INTRODUCTION The first enactment of the kind was Lord Brougham's Act (13 and 14 Vict., c. 21). The provisions of that statute were adopted to India, and somewhat simplified, by General Clauses Act (1 of 1868), and the General Clauses Act, 1887 (1 of 1887) was a further extension of the same principle. It was expedient that the Legislation intent be contained in a single enactment and that the two Acts referred above should be consolidated, and it seemed desirable to take the opportunity of making any addition that later experience may have suggested, and in particular to incorporate such provisions of the Interpretation Act, 1889 (52 and 53 Vict., c. 63), as are applicable to India. Accordingly a Bill was prepared. The Bill was referred to the Select Committee which submitted its report on 4th March, 1887. Based on the report of the Select Committee the General Clauses Bill was introduced in the Legislature. STATEMENT OF OBJECTS AND REASONS This Bill does not propose to effect any change in the law. Its object, like that of the Acts it consolidates, is to shorten the language of the statutory enactments and to provide for uniformity of expression in cases where there is identity of subject-matter. The first enactment of the kind was Lord Brougham's Act (13 and 14 Vict., c. 21). The provisions of that statute were adopted to India, and somewhat amplified, by General Clauses Act (1 of 1868), and the General Clauses Act (1 of 1887) was a further extension of the same principle. It is obviously expedient that the legislative dictionary, as it may be called, should be contained in a single enactment, and that the two Acts above referred to should be consolidated, and it seems desirable to take the opportunity of making any additions that later experience may have suggested, and in particular to incorporate such provisions of the Interpretation Act, 1889 (52 and 53 Vict., c. 63), as are applicable to India. That Statute, like the Indian Act of 1887, was drafted by Sir C. Ilbert, and is in effect a careful revision and extension of the latter. For example, the definition of "British India" in the English Act of 1889 is merely an expansion of the definition given by the Indian Act of 1868. Its legal effect is the same, but it is more intelligible, and it avoids a reference to another Statute. Now this definition is substituted by A.O. The proposed measure will have this further advantage that it will tend to secure uniformity of language and construction in Indian and English legislation, in so far as both have to deal with the same subject-matter.
ACT 10 OF 1897
The General Clauses Bill having been passed by the Legislature received its assent on 11th March 1897. It came on the statute book as THE GENERAL CLAUSES ACT, 1897 (10 of 1897).