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CONSTITUTION OF INDIA, 1950:Articles 245(1) and 245(2) read with Articles 51, 246, 248, 249, 250, 253 and 262 - Seventh Schedule Lists I and Ill -Power of Parliament to legislate in respect of extra-territorial aspects or causes - Held : Parliament has been constituted, and empowered to, and that its core role would be to enact laws to protect the interests, welfare and security of India - Therefore, even those extra-territorial aspects or causes, provided they have nexus with India, should be deemed to be within the domain of legislative competence of Parliament except to the extent the Constitution itself specifies otherwise. Parliament may exercise its legislative powers with respect to extra-territorial aspects or causes - events, things, phenomena (howsoever commonplace they may be resources, actions or transactions, and the like - that occur, arise or exist or may be expected to do so, naturally or on account of some human agency, in the social, political, economic, cultural, biological, environmental or physical spheres outside the territory of lndia, and seek to control, modulate, mitigate or transform the effects of such extra- territorial aspects or causes, or in appropriate cases, eliminate or engender such extra-territorial aspects or causes, only when such extra-territorial aspects or causes have, or are expected to have, some impact on, or effect in, or consequences for: (a) the territory of India, or any part of India; or (b) the interests of, welfare of, well being of, or security of inhabitants of India, and Indians - Consequently, Parliament's power to enact legislation, pursuant to clause (1) of Article 245 may not extend to those extra-territorial aspects or causes that have no impact on or nexus with India -Any laws enacted by Parliament with respect to extra-territorial aspects or causes that have no impact on or nexus with India, would be ultra vires, and would be Jaws made for a foreign territory- Income Tax Act, 1961 - ss.9(1)(1) and 9(1)(vii)(4). Article 245(1) -Expression "for" "the whole or any part of the territory of India" - Connotation of- Explained.Article 245(2) - Judicial review of an enactment - The subject of Clause (2) of Article 245 is the law made by Parliament, pursuant to Clause (1) of Article 245, and the object, or purpose, of Clause (2) of Article 245 is to specify that a law so made by Parliament, for the whole or any part of territory of India, should not be held to be invalid solely on the ground that such laws require extra-territorial operation - Clause (2) of Article 245 acts as an exception, of a particular and a limited kind, to the inherent power of the judiciary to invalidate, if ultra-vires, any of the Jaws made by any organ of the State - Clause (2) of Article 245 carves out a specific exception that a law made by Parliament, pursuant to Clause (1) of Article 245, for the whole or any part of the territory of India may not be invalidated on the ground that such a law may need to be operated extra- territorially - Nothing more - The power of the judiciary to invalidate laws that are ultra-vires flows from its essential functions, constitutional structure, values and scheme, and indeed to ensure that the powers vested in the organs of the State are not being transgressed, and that they are being used to realise a public purpose that subserves the general welfare of the people. It is one of the essential defences of the people in a constitutional democracy.INTERPRETATION OF CONSTITUTION : Constitutional provision - Interpretation of - Held : In interpreting any law, including the Constitution, the text of the provision under consideration would be the primary source for discerning the meanings that inhere in the enactment - However, in the light of the serious issues it would always be prudent, as a matter of constitutional necessity, to widen the search for the true meaning, purport and ambit of the provision under consideration - No provision, and indeed no word or expression, of the Constitution exists in isolation - They are necessarily related to, transforming and in turn being transformed by, other provisions, words and phrases in the Constitution - Our Constitution is both long and also an intricate matrix of meanings, purposes and structures only by locating a particular constitutional provision under consideration within that constitutional matrix could one hope to be able to discern its true meaning, purport and ambit . When something is specified in an Article of the Constitution, it is to be taken, as a matter of initial assessment, as nothing more was intended - Further, it is well known dicutum of statutory and constitutional interpretation that when the same words or phrases are used in different parts of the Constitution, the same meaning should be ascribed, unless the context demands otherwise.INTERPRETATION OF STATUTES :Interpretation of a statutory provision - Held : A construction of provisions in a manner that renders words or phrases therein to the status of mere surplussage ought to be avoided.MAXIM:'Expressio unius est exclusion alterius' - Applicability of.WORDS AND PHRASES:- -Expressions "aspects" and "causes", "object" and "provocation", "extraterritorial aspects or causes", extraterritorial law", "extraterritorial operation", "nexus with India" - Connotation of in the context of article 245 of Constitution of India. |
