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(iii) If the language of the statute is plainly retrospective it must be so interpreted. When the intention is clear that the Act should have a retrospective operation, it must unquestionably be so construed even though the consequences may appear unjust and hard;

(iv) A statute is not to be construed to have a greater retrospective operation than its language renders necessary. The retrospective effect of a statute may be partial in its operation;

(v) If a statute in its nature a declaratory Act it is retrospective even if it takes away previous rights;

"For modern purposes a declaratory Act may be defined as an Act to remove doubts existing as to the common law, or the meaning or effect of any statute. Such Acts are usually held to be retrospective. The usual reason for passing a declaratory Act is to set aside what Parliament deems to have been a judicial error, whether in the statement of the common law or in the interpretation of statutes. Usually, if not invariably, such an Act contains a preamble, and also the word 'declared' as well as the word 'enacted'.

The Supreme Court added :

"A remedial Act, on the contrary, is not necessarily retrospective; it may be either enlarging or restraining and it takes effect prospectively, unless it has retrospective effect by express terms or necessary intendment".

55. Mr. Narayana Rao contended that the Industrial Disputes (Amendment) Act, 1965, by which S. 2A was inserted, is a remedial Act and not a declaratory Act, that the former, unlike the latter, is not necessarily retrospective, and that there is nothing in the language of S. 2-A which makes it retrospective so as to render discharge, dismissal, retrenchment or termination of services of an individual workman before December 1, 1965 an industrial dispute.