law: Indian Stamp Act, 1899 
  2. Definitions 
  In this Act, unless there is something repugnant in the subject
  
  or context,- 
  (1) "Banker" includes a bank and any person acting as
  
  a banker;
  (2) "Bill of exchange" means a bill of exchange as defined
  
  by the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, and includes also a hundi, and any
  
  other document entitling or purporting to entitle any other person of, or to
  
  draw upon any other person for, any sum of money;
  (3) "Bill of exchange payable on demand" includes- 
  (a) an order for the payment of any sum of
  
  money by a bill of exchange or promissory note, or for the delivery of any bill
  
  of exchange or promissory note in satisfaction of any sum of money, or for the
  
  payment of any sum of money out of any particular fund which may or may not be
  
  available, or upon any condition or contingency which may or may not be
  
  performed or happen;
  (b) an order for the payment of any sum of
  
  money weekly, monthly, or at any other stated period; and
  (c) a letter of credit, that is to say, any
  
  instrument by which one person authorizes another to give credit to the person
  
  in whose favor it is drawn;
  (4) "Bill of lading" includes a "through bill
  
  lading", but does not include a mate's receipt;
  (5) "Bond" includes- 
  (a) any instrument whereby a person obliges
  
  himself to pay money to another, on condition that the obligation shall be void
  
  if a specified act is performed, or is not performed, as the case may be;
  (b) any instrument attested by a witness and
  
  not payable to order or bearer, whereby a person obliges himself to pay money
  
  to another; and
  (c) any instrument so attested, whereby a
  
  person obliges himself to deliver grain or other agricultural produce to
  
  another.
  (6) "Chargeable" means, as applied to an instrument
  
  executed or first executed after the commencement of this Act, chargeable under
  
  this Act, and, as applied to any other instrument, chargeable under the law in
  
  force in 3[India] when such instrument was executed or, where
  
  several persons executed the instrument at different times, first executed;
  (7) "Cheque" means a bill of exchange, drawn on a
  
  specified banker and not expressed to be payable otherwise than on demand;
  (8) 4[* * *]
  (9) "Collector"- 
  (a) means, within the limits of the towns of
  
  Calcutta, Madras and Bombay, the Collector of Calcutta, Madras and Bombay,
  
  respectively and, without those limits, the Collector of a district, and
  (b) includes a Deputy Commissioner and any
  
  officer whom 5[the 6[State Government]] may, by
  
  notification in the Official Gazette, appoint in this behalf;
  (10) "Conveyance" includes a conveyance on sale and
  
  every instrument by which property, whether movable or immovable, is
  
  transferred inter vivos and which is not otherwise specifically provided for by
  
  Schedule I;
  (11) "Duly stamped", as applied to an instrument,
  
  means that the instrument bears an adhesive or impressed stamp of not less than
  
  the proper amount and that such stamp has been affixed or used in accordance
  
  with law for time being in force in 3[India];
  (12) "Executed" and "execution", used with
  
  reference to instruments, mean "signed" and "signature";
   7  [* * *]
  (13) "Impressed stamp" includes- 
  (a) labels affixed and impressed by the proper
  
  officer, and
  (b) stamps embossed or engraved on stamped
  
  paper;
   8  [(13A) "India" means the territory of India
  
  excluding the State of Jammu and Kashmir];
  (14) "Instrument" includes every document by which any
  
  right or liability is, or purports to be, created, transferred, limited,
  
  extended, extinguished or recorded;
  (15) "Instrument of partition" means any instrument
  
  whereby co-owners of any property divide or agree to divide such property in
  
  severalty, and includes also a final order for effecting a partition passed by
  
  any revenue-authority or any civil court and an award by an arbitrator
  
  directing a partition;
  (16) "Lease" means a lease of immovable property, and
  
  includes also- 
  (a) a patta;
  (b) a kabuliyat or other undertaking in
  
  writing, not being a counterpart of a lease, to cultivate, occupy, or pay or deliver
  
  or pay or deliver rent for, immovable property;
  (c) any instrument by which tolls of any
  
  description are let;
  (d) any writing on an application for a lease
  
  intended to signify that the application is granted;
   9  [(16A) "Marketable security" means a security of
  
  such a description as to be capable of being sold in any stock market in 3[India]
  
  or in the United Kingdom;]
  (17) "Mortgage-deed" includes every instrument
  
  whereby, for the purpose of securing money advanced, or to be advanced, by way
  
  of loan, or an existing or future debt, or the performance of an engagement,
  
  one person transfers, or creates, to, or in favor of, another, a right over or
  
  in respect of specified property;
  (18) "Paper" includes vellum, parchment or any other
  
  material on which an instrument may be written;
  (19) "Policy of insurance" includes- 
  (a) any instrument by which one person, in
  
  consideration of a premium, engages to indemnify another against loss, damage
  
  or liability arising from an unknown or contingent event;
  (b) a life-policy, and any policy insuring any
  
  person against accident or sickness, and any other personal insurance;
   10  [* * *]
   8  [(19A) "Policy of group insurance" means any
  
  instrument covering not less than fifty or such smaller number as the Central
  
  Government may approve, either generally or with reference to any particular
  
  case, by which an insurer, in consideration of a premium paid by an employer or
  
  by an employer and his employees, jointly, engages to cover, with or without
  
  medical examination and for the sole benefit of persons other than the
  
  employer, the lives of all the employees or of any class of them, determined by
  
  conditions pertaining to the employment, for amounts of insurance based upon a
  
  plan which precludes individual selection;]
  (20) "Policy of sea-insurance" or
  
  "sea-policy"- 
  (a) means any insurance made upon any ship or
  
  vessel (whether for marine or inland navigation), or upon the machinery, tackle
  
  or furniture of any ship or vessel, or upon any goods, merchandise or property
  
  of any description whatever on board of any ship or vessel, or upon the freight
  
  of, or any other interest which may be lawfully insured in, or relating to, any
  
  ship or vessel, and
  (b) includes any insurance of goods,
  
  merchandise or property for any transit which includes, not a sea risk within
  
  the meaning of clause (a), but also any other risk incidental to the transit
  
  insured from the commencement of the transit to the ultimate destination
  
  covered by the insurance.
  Where any person, in consideration of any sum of money paid or
  
  to be paid for additional freight or otherwise, agrees to take upon himself any
  
  risk attending goods, merchandise or property of any description whatever while
  
  on board of any ship or vessel, or engages to indemnify the owner of any such
  
  goods, merchandise or property from any risk, loss or damage, such agreement or
  
  engagement shall be deemed to be a contract for sea-insurance;
  (21) "Power-of-attorney" includes any instrument (not
  
  chargeable with a fee under the law relating to court-fees for the time being
  
  in force) empowering a specified person to act for and in the name of the
  
  person executing it;
  (22) "Promissory note" means a promissory note as
  
  defined by the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881;
  It also includes a note promising the payment of any sum of
  
  money out of any particular fund which may or may not be available, or upon any
  
  condition or contingency which may or may not be performed or happen;
  (23) "Receipt" includes any note, memorandum or
  
  writing- 
  (a) whereby any money, or any bill of
  
  exchange, cheque or promissory note is acknowledged to have been received, or
  (b) whereby any other movable property is
  
  acknowledged to have been received in satisfaction of a debt, or
  (c) whereby any debt or demand, or any part of
  
  a debt or demand, is acknowledged to have been satisfied or discharged, or
  (d) which signifies or imports any such
  
  acknowledgment;
  and whether the same is or is not signed with the name of any
  
  person 11[* * *]
  (24) "Settlement" means any non-testamentary
  
  disposition, in writing, of movable or immovable property made- 
  (a) in consideration of marriage,
  (b) for the purpose of distributing property
  
  of the settlor among his family or those for whom he desires to provide, or for
  
  the purpose of providing for some person dependent on him, or
  (c) for any religious or charitable purpose,
  
  and includes an agreement in writing to make such a disposition 9[and,
  
  where, any such disposition has not been made in writing, any instrument recording,
  
  whether by way of declaration of trust or otherwise, the terms of any such
  
  disposition]; 12[* * *]
   13  [(25) "Soldier" includes any person below the
  
  rank of non-commissioned officer who is enrolled under the 14[Indian
  
  Army Act, 1911].