Home › CS Executive › jurisprudence › Interpretation of Statutes › Which of the following is an INTERNAL aid to int…
Which of the following is an INTERNAL aid to interpretation rather than an external aid?
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: B.
1. **Internal aids** are intrinsic to the Act itself: **Title, Preamble, Heading and Title of a Chapter, Marginal Notes, Interpretation Clauses, Proviso, Illustrations or Explanations, and Schedules**.
2. **External aids** are extrinsic: Parliamentary History, Reports of Committees, Reference to other Statutes (*pari materia*), Dictionaries, and Use of Foreign Decisions.
3. *Marginal Notes* — though their authority as construction aids is limited (and English Courts disregard them) — are nonetheless an **internal** aid, since they appear in the Act itself.
4. The ICSI in-line question box confirms: 'Which of the following is Internal aid to Interpretation? Answer: (A) Marginal Notes.'
_Source: ICSI CS Executive — Lesson 3, 'Internal and External Aids in Interpretation' chart + question box, pp. 91, 96._
Related questions
Why does the ICSI material insist that a statute be construed 'in its context' rather thanRegarding the use of 'Parliamentary History' as an external aid in India, the position is Strict construction is to be applied to certain classes of statutes, while liberal (benefiWhat is the role of dictionaries as an external aid to statutory interpretation, accordingThe 'statement of objects and reasons' attached to a Bill, according to the ICSI material,The Rule of Harmonious Construction directs that a statute be read as a whole to avoid conThe maxim *Contemporanea Expositio Est Optima Et Fortissima in Lege* is invoked in statutoWhat is the modern view on the use of 'marginal notes' appended to sections of an Indian s