1. Short title, extent and commencement.—(1) This Act may be called the Warehousing
(Development and Regulation) Act, 2007.
(2) It extends to the whole of India except the State of Jammu and Kashmir*.
(3) It shall come into force on such date1
as the Central Government may, by notification in the
Official Gazette, appoint.
2. Definitions.—In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—
(a) “accreditation agency” means an agency, whatever be its constitution, registered with the
Authority under section 5;
(b) “actionable claim” shall have the meaning assigned to it in section 3 of the Transfer of
Property Act, 1882 (4 of 1882);
(c) “Authority” means the Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority established
under sub-section (1) of section 24;
(d) “depositor” means a person who delivers goods to the warehouseman for storage;
(e) “endorsee” means the person to whom the warehouse receipt is negotiated;
(f) “endorsement” means signing on the warehouse receipt by the depositor or holder of the
warehouse receipt for the purpose of its negotiation;
(g) “electronic form”, with reference to information, means any information generated, sent,
received or stored in media, magnetic, optical, computer memory, microfilm, computer generated
micro fiche or similar device;
(h) “fungible goods” means any goods of which any unit is, by nature or usage of trade, the
equivalent of any other like unit and are received by a warehouseman as fungible goods;
(i) “goods” means all tangible movable goods (other than actionable claims, money and
securities), whether fungible or not;
(j) “grade” means the quality standard of any goods as notified as grade designation by the
Central Government under the Agricultural Produce (Grading and Marking) Act, 1937 (1 of 1937) or
any other law for the time being in force;
(k) “holder” means,—
(i) in relation to a negotiable warehouse receipt, a person who is in possession of such receipt
and a right to goods endorsed on it; and
1. 25th October, 2010, vide notification No. S.O. 2613(E), dated 21st October, 2010, see Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II,
sec. 3(ii).
*. Vide notification No. S.O. 3912(E), dated 30th October, 2019, this Act is made applicable to the Union territory of Jammu and
Kashmir and the Union territory of Ladakh.
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(ii) in relation to a non-negotiable warehouse receipt, a person named in it as the person to
whom the goods are to be delivered or the assignee of that person;
(l) “member” means a member of the Authority and includes its Chairperson;
(m) “negotiable warehouse receipt” means a warehouse receipt under which the goods
represented therein are deliverable to the depositor or order, the endorsement of which has the effect
of transfer of goods represented thereby and the endorsee for which takes a good title;
(n) “non-negotiable warehouse receipt” means a warehouse receipt other than a negotiable
warehouse receipt;
(o) “notification” means a notification published in the Official Gazette;
(p) “person” includes a firm, co-operative society or any association or body of persons, whether
incorporated or not;
(q) “prescribed” means prescribed by rules made under this Act;
(r) “regulation” means a regulation made under this Act;
(s) “warehouse” means any premises (including any protected place) conforming to all the
requirements including manpower specified by the Authority by regulations wherein the
warehouseman takes custody of the goods deposited by the depositor and includes a place of storage
of goods under controlled conditions of temperature and humidity;
(t) “warehousing business” means the Business of maintaining warehouses in storage of goods
and issuing negotiable warehouse receipts;
(u) “warehouse receipt” means an acknowledgement in writing or in electronic form issued by a
warehouseman or his duly authorised representative (including depository by whatever name called)
of the receipt for storage of goods not owned by the warehouseman;
(v) “warehouseman” means any person who is granted a certificate of registration in respect of
any warehouse or warehouses by the Authority or an accreditation agency for carrying on the
business of warehousing.