General Clauses Act, 1897

Every app you install asks you to accept terms that define “you”, “we”, “month” and “day” before anything else. Imagine if every Act of Parliament had to do the same, again and again. It would be a dictionary repeated a thousand times. India solved that in 1897 with a single Act that defines common words once and lays down standard rules for reading every other Act. What does it fix, and when can a later Act switch it off?

In two minutes

The General Clauses Act, 1897 is a statute about statutes: it defines common expressions (section 3) and supplies standard rules on commencement, repeal, time, gender, powers and service, which apply to Central Acts and Regulations unless the context or a different intention shows otherwise.

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