Bayer Corporation vs Union Of India & Ors. on 22 April, 2019
―18. We may mention in fairness to Counsel that the following,
among other decisions, were cited at the Bar bearing on the
uses of provisos in statutes: CIT v. Indo-Mercantile Bank Ltd.,
AIR 1959 SC 713]; Ram Narain Sons Ltd. v. Asstt. (1955) 2
SCR 483, 493:]; Thompson v. Dibdin [(1912) AC 533, 541; Rex
v. Dibdin [1910 Pro Div 57, 119, 125] and Tahsildar Singh v.
State of U.P. AIR 1959 Supp (2) SCR 875,]. The law is trite. A
proviso must be limited to the subject-matter of the enacting
clause. It is a settled Rule of construction that a proviso must
prima facie be read and considered in relation to the principal
matter to which it is a proviso. It is not a separate or
independent enactment. "Words are dependent on the principal
enacting words to which they are tacked as a proviso. They
cannot be read as divorced from their context"