The General Clauses Act, 1897 is a consolidating Act. It consolidated the General Clauses Act, 1868 and the General Clauses Act, 1887. Before the enactment of the General Clauses Act, 1868, provisions of the Interpretation Act, 1850 were followed. The provisions of that Act and certain additions were framed together and thus emerged the General Clauses Act, 1868. The object of the General Clauses Act, 1868 was to shorten the language used in the Acts of the Governor-General of India in Council. It contained only 8 sections. A supplementary General Clauses Act was enacted as the General Clauses Act, 1887 which contained 10 sections. The additions enacted in this Act were based on the personal experience of Sir Courteney Ilbert who drafted this Act. In 1987, the General Clauses Act of 1868 and 1887 were consolidated and a new Bill was introduced in the Council of the Governor-General on 4^th February, 1897. While introducing the Bill in the Council the then Law Member pointed out that the new Bill was not intended to change the existing law. Its object was simply to shorten the language of future statutory enactments and as far as possible, to provide for uniformity of expression where there was identity of subject matter. It was convenient that the General Clauses Acts of 1868 and 1887, which were already on the statute book, should be consolidated to have Legislative Dictionary and rules for the Construction of Acts in one and the same enactment.