CHAPTER I - PRELIMINARY

THE INDIAN POST OFFICE ACT, 1898

CHAPTER I

PRELIMINARY

1. Short title, extent, application and commencement.-

1. This Act may be called the Indian Post Office Act, 1898.
2. It extends to the whole of India and it applies also to all citizens of India outside India.
3. It shall come into force on the first day of July, 1898.

2. Definitions.- In this Act, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context, -

1. the expression “Director General” means the Director General of Posts and Telegraphs;
2. the expression “inland”, used in relation to a postal article, means—

1. posted in [India] and addressed to any place in [India] or to any place for which a post office is established by the [Central Government] beyond the limits of [India] or
2. posted at any post office established by the [Central Government] beyond the limits of [India] and addressed to any place for which any such post office is established or to any place in [India]:

[Provided that the expression “inland” shall not apply to any class of postal articles which may be specified in this behalf by the [Central Government] by notification in the [Official Gazette], when posted in or at or addressed to any places of post offices which may be described in such notification;]

3. the expression “mail ship” includes a bag, box, parcel or any other envelope or covering in which postal articles in course of transmission by post are conveyed whether It does or does not contain any such article;

4. the expression “mail ship” means a ship employed for carrying mails, pursuant to contract or continuing arrangement, by the Central Government or Her Majesty’s Government or the Government of any British possession or foreign country:

5. the expression “officer of the Post Office” includes any person employed in any business of the Post Office or on behalf of the Post Office.

6. the expression “postage” means the duty chargeable for the transmission by post of postal articles;

7. the expression “postage stamps” means any stamp provided by the [Central Government] for denoting postage or other fees or sums payable in respect of postal articles under this Act, and includes adhesive postage stamps and stamps printed, embossed, impressed or otherwise indicated on any envelope, wrapper, postcard or other article;

8. the expression “post office” includes every house, building, room, carriage or place used for the purposes of the Post Office, and every letter-box provided by the Post Office for the reception of postal articles;

9. the expression “postal article” includes a letter, postcard, newspaper, book, pattern or sample packet, parcel and every article or thing transmissible by post:

10. the expression “Post Master General” includes a Deputy Post Master General or other officer exercising the powers of a Post Master General: and

11. the expression “Post Office” means the department, [established for the purposes of carrying the provisions of this Act into effect and] presided over by the Director General.

3. Meanings of “in course of transmission by post” and “delivery”.- For the purposes of this Act, -

1. a postal article shall be deemed to be in course of transmission by the post from the time of its being delivered to a post office to the time of its being delivered to the addressee or of its being returned to the sender or otherwise disposed of under Chapter VII;

2. the delivery of a postal article of any description to a postman or other person authorized to receive postal articles of that description for the post shall be deemed to be a delivery to a post office; and

3. The delivery of a postal article at the house or office of the addressee, or to the addressee or his servant or agent or other person considered to be authorized to receive the article according to the usual manner of delivering postal articles to the addressee, shall be deemed to be delivery to the addressee.