Rule of Ejusdem Generis

Coming to the word.'shall'. The use of the word 'shall' would Hut of itself make a provision of the Act mandatory. It has to be construed with reference to' the context in which it is used. Thus, as against the Government the word 'shall' when used in statutes is to be construed as 'may' unless a contrary intention is manifest. Hence, a provision in a criminal statute that the offender shall be punished as prescribed in the statute is not necessarily to be taken as against the Government to direct prosecution under that provision rather than under some other applicable statute.
Therefore, generally speaking when a statute uses the word 'shall', prima facie it is mandatory but it is sometimes not so interpreted if the context or intention of the legislature otherwise demands. Thus, under certain circumstances the expression 'shall' is construed as 'may'. Yet, it has to be emphasized that the term 'shall', in its ordinary significance, is mandatory and the Court shall ordinarily give that interpretation to the term, unless such an interpretation leads to some absurd or inconvenient consequence or be at variance with the intent of the legislature to be collected from other parts of the Act. For ascertaining the real intention of the legislature, the Court may consider, amongst other things,
. the nature and design of the statute,
. the consequence which would flow from construing it one way or the other, . the impact of other provisions by resorting to which the necessity of comply
ing with the provisions in question can be avoided,
. whether or not the statute provides any penalty if the provision in question is
not complied with,
. if the provision in question is not complied with, whether the consequences
would be trivial or serious, and
. most important of all, whether the object of the legislation will be defeated or
furthered.
Where a specific penalty is provided in a statute itself for non-compliance with the particular provision of the Act, no discretion is left to the Court to determine whether such provision is directory or mandatory-it has to be taken as mandatory.
6. Rule of Ejusdem Generis
The term' ejusdem generis' means' of the same kind or species'. Simply stated, the rule means :
(i) Where any Act enumerates different subjects, general words following specific words are to be construed (and understood) with reference to the words that precede them. Those general words are to be taken as applying to things of the same kind as
. the specific words previously mentioned, unless there is something to show that a wider sense was intended. Thus, the rule of ejusdem generis means th~ ~here §Pecific ~ords are used and after those speCiffc woras, spme general words are__used, the general words would take their colour from the specific words used earlier. For instance, iii. the expression 'in consequence of war, disturbance or any Other cause', the words 'any other cause' would take colour from the earlier words '~ar, disturbance' and, therefore, would be limited to causes of the same kind as the two named instances. Similarly, where an Act permits keeping of dogs, cats, cows, buffaloes and other animals, the expression 'other animals' would not include wild animals like lions and tigers, but would mean only domesticated animals like horses, etc.