CHAPTER 12

1 CHAPTER 12 OrdinancesNos. 21 of 19012 of 19138 of 191620 of 19248 of 19312 of 1947 ActsNos. 5 of of of of 29 of ORDINANCE FOR DEFINING THE MEANING OF CERTAIN TERMS AND FOR SHORTENING22 of 1912 THE LANGUAGE USED IN ENACTMENTS AND OTHER WRITTEN LAWS AND FOROTHER This Ordinance may be cited as theInterpretation In this Ordinance and in every writtenlaw. whether made before or after thecommencement of this Ordinance, unlessthere be something repugnant in the subjector context-(a) "abet" with its grammaticalvariations and cognate expressions,shall have the same meaning as inthe Penal Code;(b) " Act'' or " Act of Parliament " shallmean an enactment of theLegislature of Ceylon or Sri the case may be, enacted on orafter the 14th day of October, 1947,other than a Law enacted by theNational State Assembly;(c) " Attorney-Genera!

2 " shall mean theAttorney-General of Sri Lanka, andshall include an actingAttorney-General;(d) " CHAPTER ", " Part " , section ", and"Schedule" shall denoterespectively a CHAPTER , part, andsection of, and schedule to, theenactment in which the wordoccurs, and tt subsection " shalldenote a subsection of the section inwhich the word occurs;(e) "commencement", used withreference to an enactment, shallmean the day on which suchenactment comes into force ; and[3rd December, 1901. ]" operation ". used with reference toan enactment which is not to takeeffect immediately upon cominginto force, shall me .n the day onwhich such enactment takes effect;(f) "enactment" shall mean anyOrdinance, Law or Act enacted bythe Legislature of Ceylon or SriLanka, as the case may be, andshall include -(i) the Constitution of theDemocratic SocialistRepublic of Sri Lanka,1978;(ii) any enactment having theforce of law in Sri Lankaand promulgated in the formof a proclamation orregulation prior to the 1stday of January, 1834 ;(iii) the Tesawalamai or the lawsand customs of theMalabars of Jaffnapromulgated by the DutchGovernment of Ceylon in theyear seventeen hundred andseven, and referred to in theTesawalamai Regulation ;and(iv) the Ceylon (ParliamentaryElections) Order in (g) " foreign country " or " foreign Stale "shall mean any country or Slateother than Sri Lanka ;I/ 141 Cap.

3 12] INTERPRETATION* (h) " Full Moon Poya Day " shall have thesame meaning as in the HolidaysAct, and the expression " Full MoonPoya Days " shall be construedaccordingly;(i) " Gazette " or " Government Gazette "shall mean the Gazette published bythe order of the Government of SriLanka, and shall include anyExtraordinary Gazette sopublished ;(j ) " Law " shall mean an enactment ofthe National State Assemblyconstituted under the Constitutionof Sri Lanka adopted and enactedon the 22nd day of May, 1972 ;(ja) " local authority" means anyMunicipal Council, Urban Council,Town Council .or Village Counciland includes any Authority createdand established by or under any lawto exercise, perform and dischargepowers, duties and functionscorresponding to or similar to thepowers, duties and functionsexercised, performed anddischarged by any such Council;(k) " master " used with reference to aship shall mean any person (excepta pilot) having for the time beingcontrol or charge of a ship ;(l) " Member of Parliament " shall mean aMember of the Parliament of theDemocratic Socialist Republic ofSri Lanka;(m) " Minister " used with reference toany subject or function ofGovernment shall mean theMinister to whom that subject orfunction has been assigned by thePresident and includes a personduly appointed to act in the place ofsuch Minister.

4 (n) "Ministry" or "Ministry chargedwith ", with reference to any subjector function shall mean the Ministryof the Minister to whom thatsubject or function has beenassigned by Ihe President;(o) "month" shall mean a calendarmonth, unless words be addedshowing lunar months to beintended ;(p) " oath " and " affidavit " shall, in thecase of persons for the time beingallowed by law to affirm or declareinstead of swearing, includeaffirmation and declaration, and" swear " shall, in the like case,include affirm and declare :(q) "Ordinance" shall mean anenactment enacted prior to the 14thday of October. 1947;(r) "Parliament" shall mean theParliament constituted inaccordance with the provisions ofthe Constitution of the DemocraticSocialist Republic of Sri ;(s) " person " includes any body of personscorporate or unincorporate;(t ) " prescribed " shall mean prescribed bythe enactment in which the wordoccurs or by any rule, regulation,by-law, proclamation or order madethereunder;(u) " President " shall mean the Presidentof the Democratic SocialistRepublic of Sri Lanka, and shallinclude any person duly appointedor designated to exercise, performand discharge the powers, dutiesand functions of his office ;* (v) " public holiday " shall have the samemeaning as in the Holidays Act,and the expression " publicholidays " shall be construedaccordingly.

5 (w) " registered " used with reference to adocument shall mean registeredunder the provisions of the law forthe time being applicable to theregistration of such document;(x ) "rigorous imprisonment", "simpleimprisonment ", and"imprisonment of eitherdescription " shall have the samemeaning as in the Penal Code, and" imprisonment " shall mean simpleimprisonment;* Sec Gazelle Extraordinary No. 14,984/44 of [Cap. 12(y) " Secretary " used in relation to anyMinistry shall mean the Secretaryto the Ministry of the Minister towhom the relevant subject orfunction has been assigned ;(z) " sign " with its grammaticalvariations and cognate expressions,shall, with reference to a personwho is unable to write his name,include "mark" with itsgrammatical variations and cognateexpressions;(aa) "Solicitor-General" shall mean theSolicitor-General of Sri Lanka, andshall include an AdditionalSolicitor-General and a DeputySolicitor-General, and any officeracting in the place of theSolicitor-General, AdditionalSolicitor-General or peputySolicitor-General;(bb) "State Counsel" shall inc|ude aSenior Slate Counsel and an actingState Counsel and an acting SeniorState Counsel.]

6 (cc) " the Constitution " shall mean theConstitution of the DemocraticSocialist Republic of Sri Lanka,1978.(dd) " the Oovernment ", where no othermc;ining is indicated by anydescriptive or qualifying words orby the context, and " the Sri LankaGovernment " or " the Governmentof Sri Lanka " or " the Governmentof this Island " or " the Governmentof the Island of Sri Lanka " ortt the Government of the Republic "shall mean the Government of theRepublic constituted under iheConstitution of the DemocraticSocialist Republic of Sri Lanka,1978;(ee) "the Island" and "this Island"," Ceylon " and " Sri Lanka " shallmean the Island of Sn Lanka or ofCeylon, as required by the context;(ff) "the Legislature" shall mean theParliament constituted under theConstitution of the DemocraticSocialist Republic of Sri Lanka,1978, and shall include any personor body of persons empoweredduring any period of time toexercise legislative power in Ceylonor Sri Lanka ;(gg) " Ins State w or " the Republic " or" the Republic of Sri Lanka " shallmean the Democratic SocialistRepublic of Sri Lanka ;(hh) "the United Kingdom" shalLmeanthe United Kingdom of GreatBritain and Northern Ireland ;(ii) " value " used with reference to a suitshall mean the amount or value ofthe subject-matter of the suit;(jj) " will " shall include a codicil.

7 (kk) " written law" shall mean andinclude all Ordinances, Laws andActs of the Legislature of Ceylon orSri Lanka and all orders,proclamations, rules, by-laws,regulations, warrants and process ofevery kind made or issued by anybody or person having authorityunder any statutory or otherenactment to make or issue thesame in and for Ceylon or SriLanka or any part thereof, theMinutes on Pensions, and theCeylon (Parliamentary Elections)Order-in-Council 1946;(ll) words importing the masculine gendershall be taken to include females ;(mm) words in the singular number shallinclude the plural, and vice No enactment shall in any manner Savings of rightsaffect the right of the Stale unless it is therein of the stated, or unless it appears bynecessary implication that the Stale is Where any enactment or written law, Exercise ofwhether passed or made before or after the powers and r.

8 /^ -i- r commencement ol this Ordinance, centers a or imposes a duty, then, unless acontrary intention appears, the power may beexercised and the duty shall be performedfrom time to time as occasion 12] INTERPRETATIONM eaning of" the principalOrdinance '," the principalLaw", and" the principalAct."Effect of repealor expiration of'written (1) In any enactment which amendsany other enactment, the expression " theprincipal Ordinance " or ** the principalLaw " or " the principal Act " shall mean theenactment which is amended.(2) Every amending enactment shall beread as one with the principal enactment towhich it (1) Whenever any written lawrepealing either in whole or part a formerwritten law is itself repealed, such repealshall not, in the absence of any expressprovision to that effect, revive or be deemedto have revived the repealed written law, orany right, office, privilege, matter, or thingnot in force or existing when the repealingwritten law comes into operation.

9 (2) Whenever any written law repeals inwhole or part a former written law andsubstitutes therefor some new provision, suchrepeal shall not take effect until suchsubstituted provision comes into operation.(3) Whenever any written law repealseither in whole or part a former written law,such repeal shall not, in the absence of anyexpress provision to that effect, affect or bedeemed to have affected-(a) the past operation of or anything dulydone or suffered under the repealedwritten law;(b ) any offence committed, any right,liberty, or penalty acquired orincurred under the repealed writtenlaw;(c) any action, proceeding, or thingpending or incompleted when therepealing written law comes intooperation, but every such action,proceeding, or thing may be carriedon and completed as if there hadbeen no such repeal.(4) Subsection (3) shall apply in the caseof the expiration of any written law in likemanner as though that written law had beenrepealed and had not expired.

10 (5) This section shall apply to written lawsmade as well before as after thecommencement of this Whereby any enactment which is notto come into operation immediately on thepassing thereof a power is conferred on anyperson or body of persons to make rules or toissue orders with respect to the application ofsuch enactment, or with respect to theestablishment of any office or theappointment of any officer thereunder, orwith respect to the person by whom, or thetime when, or the place where, or the mannerin which, or the fees for which anything is tobe done under such enactment, the powermay be exercised at any time after thepassing of such enactment, but rules or ordersso made or issued shall not take effect untilsuch enactment comes or is brought this section,regulations and ofrules in intervalbetweenpassing andoperation ofenactment.