Deemed - Indian Laws - General

Meaning of word Deemed Stroud s Judicial Dictionary of Words and Phrases (7th Edition, 2008), defines deemed as follows: Deemed - as used in statutory definitions to extend the denotation of the defined term to things it would not in ordinary parlance denote , is often a convenient device for reducing the verbiage or an enactment, but that does not mean that wherever it is used it has that effect; to deem means simply to judge or reach a conclusion about something, and the words deem and deemed when used in a statute thus simply state the effect or meaning which some matter or things has-the way in which it is to be adjudged; this need not import artificiality or fiction; it may simply be the statement of an indisputable conclusion. In Pioneer Urban - 2019 (8) TMI 532 - SUPREME COURT , this Court further extracted extensively from the decision in Hindustan Cooperative Housing Building Society Limited v. Registrar, Cooperative Societies and Anr.: (2009) 14 SCC 302 on various features of the processes of construction of different deeming provisions in different contexts. Some of the relevant parts of such extraction (as occurring in paragraph 95 of Pioneer Urban) read as follows (in SCC at pp. 524): The word deemed is used a great deal in modern legislation. Sometimes it is used to impose for the purposes of a statute an artificial construction of a word or phrase that would not otherwise prevail. Sometimes it is used to put beyond doubt a particular construction that might otherwise be uncertain. Sometimes it is used to give a comprehensive description that includes what is obvious, what is uncertain and what is, in the ordinary sense, impossible. (Per Lord Radcliffe in St. Aubyn v. Attorney General:1952 AC 15 (HL), AC p. 53) 14. Deemed , as used in statutory definitions [is meant] to extend the denotation of the defined term to things it would not in ordinary parlance denote, is often a convenient devise for reducing the verbiage of an enactment, but that does not mean that wherever it is used it has that effect; to deem means simply to judge or reach a conclusion about something, and the words deem and deemed when used in a statute thus simply state the effect or meaning which some matter or thing has - the way in which it is to be adjudged; this need not import artificiality or fiction; it may simply be the statement of an undisputable conclusion. (Per Windener, J. in Hunter Douglas Australia Pty. v. Perma Blinds: (1970) 44 Aust LJ R 257) 15. When a thing is to be deemed something else, it is to be treated as that something else with the attendant consequences, but it is not that something else (per Cave, J., in R. v. Norfolk County Court: (1891) 60 LJ QB 379). When a statute gives a definition and then adds that certain things shall be deemed to be covered by the definition, it matters not whether without that addition the definition would have covered them or not. (Per Lord President Cooper in Ferguson v. McMillan : 1954 SLT 109 (Scot)) 16. Whether the word deemed when used in a statute established a conclusive or a rebuttable presumption depended upon the context (see St. Leon Village Consolidated School District v. Ronceray: (1960) 23 DLR (2d) 32 (Can)). . I regard its primary function as to bring in something which would otherwise be excluded. (Per Viscount Simonds in Barclays Bank Ltd. v. IRC: 1961 AC 509 at AC p. 523.) Deems means is of opinion or considers or decides and there is no implication of steps to be taken before the opinion is formed or the decision is taken. [See R. v. Brixton Prison (Governor), ex p Soblen: (1963) 2 QB 243 at QB p. 315.] PROFESSIONAL FOR JAYPEE INFRATECH LIMITED VERSUS AXIS BANK LIMITED ETC. ETC.- 2020 (2) TMI 1259 - SUPREME COURT The word deemed is used to treat a thing or event as something, which otherwise it may not have been, with all the attendant consequences . [CIT v. Calcutta Stock Exchange,- 1959 (3) TMI 7 - SUPREME COURT]