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113. In order to determine this aspect, one of the well- established tests is "the Inversion Test" propounded inter alia by Eugene Wambaugh, a Professor at The Harvard Law School, who published a classic text book called The Study of Cases [Eugene Wambaugh, The Study of Cases (Boston:
Little, Brown & Co., 1892)] in the year 1892. This textbook mca498-2022 & mca500-2022-J.-Final.doc propounded inter alia what is known as the "Wambaugh Test" or "the Inversion Test" as the means of judicial interpretation. "the Inversion Test" is used to identify the ratio decidendi in any judgment. The central idea, in other words of Professor Wambaugh, is as under:
"In order to make the test, let him first frame carefully the supposed proposition of law. Let him then insert in the proposition a word reversing its meaning. Let him then inquire whether, if the Court had conceived this new proposition to be good, and had it in mind, the decision could have been the same. If the answer be affirmative, then, however excellent the original proposition may be, the case is not a precedent for that proposition, but if the answer be negative the case is a precedent for the original proposition and possibly for other propositions also" [Eugene Wambaugh, The Study of Cases (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1892)].