Section 3 in The Gujarat Vacant Lands in Urban Areas (Prohibition of Alienation) Act, 1972
3. Definitions.
- In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires-(a)"appointed day" means the date of the coming into force of this Act;(b)"City" means a City as constituted under the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporations Act, 1949 (Bombay LIX of 1949);(c)"Collector" means the Collector having jurisdiction in the urban area concerned and includes an Additional Collector and an Assistant or Deputy Collector performing the duties and exercising the powers of a Collector under the Bombay Land Revenue Code, 1879 (Bombay V of 1879);(d)"compact block" means any block of vacant land in an urban area, exceeding one thousand square metres in extent, [whether owned by one person or jointly by more than one person or owned in contiguous parts separately by one or more members of a family unit] [Substituted for 'whether owned by one or more persons' by Gujarat 24 of 1973, dated 8th November, 1973.] and whether or not divided by a private road, street, lane, footway, passage or drain, natural or artificial;(dd)[ "family unit" means an individual, his or her spouse and their children;] [Clause (dd) inserted by Gujarat 24 of 1973, dated 8th November, 1973.](e)"municipal borough" means a municipal borough as constituted or deemed to be constituted under the Gujarat Municipalities Act, 1963 (Gujarat 34 of 1964);(f)"person" includes an individual, an undivided Hindu family, a trustee, a company, a society or an association of individuals, whether incorporated or not;(g)"prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act;(h)"trust" includes a trust created for public purposes of a charitable or religious nature;(i)"urban area" means-(1)any area which is comprised for the time being in a City or a municipal borough and also any such area in the vicinity thereof, within a distance, not exceeding sixteen kilometres from the local limits of the City, or as the case may be, of the municipal borough concerned, as the State Government may, having regard to the extent of and the scope for the urbanisation of that area or other relevant considerations, by a notification in the Official Gazette, specify in this behalf, and(2)any other area which the State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette declare to be an urban area, having regard to any project existing in that area on the appointed day or having regard to the possibility in the near future of any project being established in that area, where any such project, in the opinion of the State Government, has led to or is likely to lead to urbanisation of that area;(j)"vacant land" means land in an urban area, agricultural or non-agricultural, other than land on which any building has been or is- being constructed in accordance with any law regulating such construction and the land appurtenant to such building, to the minimum extent required under such law or under the provisions of the Bombay Town Planning Act, 1954 (Bombay XXVII of 1955), or any other corresponding law for the time being in force.Explanation. - For the purposes of this clause, any land which is vacant on the appointed day shall be deemed to be vacant land, notwithstanding that the construction of a building thereon has been commenced on or after the said day.
