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What is the role of dictionaries as an external aid to statutory interpretation, according to the ICSI material?
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: A.
1. The ICSI text says: **'When a word is not defined in the Act itself, it is permissible to refer to dictionaries to find out the general sense in which that word is understood in common parlance.'**
2. However, *'the meaning of words and expressions used in an Act must take their colour from the context in which they appear'*.
3. Krishna Aiyar, J. is quoted: **'Dictionaries are not dictators of statutory construction where the benignant mood of a law, and more emphatically the definition clause furnish a different denotation.'**
4. **Judicial decisions expounding the meaning of words in construing statutes in *pari materia* will have more weight than the meaning furnished by dictionaries.**
_Source: ICSI CS Executive — Lesson 3, 'External Aids — Dictionaries', p. 96._
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