Information - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition information

Definition :

Information, an accusation, or complaint, also, communicated knowledge.

Information means any material in any form, including records, documents, memos, e-mails, opinions, advices, press-releases, circulars, orders, logbooks, contracts, reports, papers, samples, models, data material held in any electronic form and information relating to any private body which can be accessed by a public authority under any other law for the time being in force. [Right to Information Act, 2005, s. 2(f)]

Information in chancery. Where a suit was instituted on behalf of the Crown or Government, or of those of whom it had the custody by virtue of its prerogative (such as idiots and lunatics), or whose rights are under its particular protection (such as the objects of a public charity), the matter of complaint was offered to the Court by way of information by the Attorney or Solicitor-General, and not by way of petition. When a suit immediately concerned the crown or government alone, the proceeding was purely by way of infor-mation, but where it did not do so immediately, a 'relator' was appointed who was answerable for costs, etc.; and if he were interested in the matter in connection with the crown or government, the proceeding was then by information and bill. Information differed from bills in little more than name and form; and the same rules were substantially applicable to each, Story's Eq. Plead. The procedure is now by ordinary action in the High Court; see (English) R.S.C. 1883, Ord. I., r. 1; but the term 'information' is still used to designate an action by the Attorney-General in his official capacity.

A crown information (which was formerly filed in the Court of Exchequer, but is now instituted on the Revenue side of the King's Bench Division) is a suit for recovering money or other chattels, or for ob-taining satisfaction, in damages, for any personal wrong committed in the lands or other possessions of the Crown. It is instituted to redress private wrongs, while criminal information are resorted to punish public wrongs, or heinous misdemeanors. See EX OFFICIO INFORMATIONS; and (English) Crown Suits Act, 1865 (28 & 29 Vict. c. 104). The most usual information are, in cases of intrusion, for trespasses on Crown lands; debt, for Crown moneys due upon breaches of penal statutes; and in rem, when any goods are supposed to become they property of the Crown, no one claiming them, as treasure-trove, wrecks, waifs, and estrays.

See (English) R.S.C. 1883, Ord. LXVIII., r. 2, and consult Robertson on the Crown.

Information and complaint for an indictable offence has to be sworn before a justice of the peace: (Eng-lish) Indictable Offences Act, 1848 (11 & 12 Vict. c. 42), s. 1 (where it is termed 'charge or complaint'), and Schd. A (where it is termed 'information and complaint'), Chitty's Statutes, tit. 'Criminal Law.'

Informations before a justice of the peace against a person alleged to have committed an offence punishable on summary conviction must be laid within six months, and need not be in writing or on oath unless some Act of Parliament (i.e., the Act under which the particular offence is punishable) otherwise require, and must be for one offence only, and not for two or more offences, (English) Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1848 (11 & 12 Vict. c. 43), ss. 1, 10, 11; s. 11 is extended as to the time within which proceedings under (English) Road and Rail Traffic Act, 1933 (23 & 24 Geo. 5, c. 53), s. 112, may be brought by the Road Traffic Act, 1934 (24 & 25 Geo. 5, c. 50), s. 33 (1), Chitty's Statutes, tit. 'Justices.'

As to criminal, English, and Latin information, see those titles; also QUO WARRANTO; NUISANCE.

Includes data, text, images, sound, voice, codes, computer programmes, software and data bases or micro film or computer generated micro fiche. [Information Technology Act, 2000, s. 2 (1) (v)]

The word 'information' in s. 34(1)(b) of the Income Tax Act, 1922 includes information as to the true and correct state of the law and so would cover information as to relevant judicial decisions, Maharaj Kumar Kamal Singh v. Commissioner of Income Tax, AIR 1959 SC 257: (1959) Supp 1 SCR 10. [Income Tax Act, 1922, s. 34]

Information may come from external sources or even from materials already on the record or may be derived from the discovery of new and important matter or fresh facts. The word 'information' will also include true and correct state of the law derived from relevant judicial decisions either of the income-tax authorities or other courts of law which decide income-tax matter. Whether the ground on which the original assessment is based is held to be erroneous by a superior court in some other case, that will also amount to a fresh infor-mation which comes into existence subsequent to the original assessment, Kalyanji Mavji & Co. v. CIT, AIR 1976 SC 203: (1976) 1 SCC 985: (1976) 2 SCR 966.

The 'information' may be of facts or of law. The 'information' of a fact may be from external source, R.K. Malhotra v. Kasturbhai Lalbhai (HUF), AIR 1977 SC 2129 (1231): (1977) 3 SCC 519: (1978) 1 SCR 289. [Income Tax Act, 1961, s. 147(b)]

Information means instruction or knowledge concerning facts or particulars, there is little difficulty, but when s. 147(b) is read as referring to 'information' as to law, what is contemplated is information as to the law created by a formal source, that is, from a competent legislature or from a competent judicial or quasi-judicial authority, which influences the course of the assessment and decides any one or more of those matters which determine the assessee's tax liability, Indian & Eastern Newspapers Society v. Commissioner of Income Tax, AIR 1979 SC 1960 (1963): (1979) 4 SCC 248: (1980) 1 SCR 442. [Income Tax Act, 1961, s. 147 (b)]

The word 'information' occurring in s. 20 is not to be understood in the sense that the parties desired to know something which none of them had any knowledge of. Where there is a dispute as regards a certain question and the Court is in need of information regarding the truth on that point, any statement which the referee may make is nevertheless information within the purview of s. 20, Hirachand Kothari v. State of Rajasthan, AIR 1985 SC 998 (1001): (1985) Supp SCC 17. [Evidence Act, 1872, s. 20]

The expression 'information' in the context in which it occurs must, mean instruction or knowledge derived from an external source concerning facts or particulars, or as to law relating to a matter bearing on the assessment, CIT v. A. Raman, AIR 1968 SC 49 (51): (1968) 1 SCR 10. [Income-tax Act, 1961, s. 147(1) (b)]

Information means any material in any form relat-ing to the administration, operations or decisions of a public authority. [Freedom of Information Act, 2002 (5 of 2003), s. 2(d)]

Means a formal criminal charge made by a prosecutor without a grand-jury indictment. The information is used to prosecute misdemeanors in most states. About half the States allow its use in felony prosecutions as well, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 783.