Word `Due' - Indian Laws - General

Meaning of the word `due The meaning of the word `due has been explained in Webster Comprehensive Dictionary , (International Edition) as follows : 1. Owing and demandable; owed; especially, payable because of the arrival of the time set or agreed upon. 2. That should be rendered or given; justly claimable; appropriate. Concise Oxford English Dictionary (10th Edition, Revised) explains `due as follows : DUE 7..................(of a person) at a point where something is owed or merited. required as a legal or moral obligation. 2 proper; appropriate................................. ORIGIN ME from OFr. deu `owed , based on L. debitus `owed , from debere `owe In Black s Law Dictionary (Eighth Edition), the word `due is explained : adj. 1. Just, proper, regular, and reasonable . 2. Immediately enforceable . 3. Owing or payable; constituting a debt..... Wharton s Law Lexicon (Fourteenth Edition) makes the following comment with regard to word `due ; anything owing. That which one contracts to pay or perform to another; that which law or justice requires to be paid or done. P. Ramanatha Aiyar in ` Law Lexicon ; 2nd Edition (Reprint 1997) explains the word `due ; as- a noun an existing obligation; an indebtedness; a simple indebtedness without reference to the time of payment a debt ascertained and fixed though payable in future; as an adjective capable of being justly demanded; claimed as of right; owing and unpaid, remaining unpaid; payable; regular; formal; according to rule or form. Jowitt s Dictionary of English Law ; 2nd Edition (Vol. 1) defines `due ; `anything owing, that which one contracts to pay or perform to another. As applied to a sum of money, `due means either that it is owing or that it is payable; in other words, it may mean that the debt is payable at once or at a future time. It is a question of construction which of these two meanings the word `due bears in a given case . In Irish Land Commission v. Viscount Massereene and Ferrard8, Gibson J. stated that word `due may mean immediately payable (its common signification), or a debt contracted, but payable in future. It was also highlighted that the interpretation of the word `due must be according to the reason and context of the statute. In the case of Hibernian Bank v. Yourell (1904) 2 I.R. 1113, O Connor M.R. construed the word `due in Section 24(8) of the Conveyancing and Law of Property Act, 1881 as due and legally recoverable. The expression `amount due occurring in different statutes has come up for consideration before this Court. In Madan Mohan and Another v. Krishan Kumar Sood (1919) 1 I.R. Ch. D. 310 this Court while dealing with the expression `amount due occurring in the third proviso to clause (i) of sub-section (2) of Section 14 of H.P. Urban Rent Control Act, 1987, held that the expression `amount due in the context will mean the amount due on and up to the date of the order of eviction; it will take into account not merely the arrears of rent which gave cause of action to file a petition for eviction but will include the rent which accumulated during the pendency of the eviction petition as well. A three-Judge Bench of this Court in V.R. Kalliyanikutty- 1999 (4) TMI 609 - SUPREME COURT , had an occasion to interpret the words `amounts due used in Section 71 of Kerala Revenue Recovery Act, 1968. Section 71 of Kerala Act provided thus ;S.71.- Power of Government to declare the Act applicable to any institution.--The Government may, by notification in the Gazette, declare, if they are satisfied that it is necessary to do so in public interest, that the provisions of this Act shall be applicable to the recovery of amounts due from any person or class of persons to any specified institution or any class or classes of institutions, and thereupon all the provisions of this Act shall be applicable to such recovery. ; After referring to Wharton in Law Lexicon and Black s Law Dictionary , it was held that the words `amounts due in Section 71 did not include time barred debt. This Court, however, highlighted that in every case the exact meaning of the word `due will depend upon the context in which the word appears. Reference - M/S MODERN INDUSTRIES VERSUS M/S STEEL AUTH. OF INDIA- 2010 (4) TMI 903 - SUPREME COURT