegraph Rules which st ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... appellant himself, since his wife has no independent source of income and is economically dependent on him. 11. In our opinion, we have to draw a distinction between the cases where a relative who though living in the same house has an independent source of income, and cases where one relative is dependent on another. While in the former case if there are two different lines, one in the name of the relative who is economically independent and has his own source of income and the other in the name of the petitioner, it could be held that non-payment of dues by the relative cannot lead to the consequence of the disconnection of the telephone line of the petitioner. However, in the latter category of cases i.e. where one relative is economically dependent on another, the position, in our opinion, is wholly different. For instance, if there is a telephone line in the name of a minor child of a father, and another telephone line in the name of the father, and both of them are living together in the same house, then obviously the telephone bills of the telephone line in the name of the minor child is being paid by the father. Hence, in our opinion, for non-payment of the bills of the t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... said decision it was held that the judgment of the Gauhati High Court in Santokh Singh vs. Divisional Engineer Telephone & Ors shall not be treated as a precedent. 16. On the other hand, learned counsel for the respondent has relied on the decision of a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court in Madan Tayal & Pran Kr. Tayal vs. MTNL 1989 (16) DRJ 51, the decision of a learned Single Judge of the Delhi High Court in Rajiv Gosain vs. MTNL in Civil Writ Petition No. 6343/1981 decided on 20.4.2000, and the decision of a learned Single Judge of Delhi High Court in Sukh Dayal Narula vs. MTNL in Civil Writ Petition No. 1693/1996 decided on 26.9.1997. In these decisions the Delhi High Court has held that the telephone line of a subscriber can be disconnected for non-payment of dues of a relative who is living in the same premises. Learned counsel also relied on the decision of the Gujarat High Court in Indravadan Pranlal Shah vs. General Manager, Ahmedabad Telephones District Kharpur, Ahmedabad & Anr. AIR 1990 Guj 85 in which it was held that the telephone of the petitioner can be disconnected if there is failure by the firm in which he is a partner to pay the dues of the telephone line i ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... bt, ordinarily the literal rule should be applied while interpreting a statute or statutory rule, but the literal rule is not always the only rule of interpretation of a provision in a statute, and in exceptional cases the literal rule can be departed from. As observed in the Constitution Bench decision of this Court in R.L. Arora vs. State of Uttar Pradesh and others 1964 (6) SCR 784: "Further, a literal interpretation is not always the only interpretation of a provision in a statute, and the court has to look at the setting in which the words are used and the circumstances in which the law came to be passed to decide whether there is something implicit behind the words actually used which would control the literal meaning of the words used in a provision of the statute. It is permissible to control the wide language used in a statute if that is possible by the setting in which the words are used and the intention of the law-making body which may be apparent from the circumstances in which the particular provision came to be made." (emphasis supplied) 24. Hence it follows that to interpret a statute one has to sometimes consider the context in which it has been made ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of our traditional principles of interpretation. The great Sanskrit grammarian Nagesh Bhatt in his book 'Param Laghu Manjusha' has said that a word or phrase can have three meanings: "(i) Abhidha i.e. literal meaning; (ii) Lakshana i.e. the indicative or suggestive meaning; (iii) Vyanjana i.e. the figurative meaning. Usually the literal meaning is followed, but some times the suggestive or figurative meanings are adopted. As regards the suggestive meaning (Lakshana) the oft quoted example is 'xaxk;ke~ a?kks"k' : i.e. "I live on the Ganges." This sentence cannot be literally interpreted because no one can live on the surface of the Ganges river. Hence it has to be interpreted to mean "I live on the bank of the Ganga river." As regards the third meaning Vyanjana, the oft quoted example is 'xrks vLredZ' which means: "The sun has set." Here the real meaning has in fact nothing to do with the sun or its setting, but it really means "light the lamp" or "let us go home" (because the sun has set). 28. In our opinion, in the present case, we have to adopt the Lakshana (or Linga) rule of interpretatio ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ons. However, it is a matter of deep regret that these principles have rarely been used in our law Courts. It is nowhere mentioned in our Constitution or any other law that only Maxwell's Principles of Interpretation can be used by the Court. We can use any system of interpretation which helps us solve a difficulty. In certain situations Maxwell's principles would be more appropriate, while in other situations the Mimansa principles may be more suitable. 33. The books on Mimansa are almost all in Sanskrit, but there is one good book called the 'Mimansa Rules of Interpretation' by Prof. K.L. Sarkar published in the Tagore Law Lecture Series, which may be seen. 34. It may be mentioned that the Mimansa Rules of Interpretation were created for resolving the practical difficlties in performing the Vedic yagyas. The rules for performing the various yagyas were given in books called Brahmanas e.g. Shatapath Brahman, Aitareya Brahman, Taitereya Brahman, etc. There were many ambiguities, conflicts, incongruities, ellipses etc. in the Brahmana texts, and hence principles of interpretation had to be created for this purpose. Thus the Mimansa principles were originally create ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s, (2) the Vakya principle or syntactical arrngement, (3) the Prakarana principle, which permits construction by referring to other texts in order to make the meaning clear, (4) the Sthana (position) principle which means the relative position of one text with reference to another, (5) the Samakhya (name) principle which means the connection between different passages by the indication accorded by the derivative words of a compound name. 39. In the present case we are of the opinion that the Linga (Lakshana) principle will apply. 40. Linga really means interpretation by understanding the context, and it is a departure from the literal rule of interpretation. 41. The Linga principle can be illustrated by the decision of this Court in U.P. Bhoodan Yagna Samiti vs. Brij Kishore AIR 1988 SC 2239 where the words `landless person' were held to mean 'landless peasant' and not landless businessmen. 42. Here we see that the Court has departed from the literal rule of interpretation, because by the literal rule even a very rich businessman who owns no land will be regarded as a landless person. Since the object of the U.P. Bhoodan Act was to give some land to the landless pea ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e been accidentally omitted. (See also the rulings mentioned in G.P. Singh's book "Principles of Statutory Interpretation" 9th Edition, 2004 pages 70 to 77). 44. The principle of Linga is illustrated by Jaimini in numerous Sutras and Adhikarnas. Thus the Pranabhrit Adhikarana which is based on Jaimini's Sutra 28, Chapter IV, Book 1 shows how words acquired a wider meaning by the Linga or Lakshana process. 45. In the Taittiriya Samhita (5.3.1.2) there is a passage : "He disposes the Pranabhrit - gkFR'r min|kfr" 46. Again in the same Samhita (5.7.2.5) there is a similar passage : "He disposes the Ajyani - AT;ku(jsrk min|kfr" 47. Now what is the meaning of Pranabhrit in the one case and of Ajyani in the other ? The words Pranabhrit and Ajyani are respectively the names of two Mantras or verses which begin with those words. These verses are used in consecrating bricks required for a certain purpose in a yagya. From this fact the bricks consecrated by the Pranabhrit Mantra acquired the name of Pranabhrit. Similarly the bricks consecrated by the Ajyani Mantra acquired the name of Ajyani. But in course of time the whole heap of bricks of a par ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... and not exhaustive. 53. We can take another example. In the U.S. Constitution, Article 1 Section 8 states that Congress (the American Parliament) can raise Armies and Navies. There is no mention of an Air Force there, obviously because there were no aircraft in 1791 when the U.S. Constitution was promulgated. The first aircraft was invented by the Wright brothers in 1903. However, today's reality is that a modern Army cannot fight without air cover. Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is a very ardous and lengthy procedure because it requires two-third majority of both Houses of Congress and ratification by three-fourth of the States. By the time this is done, the enemy may invade and occupy the country. Hence the words `Armies and Navies' have to be interpreted as illustrative and not exhaustive, and they really mean all armed forces necessary for the security of the country (which would include an Air Force, also). 54. Thus Article 1 Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution has to be interpreted not by applying the Shruti rule (literal rule), but by applying the Linga rule. The words 'Armies and Navies' in Article 1 Section 8 are to be construed not literally but as s ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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