Important Legal Definitions

A legislative device where a statute commands the court to imagine, treat, and accept a non-existent state of affairs or a legal presumption as real, requiring the court to carry that fiction to its logical conclusion.

In State of Bombay v. Pandurang Vinayak Chhaphalkar, the Supreme Court affirmed the classic rule: "When a statute creates a legal fiction, you must imagine also the facts and consequences which are necessary to its effect; you cannot let your imagination boggle."