Interpretation

¹(1) In this Act and, unless the context otherwise requires, in any other Act the following expressions have the meanings hereby respectively assigned to them that is to say.

"British India" means all territories for the time being comprised within the Governors, Provinces and the Chief Commissioners' Province. "India" means British India together with all territories of any Indian Ruler under the suzerainty of His Majesty, all territories under the suzerainty of such an Indian Ruler, the tribal areas, and, any other territories which His Majesty in Council may, from time to time, after ascertaining the views of the Federal Government and the Federal Legislature, declare to be part of India.

"Burma" includes (subject to the excercise by His Majesty of any powers vested in him with respect to the alteration of the boundaries thereof) all territories which were immediately before the commencement of Part III of this Act comprised in India being territories lying to the east of Bengal, the State of Manipur, Assam, and any tribal areas connected with Assam;

"British Burma" means so much of Burma as belongs to His Maiesty;

"Tribal areas" means the areas along the frontiers of India or in Baluchistan which are not part of British India or of Burma or of any Indian State or of any foreign State:

²"Indian State" means any territory, not being part of British India, which His Majesty recognises as being such a State, whether described as a State, an Estate, a Jagir or otherwise;]

"Ruler" in relation to a State means the Prince, Chief or other person recognised by His Majesty as the Ruler of the State].

(2) In this Act, unless the context otherwise require, the following expressions have the meanings hereby respectively assigned to them, that is to say:--

"agricultural income" means agricultural income as defined for the purposes of the enactments relating (o Indian income tax;

"borrow" includes the raising of money by the grant of annuities and "loan" shall be construed accordingly;

"chief justice" includes in relation to a High Court a chief judge or judicial commissioner and "judge" includes an additional judicial commissioner;

³["corporation tax" means any tax on income, so far as that tax payable by companies and is a tax in the case of which the following condtions are fulfilled:--

(a) that it is not chargeable in respect of agricultural income;

(b) that no deduction in respect of the tax paid by companies is, by any enactments which may apply to the tax, authorised to be made from dividends payable by the companies to individuals

(c) that no provision exists for taking the tax so paid into account in computing for the purposes of Indian income-tax the total income of individuals receiving such dividends, or. in computing the Indian income-tax payable by, or refundable to, such individuals.]

"corresponding Province" means in case of doubt such Province a may be determined by⁴[His Majesty in Council] to be the corresponding Province for the particular purpose in question;

"debt" includes any liability in respect of any obligation to repay capital sums by way of annuities and any liability under any guarantee, and "debt charges" shall be construed accordingly;

⁵["Estate duty" means a duty to be assessed on or by reference to the principal value, ascertained in accordance with such rules as may be pre cribed by or under the Federal or Provincial Laws relating to the duty, of all property passing upon death or deemed, under the provisions of the said laws, so to pass"];

"existing Indian law" means any law, ordinance, order, bye-law, rule or regulation passed or made before the⁶[commencement of Part III of the Act] by any legislature, authority or person in any territories⁷for the time being comprised in British India, being a legislature, authority or person having power to make such a law, ordinance, order, by-law, rule or regula- tion:

"goods" including all materials, commodities, and articles:

"guarantee" includes any obligation undertaken before the commence- ment of Part III of this, Act to make payments in the event of the profits cf an undertaking falling short of a specified amount;

"High Court" does not, except where it is expressly so provided, in- clude a High Court in a Federated State;

"Local Government" means any such Governor in Council, Governor actine with ministers, Lieutenant-Governor in Council, Lieutenant Governor or Chief Commissioner as was at the relevant time a Local Government for the purposes of the Government of India Act or any Act repealed by that Act, but does not, save where the context otherwise requires, include any Local Government in Burma or Aden;

"pension" in relation to persons in or formerly in the service of the Crown¹[in India. Burma or Aden] means a pension, whether contributory or not of any kind whatsoever payable to or in respect of any such person, and includes retired pay so payable, a gratuity so payable, and any sum or sums so payable by way of the return, with or without interest thereon or any other addition thereto, of subscription to a provident fund;

"pleader" includes advocate;

"Provincial Act" and "Provincial law" mean, subject to the provisions of this section, an Act passed or Law made by a Provincial Legislature established under this Act;

"public notification" means a notification in the Gazette of India or, as the ease may be, the official Gazette of a Province;

"securities" includes stock ;

"taxation" includes the imposition of any tax or impost whether general or local or special, and "tax" shall be construed accordingly;

⁸["tax on income" a tax in the nature of an excess profits tax;] "railway" includes a tramway not wholly within a municipal area;

"federal railway" does not include an Indian State railway but, save as aforesaid, includes any railway nol being a minor railway ;

"Indian State railway" means a railway owned by a State and either operated by the State, or operated on behalf of the State otherwise than in accordance with a contract made with the State by or on behalf of the Secretary of State in Council, the Federal Government⁹the Federal Railway Authority] or any company operating a federal railway;

"minor railway" means a railway which is wholly situate in one unit and does not form a continuous line of communication with a federal rail-way, whether of the same gauge or not; and

"unit" means a Governor's Province, a Chief Commissioner's Province or a Federated State.

¹[(3) No Indian State shall, for the purpose of any reference in this Act to Federated States, be deemed to have become a Federated State until the establishment of the Federaton.

(4) In paragraph (3) of section eighteen the Interpretation Act, 1897 (which paragraph defines the expression "colony") for the words "exclusive of the British Islands and of British India" there shall be substituted the words "exclusive of the British Islands and of British India and of British Burma."

(5) Any Act of Parliament containing references to India or any part hereof, to countries other than or situate outside India or other than or lituate outside British India, to Mis Majesty's dominions, to a British possession, to the Secretary of State in Council, to the Governor-General in Council, to a Governor in Council or to Legislatures, courts, or authorities in, or to matters relating to the government or administration of, India or British India shall have effect subject to such adaptations and modifications as His Majesty in Council may direct,¹⁰being adaptations and modifications which appear to His Majesty in Council to be necessary or expedient in consequence of the provisions of the Act or the Government of Burma Act, 1935.

Any power of any legislature under this Act to repeal or amend any Act adapted or modified by an Order in Council under this sub-section shall extend to the repeal or amendment of that Order, and any reference in this Act to an Act of Parliament shall be construed as including a reference to any such Order.]

(6) Any reference in this Act to¹¹[Federal] Acts or laws or Provincial Acts or laws, or to Acts or laws of the Federal or a Provincial Legisla- ture, shall be construed as including a reference to an ordinance made by the Governor-Central⁹[or a Governor-General's Act] or, as the case may be, to an ordinance made by a Governor⁹[or a Governor's Act].

(7) References in this Act to the taking of an oath include reference to the making of an affirmation.

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1. Omitted, by the India (Provisional Constitution) Order, 1947.

2. Substituted by the India and Burma (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act, 1940 (3 and 4 Geo. 6, ch. 5), S. 8.

3. Substituted by the India and Burma (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act, 1940., S. 1.

4. Substituted, by the India (Provisional Constitution) Order, 1947., by the words 'the Governor-General'.

5. Inserted by the India (Estate Duty) Act, 1945 (8 and 9 Geo. 6, ch. 7), S. 1 (3),

6. Substituted, by the words 'the Governor-General'.', by the words--establishment of the Dominion".

7. Inserted, by the words 'the Governor-General'., the words--'which were'.

8. Inserted by the India and Burma (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act, 1940 (3 and 4 Geo. 6, ch. 5), S. 1.

9. Omitted, by the India (Provisional Constitution) Order, 1947.

10. See the Aden Colony Order, 1936 and the Government of India (Adaptation of Acts of Parliament) Order, 1937.

11. Substituted, by the India (Provisional Constitution) Order, 1947, by the word 'Dominion'.