This Act may be cited as The General Clauses' Act, 1868.

In this Act and in an Acts made by the Governor General of India in Council after this Act shall have come into operation, unless there be something repugnant in the subject or context,

(1.) Gender. Words importing the masculine gender shall he taken to include females;

(2.) Number. Words in the singular shall include the plural, and vice versd;

(3.) Person, Person shall include any company, or association, or body of individuals whether incorporated or not;

(4.) Year and month. Year and month shall respectively mean a year and month reckoned according to the British calendar;

(5.) Immoveable property. Immoveable property shall include land, benefits to arise out of land, and things attached to the earth, or permanently fastened to anything attached to the earth;

(6.) Moveable property. Moveable property shall mean property of every description, except immoveable property;

(7.) Her Majesty. Her Majesty shall include Her heirs and successors to the Crown;

(8.) British India. British India shall mean the territories for the time being vested in Her Majesty by the Statute 21 & 22 Vic., cap. 106 (An Act for the better government of India), other than the Settlement of Prince of Wales' Island, Singapore and Malacca;

(9.) Government of India. Government of India shall denote the Governor General of India in Council, or, during the absence of the Governor General of India from his Council, the President in Council, or the Governor General of India alone, as regards the powers which may he lawfully exercised by them or him respectively;

(10.) Local Government. Local Government shall mean the person authorized by law to administer executive government in the part of British India in which the Act containing such expression shall operate, and shall include a Chief Commissioner;

(11.) High Court. High Court shall mean Court of appeal in such part;

(12.) District Judge. District Judge shall mean the Judge of a principal Civil Court of original jurisdiction; but shall not include a High Court in the exercise of its ordinary or extraordinary original civil jurisdiction;

(13.) Magistrate. Magistrate shall include all persons exercising all or any of the powers of a Magistrate under the Code of Criminal Procedure;

(14.) Barrister. Barrister shall mean a barrister of England or Ireland, or a member of the Faculty of Advocates in Scotland;

(15.) Section. Section shall denote a section of the Act in which the word occurs;

(16.) Will. Will shall include a codicil and every writing making a voluntary posthumous distribution of property;

(17.) Oath swear and affidavit . Oath, swear and affidavit shall include affirmation, declaration, affirming and declaring in the case of persons by law allowed to affirm or declare instead of swearing;

(18.) Imprisonment. Imprisonment shall mean imprisonment of either description as defined in the Indian Penal Code;

(19.) Son. Father. And in the case of any one whose personal law permits adoption, son shall include an adopted son, and father an adoptive father.

3. In all Acts made by the Governor General of India in Council after this Act shall have come into operation:

(1.) Revival of repealed enactments. For the purpose of reviving, either wholly or partially, a Statute, Act or Regulation repealed, it shall he necessary expressly to state such purpose;

(2.) Commencement of time. For the purpose of excluding the first in a series of days or any other period of time, it shall be sufficient to use the word from;

(3.) Termination of time. For the purpose of including the last, in a series of days or any other period of time, it shall be sufficient to use the word to ;

(4.) Official chiefs and subordinates. For the purpose of expressing that a law relative to the chief or superior of an office, shall apply to the deputies or subordinates lawfully executing the duties of such office in the place of their superior, it shall be sufficient to prescribe the duty of the superior;

(5.) Successors. For the purpose of indicating the relation of a law to the successors of any functionaries, or of corporations having perpetual succession, it shall be sufficient to express its relation to the functionaries or corporations; and

(6.)Substitution of functionaries. For the purpose of indicating the application of a law to every person or number of persons for the time being executing the functions of an office, it shall be sufficient to mention the official title of the officer at present executing such functions, or that of the officer by whom the functions are commonly executed.

4. Duty may be taken pro rata. Whenever by any Act or Regulation now in force or hereafter to he in force, any duty of customs or excise or in the nature thereof is leviable on any given quantity, by weight, measure or value, of any goods or merchandize, a like duty shall be leviable according to the same rate on any greater or less quantity.

The provisions of sections sixty-three to seventy, both inclusive, of the Indian Penal Code, and of section sixty-one of the Code of Criminal Procedure, shall apply to all fines imposed under the authority of any Act hereafter to no passed, unless such Act shall contain an express provision to the contrary.

The repeal of any Statute, Act or Regulation, shall not affect anything done or any offence committed, or any fine or penalty incurred, or any proceedings commenced before the repealing Act shall have come into operation.

All Courts of Justice, whether; exercising civil or any other jurisdiction, and all persons having by law or consent of parties authority to receive evidence, shall take judicial notice of all Acts and Regulations heretofore made, or hereafter to he made, by the Governor General of India in Council, the Governor of Madras in Council, the Governor of Bombay in Council and the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal in Council, or by the like authority in other parts of British India, whether the same be of a public or of a private nature.

Any recital contained in any Act of the Governor General of India in Council heretofore made or hereafter to he made, shall he deemed by all such Courts and persons to he prim facie evidence of the truth of the fact recited.