The Supreme Court in University of Kerala And Ors. Etc. v. Merlin J.N. And Etc. held that the UGC (Minimum Qualifications for Appointment and Career Advancement of Teachers in Universities and Institutions Affiliated to It) Regulations, 2016 would be applied with a retrospective effect.
The Court observed, at any earlier occasion it did not have the benefit of examining the referred amendments. Therefore, to construe them as applying only prospectively, would give rise to an absurdity, and defeat the purpose for which the amendment was promulgated. The Court also relied on Rafiquennessa v. Lal Bahadur Chetri (Dead) Through His Representatives and Ors., in the manner of interpretation of amendments, where the language adopted gives clear inference of retrospective application was determined, and it was held:
“In order to make the statement of the law relating to the relevant rule of construction which has to be adopted in dealing with the effect of statutory provisions in this connection, we ought to add that retrospective operation of a statutory provision can be inferred even in cases where such retroactive operation appears to be clearly implicit in the provision construed in the context where it occurs. In other words, a statutory provision is held to be retroactive either when it is so declared by express terms, or the intention to make it retroactive clearly follows from the relevant words and the context in which they occur.”
The Court further clarified that “When an enactment or an amendment is declaratory, curative or clarificatory, impelled by a felt need to make clear what was always intended, such amendment is usually meant to operate from an antecedent date, or to cover antecedent events.”
It also relied on Zile Singh v State of Haryana wherein applying the relevant rule of interpretation it was held that:
“If a new Act is 'to explain' an earlier Act, it would be without object unless construed retrospective. An explanatory Act is generally passed to supply an obvious omission or to clear up doubts as to the meaning of the previous Act. It is well settled that if a statute is curative or merely declaratory of the previous law, retrospective operation is generally intended...An amending Act may be purely declaratory to clear a meaning of a provision of the principal Act which was already implicit. A clarificatory amendment of this nature will have retrospective effect.”