Muskan Enterprises & Anr. Vs State of Punjab & Anr. (Supreme Court of India)
Law is well-settled that user of the verbs ‘may’ and ‘shall’ in a statute is not a sure index for determining whether such statute is mandatory or directory in character. The legislative intent has to be gathered looking into other provisions of the enactment, which can throw light to guide one towards a proper determination. Although the legislature is often found to use ‘may’, ‘shall’ or ‘must’ interchangeably, ordinarily ‘may’, having an element of discretion, is directory whereas ‘shall’ and ‘must’ are used in the sense of a mandatory provision. Also, while the general impression is that ‘may’ and ‘shall’ are intended to have their natural meaning, it is the duty of the court to gather the real intention of the legislature by carefully analysing the entire statute, the section and the phrase/expression under consideration. A provision appearing to be directory in form could be mandatory in The substance, rather than the form, being relevant, ultimately it is a matter of construction of the statute in question that is decisive.
It is also a well-accepted rule that interpretation must depend on the text and the context – the text representing the texture and the context giving it colour – and, that interpretation would be best, which makes the textual interpretation match the contextual. While wearing the glasses of the statute-maker, the enactment has to be looked at as a whole and it needs to be discovered what each section, each clause, each phrase and each word means and whether it is designed to fit into the scheme of the entire enactment. While no part of a statute and no word of a statute can be construed in isolation, statutes have to be construed so that every word has a place and everything is in its place. We draw inspiration for the above understanding of the manner of interpreting a statute from the decision of this Court in Reserve Bank of India v. Peerless General Finance & Investment Co. Ltd.
