Section 2 in The Haryana Relief of Agricultural Indebtedness Act, 1976
2. Definitions.
- In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, -(a)"agricultural labourer" means a person who follows any one or more of the following agricultural occupations in the capacity of a labourer on hire or exchange, whether paid in cash or in kind or partly in cash and partly in kind :(i)farming including cultivation and tillage of soil, etc;(ii)dairy farming;(iii)production, cultivation, growing and harvesting of any horticultural commodity;(iv)raising of livestock, bees or poultry; and(v)any practice performed on a farm as incidental to or in conjunction with farm operations (including any forestry or timbering operations) and preparation for market and delivery to storage or to market or to carriage for transportation of farm products;(b)"bank" means -(i)banking company as defined in the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 (Central Act 10 of 1949);(ii)the State Bank of India constituted under the State Bank of India Act, 1955 (Parliament Act 23 of 1955);(iii)a subsidiary bank, as defined in the State Bank of India (Subsidiary Banks) Act, 1959 (Parliament Act 38 of 1959);(iv)a corresponding new Bank constituted under the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970 (Parliament Act 5 of 1970);(v)any banking institution notified by the Central Government under Section 51 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 (Central Act 10 of 1949);(vi)the Agricultural Refinance and Development Corporation constituted under the Agricultural Refinance and Development Corporation Act, 1963 (Parliament Act 10 of 1963);(vii)any other financial institution notified by the Central Government in the Gazette as a bank for the purpose of this Act;(c)"civil Court" includes -(i)a Court exercising jurisdiction under the Provincial Insolvency Act, 1920 (Central Act 5 of 1920);(ii)a Panchayat established under the Punjab Gram Panchayat Act, 1952 (Punjab Act 4 of 1953), while exercising functions of a civil Court;(iii)a Court exercising powers under the Provincial Small Cause Courts Act, 1887 (Central Act 9 of 1887);(d)"Collector" means the Head Revenue Officer of a District, and includes any other officer appointed under this Act by the State Government by notification to exercise the powers of a Collector;(e)"Co-operative Society" means a society registered or deemed to be registered under the Punjab Co-operative Society Act, 1961 (Punjab Act 25 of 1961);(f)"debt" includes all liabilities owing to a creditor in cash or kind, secured or unsecured, payable under a decree or order of a civil Court or otherwise and subsisting on the date of commencement of this Act whether due or not due but it does not include -(i)a debt due to the Central Government, any State Government, a local authority, a co-operative Society or a bank;(ii)a debt to any Government company within the meaning of the Companies Act, 1956 (Parliament Act 1 of 1956);(iii)a debt due to the Life Insurance Corporation of India established under the Life Insurance Corporation Act, 1956 (Parliament Act 3 of 1956), or other corporations established under any law for the time being in force;(iv)any rent due in respect of any property let out to a debtor;(v)any liability arising out of breach of trust or any tortious liability;(vi)any liability in respect of wages or remuneration due as salary or otherwise for services rendered;(vii)any liability in respect of maintenance whether under a decree of civil Court or otherwise;(viii)any debt which represents the price of any goods or property purchased by a debtor;(ix)any advance of money given to the debtor by a person as the price of goods or property to be sold later on;(x)any advance of wages whether in cash or kind, or partly in cash or partly in kind, made to a debtor at his instance by a person in pursuance of a contract of service for a specified period :Provided that the rate of wages settled is not less than the minimum rate of wages fixed by law;(xi)any sum recoverable as arrears of land revenue;(g)"debtor" means an agricultural labourer, a marginal farmer, a small farmer or a rural artisan, who owes a debt;(h)"marginal farmer" means a person who owns land not exceeding one hectare of unirrigated agricultural land and whose principal means of livelihood is income from such land or by manual labour on land not exceeding one hectare of unirrigated agricultural land or from production or repair of traditional tools, implements and other articles or things used for agriculture or purposes ancillary thereto or by practising craft by his own labour or by the labour of the members of his family in a rural area;(i)"rural artisan" means a person who does not own any agricultural land and whose principal means of livelihood is production or repair of traditional tools, implements and other articles or things used for agriculture or purposes ancillary thereto and also a person who normally earns his livelihood by practising a craft either by his own labour or by the labour of the members of his family in a rural area;(j)"small farmer" means a person who owns land exceeding one hectare but not exceeding two hectares of unirrigated agricultural land and whose principal means of livelihood is income from such land or by manual labour on land exceeding one hectare but not exceeding two hectares of unirrigated agricultural land or from production or repair of traditional tools, implements and other articles or things used for agriculture or purposes ancillary thereto or by practising craft by his own labour or by the labour of the members of his family in a rural area;Explanation. - For the purposes of clauses (h) and (j), one hectare of perennially irrigated land shall be equated with two hectares of non-perennial irrigated land and three hectares of un-irrigated land.
