Section 2 in West Bengal Municipal Corporation Act, 2006
2. Definitions.
- In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires. -(1)"adulterated" an article of food shall be deemed to be adulterated-(a)if the article sold by a vendor is not of the nature, substance or quality demanded by the purchaser and is to his prejudice, or is nut of the nature, substance or quality which it purports oh is represented to be:(b)if the article contains any other substance which affects, or if the article is so processed as to affect, injuriously the nature, substance or quality thereof:(c)if any inferior or cheaper substance has been substituted wholly or in part for the article so as to affect injuriously the nature, substance or quality thereof:(d)if any constituent of the article has been wholly or in pan abstracted so as to affect injuriously the nature, substance or quality thereof:(e)if the article had been prepared, packed or kept under insanitary conditions whereby it has become contaminated or injurious to health:(f)if the article consists wholly or in part of any filthy putrid, rotten, decomposed or diseased animal or vegetable substance or is insect-infested or is otherwise unfit for human consumption;(g)if the article is obtained from a diseased animal;(h)if the article contains any poisonous or other ingredient which renders it injurious to health;(i)if the container of the article is composed, whether wholly or in part, of any poisonous or deleterious substance which renders its contents injurious to health;(j)if any colouring matter other than that prescribed in respect thereof is present in the article, or if the amounts of the prescribed colouring matter which is present in the article are not within the prescribed limits of variability;(k)if the article contains any prohibited preservative or permitted preservative in excess of the prescribed limits;(l)if the quality or purity of the article falls below the prescribed standard of its constituents are present in quantities not within the prescribed limits of variability, which renders it injurious to health;(m)if the quality or purity of the snide falls below the prescribed standard or its constituents arc present in quantities not within the prescribed limits of variability but which does not render it injurious to health:Provided that, where the quality or purity of the article, being primary food, has fallen below the prescribed standards or its constituents are present in quantities not within the prescribed limits of variability, in either case, solely due to natural causes and beyond the control of human agency, then such article shall not be deemed to be adulterated within the meaning of this sub-clause.Explanation. - Where two or more articles of primary food are mixed together and the resultant article of food-(a)is stored, sold or distributed under a name which denotes the ingredients thereof:(b)is not injurious to health,then, such resultant article shall not be deemed to be adulterated within the meaning of this clause:(2)"Annual Development Plan" means the Annual Development Plan prepared under section 336;(3)"architect" means a person who is registered as an architect by the Council of Architecture under the Architects Act, 1972 (20 of 1972);(4)"Assessment Book" means the Municipal Assessment Book, and includes any book subsidiary thereto:(5)"Board of Councillors" means the Board of Councillors constituted under section 11;(6)"budget-grant" means the total sum entered on the expenditure side of a budget estimate under a major head and adopted by the Corporation, and includes any sum by which such budget-grant may be increased or reduced by transfer from one or the other head in accordance with the provisions of this Act and the, regulations made thereunder;(7)"building" means a structure constructed for whatsoever purpose or of whatsoever materials, and includes foundation, plinth, wall, floor, roof, chimney, fixed platform, verandah, balcony, cornice, projection or part of a building and anything affixed thereto, and any wall (other than boundary wall of less than two metres in height on the road side, having the solid portion not exceeding 1-5 metres in height) enclosing, or intended to enclose, any land, sign or outdoor display structure, but does not include a tent, shamiana or tarpauline shelter:(8)"building line" means the line up to which the main wall of a building abutting on a street or a projected public street may lawfully extend;(9)"bustee" means an area containing land, being not less than seven hundred square metres in area, occupied by, or for the purposes of, any collection of huts or other structures used or intended to be used for human habitation:(10)"bye-law" means a bye-law made by the Corporation under this Act;(11)"cantonment" has the same meaning as in section 3 of the Cantonments Act. 1924 (2 of 1924);(12)"Cantonment Board" means a Cantonment Board constituted under the Cantonments Act, 1924;(13)"cart" means any cart, hackney or wheeled vehicle with or without spring which is not a carriage. and includes a hand cart, a cycle van and a push van, but does not include any wheeled vehicle which is propelled by its traitor or mechanical power;(14)"carriage" means any wheeled vehicle with springs or other appliances acting as springs, which is ordinarily used for the conveyance of human beings, and includes a jin-rickshaw, a cycle-rickshaw, a bicycle and tricycle, but does not include a perambulator or other form of vehicle designed for the conveyance of small children;(15)"casual vacancy" means a vacancy, occurring otherwise than by efflux of time, in the office of a Councillor or in any other elective office;(16)"Chairman" means the Chairman elected under section 17;(17)"corporate sector" means a financial institution.Explanation. - "Financial Institution" shall mean-(a)a bank, other than a bank to which the provisions of the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970, (5 of 1970) apply.(b)a financial institution which is not maintained or managed by the Central Government or the State Government.(c)a private company, or a limited company (being a public company), as defined in the Companies Act, 1956, (1 of 1956) not being a public financial institution within the meaning of section 4A of that Act, or(d)a co-operative society, by whatever name called, registered, or deemed to have been registered, under the West Bengal Co-operative Societies Act, 1983; (West Ben. Act XLV of 1983).(18)"Corporation" means a Municipal Corporation, by whatever name called, constituted under this Act;(19)"Corporation area" means an area constituted as a Corporation area under section 6;(20)"Councillor" , in relation to a Corporation means a person chosen by direct election from a ward of the Corporation;(21)"cubical extent" , with reference to the measurement of a building, means the space contained within the external surfaces of its wall and roof and the upper surface of the floor of its lowest or only storey;(22)"dairy" includes any farm, cattle-shed. cow-house, milk-store, milk-shop and other place-(a)from which milk is supplied on or for sale; or(b)in which milk is kept for the purposes of sale, or is used for manufacture or preparation for sale of-(i)butter, or(A)a shop or other place in, which milk is sold for consumption on the premises only, or(B)a shop or other place from which milk is sold or supplied in hermetically closed and unopened receptacles in the same original condition in which it was first received in such shop or other place:(ii)ghee, or(iii)cheese, or(iv)curds, or(v)dried, sterilized, condensed or toned milk. but does not include-(23)"dairyman" includes any occupier of a dairy, any cow-keeper who trades in milk, any wholesale or retail seller of milk;(24)"dangerous disease" means-(a)cholera, plague, chicken-pox, tuberculosis, leprosy, enteric fever, cerebrospinal meningitis, or diphtheria, or(b)any other epidemic, endemic or infectious disease which the Commissioner may, by notification, declare to be a dangerous disease for the purposes of this Act;(25)"depot" means a place where articles are stored, whether for sale or for any other purpose but not for domestic consumption or use, in quantities exceeding two thousand kilograms;(26)"District Planning Committee" means the District Planning Committee constituted under sub-section (1) of section 3 of the West Bengal District Planning Committee Act, 1994, (West Ben. Act XX of 1994) and includes the Siliguri Sub-Division Planning committee;(27)"District Magistrate" means the District Magistrate referred to in sub-section (1) of section 20 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, (2 of 1974);(28)"domestic building" includes a dwelling house and any other masonry building, not being a building of the warehouse class or public building as defined in clause (79) or place exclusively used for private worship;(29)"Draft Development Plan" means the Draft Development Plan prepared under section 333;(30)"drain" includes sewer, house-drain, drain of any other description. tunnel, culvert, ditch, channel and any other device for carrying off sewage, offensive matter, polluted water, waste-water, rain water or subsoil water.(31)"Drug" means any substance used as medicine or in the composition or preparation of medicine, whether for internal or for external use, but does not include a drug within the meaning of clause (b) of section 3 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, (23 of 1940);(32)"dwelling house" means a masonry building constructed, used or adapted to be used wholly or partially for human habitation:(33)"edible fat" means ghee or vegetable fat like vanaspati, and includes beef fat or suet, mutton fat, goat fat, lard, cocoa butter, and refined sal-seed fat;(34)"edible oil" means coconut oil, cotton-seed oil, ground-nut oil, linseed oil, mahua oil, rape-seed oil, olive oil, poppy-seed oil, safflower-seed oil, taramira oil, til oil, niger seed oil, soyabeen oil, maize (corn) oil, refined vegetable oil, almond oil, water-melon-seed oil, imported rapeseed oil, palm oil, palmolein, palm-kernel oil, sunflower-seed oil, rice-bran oil or mustard oil, in pure state, imported sealed oil labelled as such, vegetable oil prepared by hardening process such as hydrogenation and labelled as such and bearing in the label in English and Bengali the names of the oils entering into its composition, or any other oil which the State Government may, by notification, declare to be an edible oil for the purposes of this Act;(35)"entertainment" includes any exhibition, performance, amusement, game, and sport to which persons are ordinarily admitted on payment;(36)"factory" means a factory as defined in the Factories Act, 1948, (63 of 1948);(37)"filth" includes offensive matter and sewage:(38)"footpath" or "footway" means pavement at the side of road or street for pedestrians:(39)"goods" includes animals;(40)"habitable room" means a room constructed or adapted for human habitation;(41)"heritage building or site" means any building of one or more premises, or any part thereof, or any monument, or any precinct, or any site, which requires preservation and conservation for historical, architectural, environmental or cultural purpose, and includes such portion of the land adjoining such building or any part thereof as may be required for fencing or covering or otherwise preserving such building, and also includes the areas and buildings requiring preservation and conservation for the purpose as aforesaid under sub-clause (ii) of clause (a) of subsection (4) of section 31 of the West Bengal Town and Country (Planning and Development) Act, 1979, (West Ben. Act XIII of 1979);(42)"Heritage Conservation Committee" means the Heritage Conservation Committee constituted under sub-section (1) of section 402:(43)"hill areas" has the same meaning as in the Darjeeling Gorkha Autonomous Hill Council Act, 1988 (West Ben. Act XIII of 1988);(44)"Hill Council" means the Darjeeling Gurkha Autonomous Hill Council constituted under the Darjeeling Gorkha Autonomous Hill Council Act, 1988;(45)"holding" means land held under one title or agreement and surrounded by one set of boundaries:Provided that where two or more adjoining holdings from part and parcel of the site or premises of a dwelling-house, manufactory, warehouse or place of trade or business, such holding shall be deemed to be one holding for the purposes of this Act.Explanation. - Holdings separated by a street or of her means of communication shall be deemed to be adjoining holdings within the meaning of this clause:(46)"house-drain" means any drain of one or more premises used for the drainage of such premises;(47)"house-gully" or "service passage" means a passage or strip of land constructed, set apart or utilised for the purpose of serving as, or carrying, a drain or affording access to a latrine, urinal, cesspool or other receptacle of filth or other polluted matter, by the employees of the Corporation or other persons employed in the cleansing thereof or in the removal of such matter therefrom, and includes the air space above such passage or strip of land:(48)"household sector" includes-(a)a rural household or urban household.Explanation I. - "Rural household" shall mean a household within a rural area as defined in the West Bengal District Planning committee Act, 1994, (West Ben. Act XX of 1994).Explanation II. - "Urban household" shall mean a household within an urban area as defined in the West Bengal District Planning Committee Act, 1994.(b)a business undertaking, whether proprietorship or partnership. not being a body corporate as defined in the Companies Act, 1956, (1 of 1956) and(c)a trust for a public purpose of a charitable nature within the meaning of the Charitable and Religious Trusts Act, 1920, (14 of 1920);(49)"hut" means any building, constructed principally of wood, bamboo, mud, leaves, pressed cloth or thatch, and includes any structure of whatever material, declared by the Corporation to be a hut for the purposes of this Act;(50)"infectious disease" or "communicable disease" means an illness caused by a specific infectious agent, or a toxic product thereof, capable of being directly or indirectly transmitted from man to man or animal to animal or man, or from environment (through air, dust, soil, water, or food) to man or animal, and declared as such by the State Government by notification;(51)"inhabited room" means a room in which some person passes the night or which is used as a living-room, and includes a room with respect to which there is a reasonable presumption (until the contrary is shown) that some person passes the night therein or that it is used as a living-room;(52)"land" includes the benefits arising out of land, things attached to the earth or permanently fastened to anything attached to the earth, and rights created by law over any street;(53)"licensed architect" , "licensed draughtsman", "licensed engineer", "licensed plumber", "licensed surveyor", or "licensed town planner' means respectively an architect, a draughtsman, an engineer, a plumber, a surveyor, or a town planner, licensed as such under the provisions of this Act;(54)"market" includes any place where persons assemble for the sale of, or for the purpose of exposing, for sale, meat, fish; fruits, vegetables, or animals intended for human food, or any other articles of human food whatsoever, with or without the consent of the owner of such place, notwithstanding that there may be no common regulation for the concourse of buyers and sellers and whether or not any control is exercised over the business of, or the persons frequenting, the market by the owner of the place or by any other person, declared and licensed by the Corporation as a market;(55)"masonry building" means any building other than a hut, and includes any structure, a substantial part of which is made of masonry, reinforced concrete, steel, iron, or other metal;(56)"member" , in relation to a Corporation, means a Councillor, and includes a person nominated under clause (b) of sub-section (1) of section 10;(57)"milk" means the secretion derived from complete milking of healthy milch animals, free from colostrum, and includes buffalo milk, cow milk, goat milk, sheep milk, mixed milk, standardized milk, recombined milk, toned milk, double-toned milk, and skimmed milk, whether raw, pasteurized, boiled, flavoured or sterilized;(58)"municipal area" means an area constituted as a municipal area under the West Bengal Municipal Act. 1993, (West Ben. Act XXII of 1993);(59)"municipal authority" means any of the municipal authorities specified in section 9;(60)"municipal drain" means a drain vested in the Corporation;(61)"Municipal Fund" means the fund held by the Corporation under section 62;(62)"municipal market" means a market established by the Corporation under sub-section (1) of section 307;(63)"municipal slaughterhouse" means a slaughterhouse established by the Corporation under sub-section (I) of section 307;(64)"municipal waterworks" means a waterworks, constructed, operated, maintained and managed by the Corporation, or purchased or taken on lease by the Corporation;(65)"new building" includes-(a)any building constructed, or in the process of construction, after the commencement of this Act.(b)any building which, having collapsed or having been demolised or burnt down for mote than one-half of its cubical extent, is reconstructed wholly or partially after the commencement of this Act, whether or not the dimensions of the reconstructed building arc the same as those of the original building.(c)any hut which is converted into a masonry building after the commencement of this Act, and(d)any building, not originally constructed for human habitation. which is converted into a place for human habitation after the commencement of this Act.Explanation. - The provisions of sub-clause (b) shall apply to a building where more than one-half of the cubical extent of such building has collapsed or has been demolished or burnt down at the same time or at different times:(66)"notification" means a notification published in the Official Gazette:(67)"nuisance" means any act, omission, place, animal or thing which causes, or is likely to cause, injury, danger, annoyance or offence to the sense of sight, smell or hearing, or disturbance to rest or sleep, or which is, or may be, dangerous to life or injurious to health or property;(68)"occupier" includes-(a)a person who, for the time being, is paying, or is liable to pay, to the owner the rent or any portion of the rent of the land or building in respect of which such rent is paid or is payable.(b)an owner in occupation of. or otherwise using, his land or building.(c)a rent-free tenant of any land or building.(d)a licensee in occupation of any land or building.(e)a person who is liable to pay to the owner damages for the use and occupation of any land or building, and(f)an occupier of a factory as defined in clause (n) of section 2 of the Factories Act, 1948, (63 of 1948);(69)"offensive matter" includes animal carcass, kitchen or stable refuse, dung, dirt, and putrid or putrefying substance other than sewage;(70)"office-bearer" means the Mayor, the Deputy Mayor, the Chairman, or a member of the Mayor-in-Council;(71)"Official Gazette" means the Official Gazette of the State Government:(72)"owner" includes a person who, for the time being, is receiving, or is entitled to receive, the rent of any land or building, whether on his own account or on account of himself and others or as an agent, trustee, guardian or receiver for any other person, or who would so receive the rent or would he entitled to wove the rent, if the land or building or part thereof were let to a tenant, and also includes-(a)the custodian of evacuee property in respect of evacuee property vested in him under the Administration of Evacuee Property Act, 1950, (31 of 1950) and(b)the General Manager of a railway, and the head of a Government department, in respect of properties under their respective control;(73)"premises" means any land or building or part of a building or any hut or part of a hut, and includes-(a)the garden, ground and out-houses, if any, appertaining to a building or part of a building or to a hut or part of a hut, and(b)any fittings affixed to a building or part of a building, or to a hut or part of a hut for more beneficial enjoyment thereof;(74)"prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act:(75)"private street" means any street, which is not a public street, and includes any passage securing access to two or more places belonging to the same or different owners;(76)"private market" means a market which is not a municipal market:(77)"private slaughterhouse" means a slaughterhouse which is not a municipal slaughterhouse;(78)"property tax" means the tax on any land or building or both, or on any house or premises, levied under this Act;(79)"public building" means a masonry building constructed, used or adapted to be used -(a)as a place of public worship or as a school, college or other place of instruction (not being a dwelling-house so used) or as a hospital, workhouse, public theatre, public cinema, public hall, public concert-room, public ball-room, public lecture-room, public library or public exhibition-room or as a public place of assembly, or(b)for any public purpose, or(c)as a hotel, lodging-house, refuge or shelter, where the building exceeds in cubical extent seven thousand cubic metres or has sleeping accommodation for more than one hundred persons;(80)"public place" means any place which is open to the use and enjoyment of the public, whether or not it is actually used or enjoyed by the public;(81)"public securities" means any securities of the Central Government or a State Government or any securities guaranteed by the Central Government or a State Government or any securities issued under this Act or any debentures issued by the Bombay Municipal Corporation, or the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, or the Madras Municipal Corporation;(82)"public street" means any street, road, lane, gully, alley, passage. footpath, footway, pathway, square or courtyard. whether or not a thoroughfare, over which the public have a right of way, and includes -(a)the access or approach to a public ferry,(b)the roadway over any public bridge or causeway,(c)the footway attached to any such street, public bridge, or causeway,(d)the passage connecting two public streets, and(e)the drain attached to any such street, public bridge, or causeway, and, where there is no drain attached to any such street, shall be deemed to include also, unless the contrary is shown, all lands up to the boundary wall, ail, hedge and pillar of the premises, if any, abutting on the street, or if a street alignment has been fixed, then, up to such alignment;(83)"railway administration" has the same meaning as in the Railways Act, 1989 (24 of 1989);(84)"rate-payer" means a person liable to pay any rent, tax, fee or licence-fee under this Act;(85)"rateable value" means the value of any land or building fixed in accordance with the provisions of this Act and the bye-laws made thereunder for the purpose of assessment of property tax;(86)"recognised political party" means a National party, or a State party, recognised as such by the Election Commission of India by notification for the time being in force:(87)"regulations" means the regulations made by the Corporation under this Act;(88)"reside" , when used with reference to any person, means-(a)a person deemed to reside in any dwelling-house which, or some portion of which, he sometimes, although not uninterruptedly, uses as sleeping apartment, and(b)a person not to be deemed to cease to reside in any such dwelling-house merely because he is absent from it or has elsewhere another dwelling-house in which he resides, if there is the liberty of returning at any time to the dwelling-house from which he is absent and there is no abandonment of intention of returning to it:(89)"rubbish" means ashes, broken bricks, broken glass, dust, malba, mortar, plastic bags and refuse of any kind which is not filth:(90)"rules" means the rules made by the State Government under this Act:(91)"service privy" means a fixed privy, which is cleansed by hand, but does not include a movable commode;(92)"service urinal" means a fixed urinal, which is cleansed by hand:(93)"sewage" means night-soil or other contents of latrine, urinal, cesspool or drain, or polluted water from sink, bathroom. stable, cattle-shed or any other like place, and includes trade effluent and discharge from manufactory of any kind:(94)"shed" means a slight or temporary structure for shed or shelter;(95)"sky-sign" means any word, letter, model, sign, device, or other representation, in the nature of an advertisement, announcement or direction, which is supported by or is attached to, any post, pole, standard framework or other support, wholly or in part, upon, over or above any building or structure and which is visible wholly or in part against the sky from ally point in any street or public place, and includes-(a)every part of such support, and(b)any balloon. parachute or similar device, employed wholly or in part, for the purpose of any advertisement or announcement, on, over or above a building, structure or erection of any kind, or on or over any street or public place, but shall not be deemed to include-(i)any flagstaff, pole, vane or weathercock, unless adapted or used, wholly or in part, for the purpose of any advertisement or announcement.(ii)any sign on any board, frame or other contrivance securely fixed to or on the top of the wall or parapet of any building or on the cornice or blocking-course of any wall or to the ridge of a roof, if such contrivance is of one continuous face and is not open work and does not extend in height more than one metre above any part of such wall, parapet or ridge, or(iii)any representation which relates exclusively to the business of a railway administration as defined in the Railways Act, 1989, (24 of 1989), and which is placed wholly upon or over any railway, railway station, railway yard, railway platform, or railWay station approach, or premises belonging to such railway administration, and which is so placed that it could not fall into any street or public place:(96)"slaughterhouse" means any place ordinarily used for the slaughter of animals for the purpose of selling the flesh thereof for human consumption;(97)"State Government" means the Government of the State of West Bengal in the Department of Municipal Affairs;(98)"State Election Commission" means the West Bengal State Election Commission referred to in sub-section (1) of section 3 of the West Bengal State Election Commission Act, 1994, (West Ben. Act VIII of 1994);(99)"street" includes any way, road, lane, square, court, alley, gully, passage, footpath, or footway, whether a thoroughfare or not and whether built upon or not, over which the public have a right of way, and also includes roadway or footway over any bridge or causeway;(100)"Sub-divisional Magistrate" means the Sub-divisional Magistrate referred to in sub-section (4) of section 20 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, (2 of 1974);(101)"trade effluent" means any liquid, either with or without particle of matter in suspension therein, produced wholly or in part in the course of any trade or industry carried on at trade premises, and, in relation to any trade premises, any such liquid as aforesaid, which is so produced in the course of any trade or industry carried on at such premises. but does not include domestic sewage;(102)"trade premises" means any premises used, or intended to be used, for carrying on any trade or industry;(103)"trade refuse" means the refuse of any trade or industry;(104)"Urban Development Sub-Committee" means the Urban Development Sub-Committee constituted under sub-section (4) of section 10 of the West Bengal District Planning Committee Act, 1994 (West Ben. Act XX of 1994);(105)"vehicle" includes a carriage, cart, van, dray, truck, handcart, bicycle, tricycle, cycle-rickshaw, auto-rickshaw, motor vehicle, and any other wheeled conveyance which is used, or is capable of being used, on a street;(106)"ward" means a municipal ward provided by order made under this Act for the purpose of election of Councillors;(107)"watercourse" includes any river, stream, or channel, whether natural or artificial;(108)"waterworks" includes all lakes, tanks, streams, cisterns, springs, pumps, wells, reservoirs, aqueducts, water-trucks, sluices, mains, pipes, culverts, hydrants, stand-pipes, conduits, and things, which are used, or are intended to be used, for the purpose of supplying water;(109)"workshop" means any premises (including the precincts thereof), wherein any industrial process is carried on, and includes a factory;(110)"year" means a year commencing on the 1st day of April.
