2Definitions

In this Act, unless there is something repugnant in the subject or context,--

¹[(1) "company" means any company as defined in section 3 of the Companies Act, 1956 (1 of 1956), and includes a foreign company within the meaning of section 591 of that Act;

(1A) "corporation" means any body corporate established by any law for the time being in force in India and includes the Reserve Bank of India, the State Bank of India and any subsidiary bank as defined in the State Bank of India (Subsidiary Banks) Act, 1959 (38 of 1959);]

(2) "bank" and "banker" mean--

²[(a) any company or corporation carrying on the business of banking;]

(b) any partnership or individual to whose books the provisions of this Act shall have been extended as hereinafter provided;

³[(c) any post office savings bank or money order office;

(3)" bankers' books" include ledgers, day-books, cash-books, account-books and all other books used in the ordinary business of a bank;]

⁴[(4) "legal proceeding" means,--

(i) any proceeding or inquiry in which evidence is or may be given;

(ii) an arbitration; and

(iii) any investigation or inquiry under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974), or under any other law for the time being in force for the collection of evidence, conducted by a police officer or by any other person (not being a magistrate) authorised in this behalf by a magistrate or by any law for the time being in force;]

(5) "the Court" means the person or persons before whom a legal proceeding is held or taken;

(6) "Judge" means a Judge of a High Court Division;

(7 "trial" means any hearing before the Court at which evidence is taken; and

(8) "certified copy" means a copy of any entry in the books of a bank together with a certificate written at the foot of such copy that it is a true copy of such entry, that such entry is contained in one of the ordinary books of the bank and was made in the usual and ordinary course of business, and that such book is still in the custody of the bank, ⁵[and where the copy was obtained by a mechanical or other process which in itself ensured the accuracy of the copy, a further certificate to that effect, but where the book from which such copy was prepared has been destroyed in the usual course of the banks business after the date on which the copy had been so prepared, a further certificate to that effect, each such certificate being dated and subscribed by the principal accountant or manager of the bank with his name and official title.