Section 2 in Gujarat Rural Debtors (Temporary Relief) Act, 1976
2. Definitions.- (1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires;-
(a)"appointed day" means the day on which the Gujarat Rural Debtors (Temporary Relief) Ordinance, 1975 (Guj. Ord. No. 5 of 1975) came into force;(b)"civil court" includes a Court of Small Causes and a Nyaya Panchayat;(c)"debt" means any liability in cash or kind, whether secured or unsecured, or whether payable under a decree or order of any civil court or otherwise, and subsisting on the appointed day, whether due or not due;(d)"debtor" means a small farmer, a rural labourer or a rural artisan who on the appointed day was in debt;(c)"to hold land", with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions, means to be lawfully in actual possession of land as owner or as tenant (including a Government lessee) and the expression "holding" shall be construed accordingly;(f)"land" means land which is used or capable of being used for agricultural purposes and includes the sites of farm buildings appurtenant to such land;(g)"member of a family" in relation to a rural artisan, means a father, mother, spouse, brother, unmarried dependent sister, divorced and dependent sister, son, son's wife, or unmarried daughter, divorced and dependent daughter, son's son, son's unmarried daughter, son's divorced and dependent daughter, and includes any relation residing with and actually dependent for his maintenance on the rural artisan;(h)"rural area" means an area which for the time being is not within the limits of,-(i)a City constituted under section 3 of the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporations Act, 1949 (Bom. LIX of 1949), or(ii)a municipal borough or a notified area constituted or deemed to be constituted under the Gujarat Municipalities Act, 1963 (Guj. 34 of 1964), or(iii)a cantonment declared us such under the Cantonments Act, 1924 (II of 1924);(i)"rural artisan" means a person who, being resident in a rural area, cams his livelihood in such area by practising any craft by his own labour or by the labour of the members of his family and whose annual income during the year immediately preceding the appointed day does not exceed two thousand and four hundred rupees;(j)"rural labourer" means a person who, being resident in a rural area, earns his livelihood principally by manual labour from any of the following occupations, but does not hold any had for any of such occupations, whether as an owner or tenant, namely:-(i)cultivation;(ii)cutting of wood;(iii)dairy farming;(iv)poultry farming;(v)breeding of livestock or bees;(vi)any operation performed on a farm as incidental to preparation, transport, delivery or storage for marketing of any of the products of any of the occupations mentioned in sub-clauses (i), (ii), (iii), (iv) and (v);(k)"small farmer" means a person who holds land measuring not more than two hectares and who earns his livelihood principally by cultivating such land;(l)"specified period" means the period commencing on the appointed day and ending on the date of the cessation in force of this Act;(m)"suit" includes an appeal and a revision application;(n)the words and expressions used in this Act but not defined therein shall have the meanings respectively assigned to them in the Gujarat Agricultural Lands Ceiling Act, 1960 (Guj. XXVII of 1961), as in force on the appointed day.(2)If a question arises whether a person is a rural artisan, a rural labourer or a small farmer, the question shall be decided by the civil court as a preliminary issue and the decision of such court on such question shall be final and conclusive and shall not be called in question in any appeal or revision.
