Section 2 in Sikkim Urban and Regional Planning and Development Act, 1998
2. Definitions.
- In this Act, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context,-(1)"Agriculture" includes horticulture, farming, growing of crops, fruits, vegetables, flowers, grass, fodder and trees or any kind of cultivation of soil, breeding and keeping of livestock including cattle, horses, donkeys, mules, pigs, fish, poultry and bees and use of land which is ancillary to the farming of land or any other agricultural purposes, but shall not include the use of any land attached to a building for the purposes of a garded to be used along with such building, and "agricultural" shall be construed accordingly;(2)"Amenity" includes roads and streets, water, gas and electric supply, open spaces, parks, recreational grounds, playgrounds, cultural centers, natural features, street lighting, sewerage, drainage, public facilities and such other utilities, services and conveniences;(3)"Annual Plan" means a plan conceived within the framework of the development plan of the development area containing the physical and fiscal details of the new and ongoing projects or schemes to be undertaken in a financial year;(4)"Area of bad layout or obsolete development" means an area consisting of land which is badly laid out or of obsolete development together with other land contiguous or adjacent thereto which is defined by a perspective plan, development plan or an annual plan as an area of bad layout or obsolete development;(5)"Authority" means to Development Authority constituted under sub-section (3) of section 21 for a development area under this Act;(6)"Board" means the Sikkim Urban and Regional Planning Board constituted under section 3 of this Act;(7)"Building" includes any structure or erection or part of a structure or erection which is intended to be used for residential, industrial commercial or other purposes where in actual use or not;(8)"Building operations" include:-(a)Erection or re-erection of a building or any part of it;(b)Roofing or re-roofing of a building or any part of a building or an open space;(c)Any material alteration or enlargement of any building;(d)Any such alteration of a building as is likely to affect an alternation of its drainage or sanitary arrangements o materially affect its security; and(e)The construction of a door or window opening on any street or land not belonging to the owner of the building;(9)"Chief Town Planner" means the State Chief Town Planner appointed under section 7 of this Act;(10)"Commerce" means the carrying on of any trade, business or profession, sale or exchange of goods of any type whatsoever, and includes the running of, with a view to making profit, hospitals or nursing homes, infirmaries, educational institutions and also hotels, restaurants and boarding houses not attached to any educational institution, sarais and "commercial" shall be construed accordingly;(11)"Commercial Use" includes the use of any land or building or part thereof for purposes of commerce for storage of goods, or as an office, whether attached to any industry or otherwise.(12)"Court" means a principal civil court of original jurisdiction and includes any other civil court empowered by the Government to perform the functions of the court under this Act within the pecuniary and local limits of its jurisdiction;(13)"Development" with is grammatical variation means the carrying out of building, engineering mining, quarrying or other operations in, on over or under land the cutting of a hill or any portion thereof or the making of any material change in any building or land, or in the use of any building or land, and includes sub-division of any land;(14)"Development area" means the area or group of areas declared as development are under sub-section (1) of section 21 of this Act;(15)"Development plan" means a development plan prepared for the development area under this Act;(16)"Engineering Operations" include the formation or the laying out of means of access to a road or the laying out of means of water supply, sewerage, gas or of electricity cables or lines or of telephone lines and other communication lines and public utility services;(17)"Existing land use" means the pre-dominant purpose for which any land or building was being used on a specified date;(18)"Government" means the State Government of Sikkim;(19)"Industry" includes the carrying on of any manufacturing process as defined in the Factories Act, 1948 and "industrial" shall be construed accordingly;(20)"Industrial use" includes the use of any land or building or part thereof for purposes of any industry;(21)"Land" includes benefits arising out of land attached to the earth or permanently fastened to anything attached to the earth;(22)"Local authority" means a Municipal Corporation or a Municipal Council or a Nagar Panchayat constituted under the Sikkim Municipalities Act, 1995 or a Bazaar Committee or other authority legally entitled to, or entrusted by the Government with the control or management of a municipal or local fund or which is permitted by the Government to exercise the powers of a local authority, and includes Urban Development and Housing Department and a local authority, and includes Urban Development and Housing Department and local authority is a "Local authority" concerned if any land within its local limits falls in the area of a plan prepared or to be prepared under this Act;(23)"Local newspaper" in relation to any regional planning area or the development area means any newspaper published or circulated within that areas;(24)"Means of access" includes any means of passage whether private or public, for vehicles or for pedestrians and includes any street;(25)"Natural hazard" means the probability of occurrence within a specified periods of time in a given areas of a potentially damaging natural phenomenon; sudden happening and occurrence of natural calamity like flood, earthquake, etc.;(26)"Notification" means a notification published in the Official Gazette;(27)"Occupier" includes"-(a)A tenant;(b)An owner in occupation of or otherwise using his land or building or part thereof;(c)A rent free occupant of any land or building or part thereof;(d)A licensee in occupation of any land or building or part thereof;(e)Any person who is liable to pay to the owner damages for the use and occupation of any land or building or part thereof;(28)"Operational construction" means any construction whether temporary or permanent, which is necessary for the operation, maintenance, development or execution of any of the following services, namely:-(a)Railways;(b)National highways;(c)National waterways;(d)Major ports;(e)Airways and aerodromes;(f)Posts and telegraphs, telephones, wireless, broadcasting and other like forms of communication;(g)Regional grid for electricity; and(h)Any other service which the Government may, if it is of opinion that the operation, maintenance, development or execution of such other service is essential to the life of the community, by notification, declare to be a service for the purpose of this clause.Explanation. - For the removal of doubts, it is hereby declared that the construction of:(i)New residential building (other than gate lodges, quarters for limited essential operational staff and the like) roads and drains in railway colonies, hotels clubs, institutions and schools in the case of railways; and(ii)A new building, new structure or new installation or any extension thereof, in the case of any other service, shall not be deemed to be an operational construction within the meaning of this clause.(29)"Owner" includes a mortagee in possession, a person who for the time being is necessary or is entitled to receive, or has received, the rent premium for any land whether on his own account or an account of, or on behalf of, or for the benefit of any other person or as an agent, trustee, guardian or receiver for any other person or for any religious or charitable institution, or who would so receive the rent or premium or any other consideration or to be entitled to receive the rent or premium if the land were let to a tenant, and includes the Head of a Government Department, General Manager of a Railway, the Secretary or other principal officer of a Local Authority, statutory authority of a company, in respect of properties under their respective control;(30)"Perspective plan" means a long term (twenty five years) plan providing the goals, policies, strategies and general programmes of spatio-economic development of the State of Sikkim or the development area, as the case may be;(31)"Plan" means a state perspective plan prepared by the Board under section 4 or a regional development plan of the regional planning area prepared by the Chief Town Planner under section 12 or a perspective plan or a development plan or an annual plan of a development area prepared by the Development Authority under Chapter VI of this Act and includes their review and revision;(32)"Prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act;(33)"Projects and schemes" means plans conceived within the framework approved perspective plan, development plan or the annual plan of the development area containing detailed working layouts with all supporting infrastructure and documents including cost of development, source of finance and recovery instruments for their execution;(34)"Promoter" includes an individual company or association or body of individuals, whether incorporated or not, a co-operative society, a corporate body or agency- national or international to whom a licence is given under section 76 to undertake development works within the framework of a plan or a development scheme duly approved under this Act;(35)"Private street" means any street, road, square, court, alley, passage or riding path which is not a public street but does not include a pathway made by the owner of premises on his own land to secure access to or for the convenient use of such premises;(36)"Public place" means any place or building which is open to the use and enjoyment of the public, whether it is actually used or enjoyed by the public or not, and whether the entry is regulated by any fees or not;(37)"Public building" means any building to which the public or any class or section of he public are granted access or any building, which is open to the public or any class or section of the public and includes any building-(a)Used as a school or college or a university or other educational institution, hostel, library, hospital, nursing home, dispensary, clinic, maternity center or any other like institution, club, lodging house, choultry, coffee house, boarding house, or eating house;(b)Ordinarily used by the-(i)Central or any State Government or any local authority or any body corporate, owned or controlled by the Central or any State Government; or(ii)Public or any class or section of the public for religious worship or for religious congregation;(38)"Public open space" means any land, whether enclosed or not, belonging to the Central or any State Government or any local authority or any body corporate owner or controlled by the Central or any State Government, on which there is no building or of which not more than one-twentieth part is covered with buildings and the whole or remainder of which is used for purposes of recreation or as open space;(39)"Public street" means any street, road, square, court, alley, passage or riding path over which the public have a right of way, whether a thorough-fare or not, and includes the roadway over any public bridge or causeway, the footway attached to any such street, public bridge or causeway and the drains attached to any such street, public bridge or causeway and land, whether covered or not by any pavement, verandah or other structure, which lies on either side of the roadway upto the boundaries of the adjacent property whether that property is private property or property belonging to the Central or State Government;(40)"Railway" means a railway defined in the Indian Railways Act, 1890;(41)"Re-allocation of population" means in relation to an area of bad-layout or obsolete development or a slum area, the making available in that area or elsewhere, of accommodation, for residential purposes or for carrying on business and other activities, together with amenities, to persons living or carrying on business or other activities in the said area who have to be so accommodated so that the said area may be property planned;(42)"Regulation" means a regulation made under this Act by on Authority and includes zoning and also other regulations made as a part of a development plan;(43)"Residence" includes the use for human habitation of any land or building or part thereof including gardens, grounds, garages, stables and out-houses, if any, appertaining to such building and "residential" shall be construed accordingly;(44)"Rule" means a rule made under this Act by the State Government;(45)"Scheme" means a development scheme and includes a plan or plans together with the descriptive matter, if any relating to such scheme;(46)"Slum area" means any predominantly residential area where the dwellings which by reason of dilapidation, over crowding, faulty arrangements or design, lack of ventilation, light or sanitary facilities or any combination of these factors, are detrimental to safety, health or morals of the inhabitants or others and which is defined by a development plan as slum area;(47)"State" means the State of Sikkim;(48)"To erect" in relation to any building includes-(a)Any material alternation or enlargement of any building;(b)The conversion by structural alternation of palace for human habitation of any building not originally constructed for human habitation;(c)The conversion into more than one place for human habitation of a building originally constructed as one such place;(d)The conversion of two or more places of human habitation into a greater number of such places;(e)Such alternations of a buildings as affect an alteration of its drainage or sanitary arrangements or materially affect its security;(f)The addition of any rooms, buildings, houses or other structures to any buildings; and(g)The construction in a wall adjoining any street or land not belonging to the owner of the wall, of a door opening on to such street or land.(49)"Unauthorized occupation" in relation to any premises means the occupation by any person of the premises belonging to the Authority without any authority for such occupation and includes the continuance of this occupation by any person of the premises after the authority (whether by way of grant or any other mode of transfer under which he was allowed to occupy the premises) has expired or has been determined for any reasons whatsoever;(50)"Urban local body" means a municipal corporation or a municipal council or a Nagar Panchayat constituted under the Sikkim Municipalities Act, 1995.Words and expressions used in this Act not defined shall have the same meanings respectively assigned to them in the Sikkim Municipalities Act, 1995; the Sikkim Allotment of House Sites and Construction of Building (Regulation and Control) Act, 1985 and the Sikkim Building Construction Regulation, 1991.Chapter-II Sikkim Urban and Regional Planning Board
