Legislative Drafting Manual

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16 
In view of the above discussed justifications for inclusion of recitals for individual 
provisions, it can be noted that there is no special reason justifying the 
incorporation of individual recitals under 2
nd
and 3
rd
paragraphs. These recitals 
could have been drafted in a very general way without referring specifically to 
these individual parts of the law.
3.1.4. Citation and Enacting Clause
3.1.4.1. Citation
a. Citations are references to the legal basis or legal provisions under which 
the enacting institution is empowered to enact that law. As to their place 
and form, they normally appear with the name of the enacting institution 
and the Enacting Clause, and they are alternatively expressed with phrases 
like “ having regard to”, “in accordance with”, “pursuant to”, etc… followed 
by the relevant legal provision.
b. If there is more than one legal basis to be cited in the citation part, then 
they should be made in their hierarchical and historical order.
c. However, in case of numerous legal basis to be cited, the drafter can use 
either of the following methods to avoid citing an inordinate number of legal 
basis:-
i. 
Citation by Correspondence:-This method can be used in case of 
horizontal laws laying down identical rules for a number of different 
areas. In this method, only one provision is to be cited with the 
addition of a phrase “…and to the corresponding provisions of the 
other Law on……..”
The use of this method should be restricted only to the following instances:- 

The simplification must save the drafter from citing significant 
number of provisions;

Any one familiar with the field must be easily able to locate the 
corresponding provisions referred to; and

The laws referred to in the simplified citation must be easily 
identifiable.