harmonious construction
The legislature is presumed not to have intended a contradiction. So when two provisions of a statute, or of the Constitution, appear to conflict, the court must try to read them so that each has effect, and avoid a reading that makes one of them useless. Only where reconciliation is impossible will one give way to the other, often by applying the special provision over the general.
In Sri Venkataramana Devaru (1957) the Supreme Court reconciled Article 25(2)(b), which allows laws opening Hindu temples to all classes, with Article 26(b), which protects a religious denomination's right to manage its own affairs in matters of religion. The temple-entry law applied, but the denomination could exclude the public from certain specific rituals. The rule is used constantly in constitutional and statutory interpretation.
Example
Applying harmonious construction, the court held that the general power to transfer employees could not be used to defeat the specific protection given to union office-bearers.
In Indian law
See also
ut res magis valeat quam pereat · generalia specialibus non derogant · purposive interpretation · internal aids to interpretation
Read more in the study notes
- Harmonious construction (Interpretation of Statutes and Principles of Legislation)
- Directive principles, fundamental duties, and their relation to fundamental rights (Constitutional Law I)
- Constitutional interpretation (Constitutional Law II)
- Reading directive principles and fundamental duties into fundamental rights (Indian Constitutional Law - New Challenges)
- Internal aids: title, preamble, headings, marginal notes, definitions and punctuation (Interpretation of Statutes and Principles of Legislation)
- Principles of constitutional interpretation: pith and substance, colourable legislation, occupied field and repugnancy (Interpretation of Statutes and Principles of Legislation)