Definitions- In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, -

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, - (a) ‘ agriculture’ with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions includes,- (i) horticulture; (ii) the raising of crops (including plantation crops), grass or garden produce; (iii) dairy farming; (iv) poultry farming; (v) breeding of livestock and bees; (vi) grazing; but does not include the cutting of wood only; (b) 'agricultural labourer' means a person who does not hold any agricultural land and whose principal means of livelihood is by manual labour on agricultural land, in the capacity of a labourer on hire or on exchange, whether paid in cash or in kind or partly in cash and partly in kind; (c) 'agricultural land' means land used for purposes of agriculture and which is assessed by the Government to land revenue, but not being land appurtenant to a residential building situate within a Municipality or Cantonment; (d) 'annual household income' means the aggregate of the annual income from all sources of all the members of a family; (e) 'appellate tribunal' means the Appellate Tribunal constituted under sub-section (2) of section 8; (f) ’bank’ means a banking company as defined in clause (c) of section 5 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, (Central Act, 10 of 1949) and includes the State Bank of India constituted under the State Bank of India Act, 1955 (Central Act 23 of 1955), a subsidiary bank as defined in the State Bank of India (Subsidiary Banks) Act, 1959, (Central Act 38 of 1959), a corresponding new bank as specified in the First Schedule to the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970 (Central Act 5 of 1970), the Agricultural Refinance and Development Corporation established under the Agricultural Refinance and Development Corporation Act 1963, (Central Act 10 of 1963), a Regional Rural Bank established under the Regional Rural Banks Act,1976 (Central Act 21 of 1976), any banking institution notified by the Central Government under section 51 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, (Central Act 10 of 1949), and any other financial institution which may be notified in this behalf by the State Government; (g) 'co-operative society' means a co-operative society including an agricultural development bank registered or deemed to be registered under the Andhra Pradesh Co-operative Societies Act, 1964 (Act 7 of 1964); (h) 'creditor' means a person from or in respect of whom the debtor has borrowed or incurred a debt and includes his heirs, legal representatives and assigns; (i) ‘debt’ includes any liability owing to a creditor in cash or in kind, whether secured or unsecured payable under a decree or order of a civil court or otherwise and subsisting at the commencement of this Act, but does not include,- (i) a debt due to the Central Government or any State Government or any local authority or a co-operative society or a bank, including arrears of taxes due to the Central Government or a State Government, or a local authority; (ii) a debt due to any Government company within the meaning of section 617 of the Companies Act, 1956 (Central Act 1 of 1956); (iii) a debt due to the Life Insurance Corporation of India established under the Life Insurance Corporation Act, 1956 (Central Act 3 of 1956), or to any other corporation established by or under any law for the time being in force and owned or controlled by the Central Government or any State Government; (iv) any rent due in respect of any property including an agricultural land let out to a debtor; (v) any liability arising out of breach of trust or any tortuous 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 a civil court or otherwise; (viii) any debt which represents the price of any goods or property whether movable or immovable purchased by a debtor or any amount due under a hire purchase agreement; (ix) any advance of money given to a debtor by a person as the price of goods or property to be sold later on by the debtor; (x) any sum recoverable as arrears of land revenue; (xi) any sum payable to any religious, charitable or educational institution including wakf of a public nature; (xii) any debt contracted by a debtor from a person who is an agricultural labourer, a rural artisan or a small farmer; (j) 'debtor' means an agricultural labourer, a rural artisan or a small farmer, who has borrowed or incurred any debt before the commencement of this Act; (k) 'dry land' means land registered as dry, manawari, asmantari, baghat or garden land, or special rate dry land, in the land revenue accounts of the Government or assessed as such; and includes any other agricultural land excluding wet land; (l) 'family' in relation to a person, means the individual, the wife or husband, as the case may be, of such individual and their unmarried minor children; Explanation - For the purpose of this clause ‘minor’ means a person who has not completed his or her age of eighteen years: (m) 'Government' means the State Government; (n) 'interest' means any amount or other thing paid or payable in excess of the principal sum borrowed or pecuniary obligation incurred, or where anything has been borrowed in kind, in excess of what has been so borrowed, by whatsoever name such amount or thing may be called, and whether the same is paid or payable entirely in cash or entirely in kind or partly in cash and partly in kind and whether the same is expressly mentioned or not in the document or contract, if any; (o) 'notification' means a notification published in the Andhra Pradesh Gazette; and the word ‘notified’ shall be construed accordingly; (p) 'person' means an individual or a family; (q) 'prescribed' means prescribed by rules made by the Government under this Act; (r) 'rural artisan' means a person who does not hold 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 includes a fisherman and any person who normally earns his livelihood by practising a craft either by his own labour or by the labour of all or any of the members of his family in rural area; (s) 'scheduled tribes' shall have the meaning assigned to it in clause (25) of Article 366 of the Constitution; (t) ‘small farmer’ means a person whose principal means of livelihood is income derived from agricultural land and who holds and personally cultivates, or who cultivates as a tenant or sharecropper or mortgagee with possession, agricultural land which does not exceed in extent,- (i) in the case of persons other than the members of the Scheduled Tribes, one hectare, if it is wet, or two hectares, if it is dry; (ii) in the case of members of the Scheduled Tribes, two hectares, if it wet, or four hectares, if it is dry but does not include any person whose annual household income, other than from agriculture exceeds one thousand and two hundred rupees in any two years within three years immediately preceding the commencement of this Act. Explanation- For the purposes of computing the extent of land under this clause, one hectare of wet land shall be deemed to be equal to two hectares of dry land; (u) 'Tahsildar' includes a Deputy Tahsildar in independent charge of a taluk or sub-taluk and any other officer of the Revenue Department not below the rank of a Deputy Tahsildar empowered by the Government to exercise the powers and perform the functions of a Tahsildar under this Act; (v) 'transferee of the creditor' includes any subsequent transferee or an assignee or any person in possession of the property pledged or mortgaged; (w) 'Tribunal' means a tribunal constituted under sub section (1) of section 8; (x) 'wet land' means land registered as wet, single crop wet, double crop wet, compounded double crop wet or special rate wet land, in the land revenue accounts of the Government or assessed as such.