Important Legal Definitions

The fundamental rule of criminal jurisprudence requiring that ambiguous words in a penal enactment creating offences or imposing punishments must be construed strictly in favor of the subject and against the State.

In Tolaram Relumal v. State of Bombay, the Supreme Court held that if two reasonable constructions of a penal statute are possible, the court must lean toward the construction that exempts the subject from criminal liability rather than the one that imposes a penalty.