What is the meaning of ‘deferred' ? Cabinet Secretary Clarifies
You thought it means postponed as do many dictionaries and legal and academic luminaries? But the Cabinet secretary has a different opinion. The CabSec , as he is deferentially referred to, is the top bureaucrat of the Country and what he thinks is binding on all the babus.
Ministries have expressed doubts as to what could be the meaning of the word, “deferred” used in the context of the proceedings of the Cabinet/Cabinet Committees. It seems in many cases, the term, “deferred” is misconstrued to be synonymous with the term, “postponed”.
What is there to be misconstrued?
Black's Law Dictionary defines “defer” as “to postpone; to delay;”
A deferred judgement is a judgement which places a convict on probation;
Under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act, there is a deduction for deferred annuity; Under Section 216, an assessee is liable to pay interest on the delayed payment of advance tax for the period during which the payment of advance tax was so deferred.
So everybody seems to be under the mistaken impression that deferred means postponed.
Not so the Cabinet Secretary who clarifies that
With a view to ensure that there is no confusion in this regard, it is clarified that the term "Deferred" in the context of the proceedings of the Cabinet/Cabinet Committees, connotes that the Cabinet/Cabinet Committee has disposed of the matter and the note on the subject no longer remains pending with the Cabinet Secretariat or with the Cabinet/Cabinet Committees. The concerned Ministry/Department will, therefore, have to bring up a fresh note for the consideration of the Cabinet/Cabinet Committee in case it is considered necessary to do so. The decision recorded as “ Deferred ”, is therefore, not the same as a decision recorded as 'Postponed' . In the latter case, i.e. where the decision recorded is “Postponed ” , the matter remains pending and will be placed before the Cabinet/Cabinet Committee again and there would be no need for a fresh note on the subject being brought by the concerned Ministry/Department.
Amen
The Cabinet Secretariat wants all the ministries to note this.
So according to the Cabsec, deferred means decided or dismissed or denied, but certainly not postponed.
The linguist-scholar-Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao once said that he could keep his sanity intact in spite of being subjected to atrocious literature churned out by IAS officers in their note sheets, for more than three decades! They would have convinced him that as per some office order issued by the Queen, ‘deferred' means disposed.
But what does the queen's English think about it?
DDT has collected these from minutes of Cabinet meetings in England – mother of perhaps cabinet and English.
RESOLVED:
That this item be deferred until Cabinet on 15 June 2005.
That, at the request of Woburn Sands Town Council, consideration of the proposed designation of a Woburn Sands Conservation Area be deferred until the Cabinet Meeting on 3 June 2002.
That consideration of the Health Promotion heading be deferred to a future meeting of the Cabinet.
That consideration of all other items be deferred to the Cabinet meeting of 4 May 2004.
This item was deferred to 14th October Cabinet meeting to allow time to look at the concerns raised.
And this from Australia, yet another country where reasonably good English prevails.
The Cabinet considered procedures to deal with the hijacking of aircraft at five meetings in 1973. Hon Allen Hodges (the Minister for Works and Housing) submitted a proposal on 5th March 1973 for ‘adequate' equipment to be supplied to the police force. The equipment included bomb blankets, mobile bullet proof shields, sniper rifles and ammunition, a trailer with a specially constructed ‘Bomb Transportation Box', body armour and walkie-talkie radio transceivers. A decision on this matter was deferred until 12th March 1973, and again on that date until 19th March 1973 when approval was given for the purchase of this equipment as ‘Unforeseen Expenditure'.
In all the above cases, deferred appears to mean postponed, but for the Indian Cabinet, it has a different meaning. So be it. Who are we to question the wisdom and language of the Cabinet and the Secretary? But try substituting this meaning in the Income Tax Act; it will be interesting to know how Mr. Chidambaram will explain deferred taxes.