Consummation - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition consummation

Definition :

Consummation, of tenancy by the curtesy is when a husband, upon his wife's death, becomes entitled to hold her lands in fee simple or fee tail, of which she was seised during the marriage, for his own life, provided he has had issue by her, capable of inheriting. His estate becomes initiate upon birth of a child.

Consummation, (1) the completion of a thing; (2) the completion of a marriage between wedded persons by cohabitation.

Consummation, defined in Black's Law Dictionary, 6th Edn., 'the completion of a thing; the completion of a marriage by cohabitation between spouses', Babu S/o Raveendran v. Babu S/o Bahuleyan, (2003) 7 SCC 37.

Consumption, means every fact which it is necessary to establish to support a right or obtain a judgment, Sadanandan Bhadran v. Madhavan Sunil Kumar, (1998) 6 SCC 514.

The word consumption in its primary sense means the act of consuming and in ordinary parlance means the use of an article in a way which destroys, wastes or uses up that article. But in some legal contexts, the word 'consumption' has a wider meaning. It is not necessary that by the act of consumption the commodity must be destroyed or used up, Burma Shell Co. v. Belgaum Borough Municipality, AIR 1963 SC 906: 1963 Supp (2) SCR 216. [Bombay Municipal Boroughs Act, (18 of 1925) as Amended by Bom Act, (35 of 1954), s. 73(1)(iv)]

In the absence of any words to limit the connotation of the word 'consumption' to the final act of consumption, it will be proper to think that the Constitution-makers used the word to connote any kind of user which is ordinarily spoken of a consumption of there particular commodity, Anwarkhan Mehboob Co. v. State of Bombay, AIR 1961 SC 213 (217): (1961) 1 SCR 709.

A manufacturer also consumes commodities which are ordinarily called raw materials when he produces semi-finished good which have to undergo further processes of production before they can be transformed into consumers' goods. At every such intermediate stage of production, some utility or value is added to goods which are used as raw materials and at every such stage the raw materials are consumed, State of Karnataka v. B. Raghurama Sheety, (1981) 2 SCC 564: AIR 1981 SC 1206 (1208): (1981) 3 SCR 280. [Kernataka Sales Tax Act (25 of 1957), s. 6(i)]

In its economic sense it just the use which a purchaser chooses to make of the goods for his own purposes. He does not have to destroy them nor does he to diminish their value or utility. A man purchases a valuable piece of sculpture or painting for preservation in a national museum does not destroy it nor does he use it himself for the purposes of presenting it to the museum. But he is a consumer. In the same way, a man who purchases goods for use in his business so that his business can be carried on by the constant feeding of a stream uses the goods and therefore 'consumes' them even though he does not keep them himself, State of Bombay v. United Motors (India) Ltd., AIR 1953 SC 252 (266). [Constitution of India, Art. 286(1) Expl.]

'Consumption' is a word of wide import. It denotes the taking in of something, to convert that something into another, C.S.T v. A.B. Ismail, 1986 Supp SCC 218: AIR 1987 SC 1885 (1987) [Kerala General Sales Tax Act, (15 of 1963), s. 5A]

The word 'consumption' may involve in the narrow sense using the article to such an extent as to reach the stage of its non-existence. But the word 'consumption' in fiscal law has a wider meaning in which any sort of utilization of the commodity would as well amount to consumption of the article, albeit that article retaining (sic retains) its identity even after its use, Union of India v. M. Salgaoncar and Bros (P.) Ltd., (1998) 4 SCC 263 (266): AIR 1998 SC 1367. (Customs Act, 1962, s. 46)