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ShareTaste of the law lies in its bite. The meaning of any particular law, like any statement, lies in its interpretation. There are principles of jurisprudence against which the correctness of the interpretation is judged, like those laid down by the great 18th century jurists Maxwell and Craies, for instance. The Supreme Court has expressed concern over the fact that our legal fraternity has distanced itself from our own intellectual treasure left behind in the Mimansa principles of interpretation that were based on the 5th century rules enunciated by Maharshi Jamini. "It is deeply regrettable that in our courts of law, lawyers quote Maxwell and Craies but nobody refers to the Mimansa principles of interpretation. Few people in our country are aware about the great intellectual achievements of our ancestors and the intellectual treasury they have bequeathed us," said Justices Ashok Bhan and Markendeya Katju. In fact, these principles laid down 2,500 years ago have been quoted in judgments on just two occasions. In 1892, by the then chief justice of Allahabad High Court Sir John Edge and then by Justice Katju when he was a judge of the same high court. Mimansa principles were regularly used by jurists like Vijnaneshwara who authored Mitakshara, an essential law on Hindu succession and Jimutvahana who authored Dayabhaga, another school of Hindu property law, and Nanda Pandit. Whenever these jurists found any conflict between the various smritis or any ambiguity or incongruity therein, they would resolve it with Mimansa's help. "There is no reason why we cannot use these principles on appropriate occasions even today. It is nowhere mentioned in our Constitution or any other law that only Maxwell's principles of interpretation can be used by the court," the Judges point out, lamenting this judicial lapse. Then they have referred to a sutra which might be suitable for this occasion. "Where there is a conflict between the use and the substance, greater regard should be paid to the use," is what this vedic sutra means, loosely translated to English.
