Section 3

Interpretation of certain words and expressions

of Interpretation Ordinance, 2005, 2005

State OrdinanceIn forceProvision 3 of 47

—

(1)

The following words and expressions shall have the meanings respectively assigned to them:

“act”, used with reference to an offence or civil wrong, includes a series of acts, and words which refer to acts done extend to omissions;

“Administrative Appeals Rules” means the rules having effect under section 55;

“affray” means a disturbance of the public peace resulting from two or more persons fighting in a public place;

“amend” includes repeal, add to or vary and the doing of all or two or more of those things simultaneously or by the same instrument;

“commencement”, used with reference to any written law, means the date upon which that written law comes into operation;

“common law” means the common law of England applicable to Sarawak by virtue of the Civil Law Act 1956 [Act 67];

“Commonwealth” means collectively the Commonwealth countries, any part of Her Britannic Majesty’s dominions not being a Commonwealth country, and territory under the protection of a Commonwealth country and any territory administered by the government of a Commonwealth country under the trusteeship system of the United Nations;

“Commonwealth country” has the meaning assigned to it in the Federal Constitution;

“consular officer” means a consul-general, consul, vice-consul, consular agent, and any person authorized to discharge the duties of consul-general, consul, vice-consul or consular agent;

“contravene”, in relation to any requirement or condition prescribed in any written law, or in any permit, licence or authority granted under any written law, includes a failure to comply with that requirement or condition;

“Court of Appeal” means the Court of Appeal established by

Article 121(1B) of the Federal Constitution;

“Crown Agents” means the person acting in England as the

Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations, or any of them;

“definition” means the interpretation given by any written law to words or expressions;

“dependant Commonwealth territory” means any territory for the international relations of which any Member of the

Commonwealth is responsible;

“Dewan Undangan Negeri” means the Legislature of the

State of Sarawak established by Article 13 of the State

Constitution;

“District Officer” or “Officer-in-Charge of a District” means an officer appointed to be District Officer, and includes an officer temporarily discharging the duties of a District Officer;

“enactment” means any provision, made by competent authority in the United Kingdom prior to Malaysia Day, or

Sarawak, having the force of law in Sarawak;

“export” means to take or cause to be taken out of Sarawak;

“Federal Court” means the Federal Court, formerly known as the Supreme Court, established by Article 121(2) of the Federal

Constitution;

“Federation”, when used in relation to a time on or after

Malaysia Day, means Malaysia or the Federation of Malaysia;

“financial year” means the twelve months ending on the 31st

December in any year;

“Gazette” or “Government Gazette” means the Gazette published in electronic or other form by the order of the

Government under the Written Law (Simplified Publication)

Ordinance [Cap. 35], and includes Parts of it, any Supplement to it or Extraordinary Gazette so published;

[Am. Cap. A139.]

“Government”

“State

Government”

means the

Government of the State of Sarawak;

“Government Printer” means any printer authorized by the

Majlis Mesyuarat Kerajaan Negeri by notification in the Gazette, to print Ordinances, subsidiary legislation, official publications, notifications and other official documents of the Government;

“High Court” means the High Court in Sabah and Sarawak, formerly known as the High Court in Borneo, established by

Article 121(1)(b) of the Federal Constitution;

“immovable property” includes land, benefits to arise out of land, and things attached to the earth or permanently fastened to anything attached to the earth, but does not include minerals;

“import” means to bring or cause to be brought into Sarawak by land, sea or air;

“instrument” includes any publication in the Gazette, whether or not that publication merely purports to publish the doing of an act or the occurrence of a fact or event, or otherwise conveys or purports to convey information;

“Judge” means a Judge of the High Court in Sabah and

Sarawak, and includes the Chief Judge of that Court and, where applicable, also includes any Judge of the Court of Appeal or the

Federal Court;

“land” includes land covered by water and all buildings and things attached to the land;

“legally qualified medical practitioner” or “duly qualified medical practitioner”, or any words importing that a person is recognized by any written law to be a medical practitioner or a member of the medical profession, means a person registered under the Medical Act 1971 [Act 50];

“Magistrate” means a person appointed to be a magistrate under the Subordinate Courts Act 1948 [Act 92];

“Majlis Mesyuarat Kerajaan Negeri” means the body constituted under Article 6(1) of the State Constitution to advise the Yang di-Pertua Negeri in the exercise of his functions;

“Malaysia Day” means 16th September, 1963;

“man” means a male human being of any age;

“Member of the

Commonwealth”

means any

Commonwealth Country;

“Minister” means the Chief Minister or any other member of the Majlis Mesyuarat Kerajaan Negeri to whom responsibility for the matter in question has been assigned;

“month” means calendar month according to the Gregorian calendar;

“movable property” means property of every description except immovable property;

“native” means a citizen of Malaysia of any race which is now considered to be indigenous to Sarawak as set out in the

Schedule;

“notice” and “notification” have the like meaning;

“oath”,

“swear”

“affidavit”

includes affirmation, declaration, affirming and declaring in the case of persons allowed by law to affirm or declare instead of swearing;

“offence” means any act or omission punishable under any written law in force;

“Order”, in respect of legislation prior to the first day of

July, 1946, means a law enacted by His Highness the Rajah, or enacted by His Highness the Tuan Muda with the authority of His

Highness the Rajah, or enacted by the Officer Administering the

Government by and with the advice of the Committee of

Administration, or enacted by his Highness the Rajah with the advice and consent of the former Council Negri;

“Order in Council” means an Order made by Her Britannic

Majesty in Her Privy Council;

“Ordinance” means a law enacted by the Legislature of

Sarawak, and includes an Order where it was enacted prior to the first day of July, 1946;

“or”, “other” or “otherwise” shall be construed disjunctively and not as implying similarity, unless the word “similar” or some other word of like meaning is added;

“Parliament” means the Federal Parliament or the Parliament of Malaysia; and, prior to Malaysia Day, meant Parliament of the

United Kingdom or “Imperial Parliament”;

“person” or “party” includes any company or association or body of persons, corporate or unincorporate, and this interpretation shall apply notwithstanding that the word “person”

occurs in a provision creating or relating to an offence or for the recovery of any fine or compensation;

“power” includes privilege, authority and discretion;

“prescribed” or “provided”, when used with reference to any written law, means prescribed or provided by or under such written law, or by or under its subsidiary legislation or its instrument;

“prison” includes any place or building or portion of a building set apart for the purpose of a prison under the Prison Act 1995 [Act 537];

“probate officer” means any person vested with authority under any written law to grant letters of administration or probate or to authenticate any similar instrument issued by a competent authority outside Sarawak for the administration of the affairs of the estate of a deceased person;

“property” includes—

(a)

money, goods, choses in action, land and every description of property, whether real or personal; and

(b)

obligations, easements and every description of estate, interest and profit, present or future, vested or contingent, arising out of or incident to property as defined in paragraph (a);

“public” includes any class of the public or any community;

“public body” means any executive, legislative or municipal council, any Government department or undertaking, any local or public authority or undertaking, any board, commission, committee or other body, whether paid or unpaid, which is vested with or is performing, whether permanently or temporarily, duties of a public nature;

“public nuisance” means any act which causes any common injury, danger or annoyance to the public, or to the people in general who dwell or occupy property in the neighbourhood, or which must necessarily cause injury, obstruction, danger or annoyance to persons who may have occasion to use any public right, whether or not that act causes some convenience or advantage;

“public office” means any office or employment the holding or discharging of which by a person would constitute him a public officer;

“public officer” or “public servant” means any person holding any appointment or discharging the duties of any office the emoluments of which are wholly or in part derived from the revenues of Sarawak and any employee or member of a public body, whether temporary or permanent and whether paid or unpaid;

“public place” includes every public highway, street, road, square, court, alley, lane, bridleway, footway, parade, wharf, jetty, quay, bridge, public garden or open space, and every theatre, place of public entertainment of any kind, or other place of general resort, admission to which is obtained by payment, or to which the public have access;

“Public Seal” means the Public Seal of the State of Sarawak;

“registered”, used with reference to a document, means registered under the written law applicable to the registration of that document;

“Registrar of the High Court” means the Registrar appointed under section 10 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964 [Act 91], and includes a Deputy or Assistant Registrar;

“regulations” includes rules, rules of court and bylaws;

“repeal” includes rescind, revoke, cancel or replace;

“Resident” means the officer-in-charge of the administrative area known as a Division but, in any place in which no Resident exercises jurisdiction, includes an officer authorized by the State

Secretary to discharge the functions of Resident in that place;

“rules of court” means, when used in relation to any court, rules made by the authority having power to make rules and orders regulating the practice and procedure of that court;

“Sarawak” means the State of Sarawak, and includes

Sarawak waters;

“Sarawak waters” or “waters of the State” means all waters whether navigable or not included within Sarawak and shall be deemed to include territorial waters;

“sell” includes exchange and barter;

“sign” includes in the case of a person unable to write the making of a mark or the affixing of his thumbprint, and a digital signature as described in the Digital Signature Act 1997 [Act 562];

“State” means the State of Sarawak;

“State Constitution” means the Constitution of the State of

Sarawak as contained in Schedule 2 of the Sabah, Sarawak and

Singapore (State Constitutions) Order in Council 1963 [S.I. No.

1493 of 1963] and published as Gazette Notification No. G.N.S.

163 in Part II of the Sarawak Government Gazette dated 6th

September, 1963;

“State river” means any river within the territory of the State from its mouth, to be delineated by a line drawn across the river joining the coastlines on both sides thereof, up to its source, and includes the waters in the river and its banks, and any of its tributaries, and any creek, stream and watercourse within the

State;

“State Secretary” means a person appointed under Article 11

of the Constitution of the State to hold that office, and includes any person temporarily discharging the duties of the office of

State Secretary;

“statutory declaration”, if made—

(a)

in Malaysia, means a declaration under the

Statutory Declarations Act 1960 [Act 13];

(b)

in any part of the Commonwealth outside

Malaysia, means a declaration made before a justice of the peace, notary public or other person having authority on it under any legal provision for the time being in force in that part to take or receive a declaration; and

(c)

in any other place outside Malaysia, means a declaration before a Consular Officer of the Government of Malaysia or the United Kingdom or person having authority under any law for the time being in force to take or receive a declaration;

“street” or “road” includes any highway, street, road, bridge, thoroughfare, parade, square, court, alley, lane, bridleway, footway, passage, or open place whether situate on land leased from the State or not, used or frequented by the public, or to which the public have, or are permitted to have, access;

“subsidiary legislation” means any regulation, order,

Proclamation, or other instrument made under any written law and having legislative effect;

“territorial waters” means such part of the sea adjacent to the coast of Sarawak as is deemed by international law to constitute the territorial waters of Sarawak;

“territory of the State” means all areas within the boundaries of the State which comprised the territory of Sarawak immediately before Malaysia Day, and includes, by virtue of the

Sarawak (Alteration of Boundaries) Order in Council, 1954 [Vol.

VI, p. 1025], the continental shelf being the seabed and its subsoil which lies beneath the high seas contiguous to the territorial waters of Sarawak;

“treaty” means a treaty, convention or agreement made with a foreign state, together with protocols or declarations attached to it, or independent of it but referring to it;

“trust territory” means a territory administered by the

Government of any part of the Commonwealth under the trusteeship system of the United Nations;

“United Kingdom” means Great Britain and Northern

Ireland;

“will” includes any testamentary instrument;

“woman” means a female human being of any age;

“words” includes figures and symbols;

“writing” or “printing” includes typewriting, lithography, photography and every other mode of representing words or figures in a visible form, electronic storage or transmission or any other method of recording information or fixing information in a form capable of being preserved; but, in the case of a book,

“printing” does not include writing or typing; nothing in this definition shall be taken to apply to signatures;

“written law” includes—

(a)

the Constitution of the State of Sarawak and its subsidiary legislation;

(b)

all Ordinances enacted by the Legislature of

Sarawak and their subsidiary legislation having legislative effect;

(c)

Acts of Parliament of Malaysia and their subsidiary legislation which are in force in the State; and

(d)

any other legislative enactments or legislative instruments (including Acts of Parliament of the United

Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Orders in Council and their other subsidiary legislation) which are applicable to Sarawak;

“Yang di-Pertua Negeri” means the Yang di-Pertua Negeri of the State of Sarawak appointed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong under Article 1(1) of the State Constitution and shall, in the exercise of his functions, act in accordance with the advice of the

Majlis Mesyuarat Kerajaan Negeri or of a member of it acting under the general authority of the Majlis, except as otherwise provided by the Federal Constitution or by the State Constitution, and includes any person appointed under Article 1(3) of the State

Constitution to exercise temporarily the functions of the Yang di-Pertua Negeri;

“year” means a year according to the Gregorian calendar;

“years of age” or words of a like meaning, when used in reference to the age of any person, means years according to

English reckoning.

Definition

(2)

Whenever a definition has been given by this or any other written law to words or expressions, that definition and all grammatical variations and cognate expressions shall, unless there is something in the subject or context inconsistent with that construction, have the meaning assigned to it whenever it is used in that written law or in any of its subsidiary legislation.

Reference to Government property

(3)

Whenever any reference is made in any written law to property and the expressions used in relation to it imply that that property is owned by, or belongs to, the Government, or convey a similar meaning, that reference shall be deemed to refer to such of the property of the Government of the description mentioned as has by or with the consent of Yang di-Pertua Negeri, express or implied, been appropriated to the use of the Government.

Provisions for gender and number

(4)

(a)

Words importing the masculine gender include females.

(b)

Words in the singular include the plural and vice versa.

Meaning of service by post

(5)

Where any written law authorizes or requires any document to be served by post, whether the expression “serve”,

“give”, “send” or any other expression is used the service shall be deemed to be effected by properly addressing, preparing and posting a letter containing the document and, unless the contrary is proved, to have been effected at the time at which the letter would be delivered in the ordinary course of post.

Reference to time

(6)

(a)

Whenever any expression of time occurs in any written law or instrument, the time referred to shall be held to be standard time.

Reference to a.m. and p.m.

(b)

The expression “a.m.” indicates the period between midnight and the following noon; and the expression “p.m.” indicates the period between noon and the following midnight and where two such expressions occur conjunctively in relation to any specified hours, or in conjunction with the words “sunset” or “sunrise”, they shall be construed as relating to a consecutive period of time.

The Sovereign

(7)

Reference to the Sovereign or to the Crown in respect of time prior to Malaysia Day, shall be construed as a reference to the

Sovereign for the time being; and the expression “Her Majesty” or

“His Majesty” shall be construed as a reference to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom.

Straits Settlements

(8)

Reference to the Straits Settlements shall be construed as a reference to Singapore.

Federated Malay States, Malaya or Federation

(9)

(a)

Reference to the Federated Malay States or to Malaya or to the Federation in respect of time prior to Malaysia Day shall be construed as a reference to the Federation of Malaya.

(b)

Reference to the Federation in respect of a time on or after

Malaysia Day shall be construed as a reference to Malaysia.

Restyling of designation of public office or officer

(10)

Whenever the Yang di-Pertua Negeri, by notification signified in the Gazette, directs that the style of any public office of the State, or of one or more State officers holding the same public office, be changed, a reference to that office, officer or officers in any written law or instrument shall be construed as a reference to that office, officer or officers as so restyled.

Public officers

(11)

Where a reference is made in any written law to any public officer by the term designating his office, the term shall include the officer executing the duties of the office, or any part of those duties.

Expression denoting distance

(12)

Any word or expression denoting distance shall denote distance measured in a straight line on a horizontal plane.

Computation of time

(13)

In computing time for the purposes of any enactment—

(a)

a period of days from the happening of an event or the doing of any act or thing shall be deemed to be exclusive of the day on which the event happens or the act or thing is done;

(b)

if the last day of the period is a Sunday or a public holiday (which days are in this subsection referred to as excluded days), the period shall include the next following day, not being an excluded day;

(c)

where any act or proceeding is directed or allowed to be done or taken on a certain day, then, if that day happens to be an excluded day, the act of proceeding shall be considered as done or taken in due time if it is done or taken on the next day afterwards, not being an excluded day; and

(d)

where any act or proceeding is directed or allowed to be done or taken within any time not exceeding six days, excluded days shall not be reckoned in the computation of time.

Provision where no time prescribed

(14)

A prescribed act or thing shall, if no time is prescribed, be done with all convenient speed and as often as the prescribed occasion arises.

Written law, when binding on the Government

(15)

No written law shall be binding on the Government unless it appears expressly or by necessary implication that the Government shall be bound by it.

Reference to enactment or Ordinance in any written law

(16)

A reference in any written law to any enactment or

Ordinance shall be deemed to include reference to any subsidiary legislation made under the enactment or Ordinance, as the case may be, to which such reference is made.

[Sub. Cap. A139.]

Forms

(17)

Whenever forms are prescribed under any written law slight deviations from them, not affecting the substance and not calculated to mislead, shall not invalidate them.

Exercise of powers in special cases

(18)

Where any power or duty is by or under any written law vested in the holder of any public office and either—

(a)

that office has been abolished; or

(b)

no person has been appointed to discharge the functions of that office, those powers and duties may be discharged—

(i)

in the case of making subsidiary legislation, by the

Majlis Mesyuarat Kerajaan Negeri; and

(ii)

in any other case, by the holder of such other public office as the Yang di-Pertua Negeri may by order direct.

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