Gas - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition gas

Definition :

Gas. See the (English) Gasworks Clauses Act, 1847, and other Acts set out in Chitty's Statutes, tit. 'Gas.'

By s. 161 of the (English) Public Health Act, 1875 (see also (English) Road Traffic Act, 1934 (24 & 25 Geo. 5, c. 50), s. 23), any urban authority may contract with any person for the supply of gas or other means of lighting their district, and provide lamps and other materials for such lighting; or where there is not any company or person authorized by Parliament to supply gas, may themselves undertake to supply gas to their district or such part of it as is not within the limits of supply of any such company or person. by s. 162, an urban authority for the purpose of supplying gas to their district may (with the sanction of the Board of Trade) buy, and the directors of any gas company (duly authorized as required by the Act) may sell and transfer their undertaking to such authority, on agreed terms.

Originally gas was supplied to a prescribed illumi-nating standard. Later, when the incandescent mantle came into use and also the use of gas for cooking and heating increased, a prescribed calorific standard superseded the illuminating standard, as the latter had become of subsidiary importance. See gas (English) (Standard of Calorific Power) Act, 1916 (6 & 7 Geo. 5, c. 25). Finally, the thermal system of charge was adopted, see (English) Gas Regulation Act, 1920 (10 & 11 Geo. 5, c. 28). The heat unit of charge is the therm, which is 100,000 British thermal units; a British thermal unit represents the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 lb. Of water through 1'F.; calorific value of gas is defined as the number of British thermal units (gross) produced by the combustion of 1 cubic foot of gas under appropriate conditions; see also Gas Undertakings Act, 1929, 1932, 1934. Consult Michael and Will on Gas and Water.

Gas, the definition of gas as given in section 2(g) of the Gujarat Gas Act wherein 'gas' has been defined as 'a matter of gaseous state which pre-dominantly consist of methane'. It would certainly include natural gas also under Entry 25, List II of Seventh Schedule. The expression therein cannot be compartmentally interpreted. The word 'gas' in the entry will take colour from the other word 'gaswork'. In Ballantine Law Dictionary, 3rd Edn., 1969 'gasworks' is defined as 'a plant for the manufacture of artificial gas'. Similarly in Web-ster's New 20th Century Dictionary, it is defined as 'an establishment in which gas for heating and lighting is manufactured.'

In www.freedictionary.com 'gaswork' is explained as 'a manufactory of gas, with all the machinery and appurtenances; a place where gas is generated' having regard to collocation of words 'gas and gaswork', this entry would mean any work or industry relating to manufactured gas which is often used for industrial medical or other similar purposes. So it is difficult to accept the proposition that 'gas' in entry 25 of List II includes natural gas, which is fundamentally different from manufactured gas and does not cover natural gas within its ambit. Entry 25, List II covers the gas manufactured and used in gasworks, [Constitution of India, Arts. 245 & 246 and Sch. VII, Lists I, II, III]; [See Gujarat Gas (Regulation of Transmission, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2001] [Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th Edn., Vol. 19, p. 589 (1990)]; Association oNatural Gas v. Union of India with Association of Natural Gas Consuming Industries of Gujarat v. Oil and Natural Gas Commission with Ram Lal Maganlal Kapadia v. Oil and Natural Gas Commission, (2004) 4 SCC 489.