Chapter I PRELIMINARY.

(1) This Act may be called the Gujarat Municipalities Act, 1963. (2) It extends to the whole of the State of Gujarat. (3)It shall come into force on such date as the State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint.

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires... In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,- (1A) " Assembly " means the Gujarat Legislative Assembly; (2)"building" includes any hut, shed or other enclosure, whether used as a human dwelling or for any other purpose, and shall also include walls including compound walls and fencing, verandahs, fixed platforms, plinths, doorsteps and the like; (2A) “carpet area” means the floor area of a building excluding the area over which a wall whether outer or inner is erected; (3) "cattle" means and includes bulls, bullocks, heifers, cows and their young, elephants, camels, buffaloes, horses, mares, geldings, ponies, colts, fillies, mules, asses, swine, sheep, ewes, rams, lambs, goats and kids; (3A) "Central law" means the Representation of the People Act, 1950; (3B) “chawl” means a building consisting of two or more tenements whether having common sanitary and other facilities or not and declared as such by the Director of Municipalities by notification in the Official Gazette; (4)"Councillor" means a member of the municipality in a municipal borough; (5)"dangerous disease" means cholera, plague, small-pox and any endemic, epidemic or infectious disease by which the life of man is endangered; (6)"Director" means the officer appointed for the time being by the State Government to be Director of Municipalities, Gujarat State; (7)" the earlier municipal law" means— (a) the Bombay District Municipal Act, 1901, (b) the Bombay District Municipal Act, 1901 as adapted and applied to the Suaurashtra area of the State, (c) the Bombay Municipal Boroughs Act, 1925, (d) the Bombay Municipal Boroughs Act, 1925 as adapted and applied to the Saurashtra area of the State, and (e) the Bombay Municipal Boroughs Act, 1925 as extended to the Kutch area of the State; (7A) "election" means and includes the entire election process commencing from the division of wards and all stages culminating into election of a councillor and it is always deemed to have meant and included the entire election process as aforesaid. (7B) "Finance Commission" means the Finance Commission constituted under article 243-1 of the Constitution of India; (8) "Gujarati" means the Gujarati language, (9) "house-gully" means a passage or strip of land constructed, set apart or utilized for the purpose of serving as a drain or affording access to a privy, urinal, cess-pool or other receptacle for filthy or polluted matter, to municipal servants or to persons employed in the cleansing thereof or in the removal of such matter therefrom; (10) "Judge" means District Judge, Joint Judge, Assistant Judge, Judge of a Court of Small Causes, Civil Judge, or Joint Civil Judges; (11)"Land" includes land which is being built upon or is built upon or covered with water, benefits to arise out of land, things attached to the earth or permanently fastened to anything attached to the earth and rights created by legislative enactment over any street (12) "Land Revenue Code" means- (a) in the Bombay and Saurashtra areas of the State of Gujarat, the Bombay Land Revenue Code, 1879, and (b) in the Kutch area of the State of Gujarat, the said Code as applied to that area; (12A) "list of voters" means a list of voters published under sub-section (2) of section 9 for a ward within the meaning of that expression in sub-section (1) of section 7; (12B) "mobile tower" means a temporary or permanent structure, equipment or instrument erected or installed on land or upon any part of the building or premises for providing telecommunication services; (13) "Municipal Borough" means a transitional area, or as the case may be, a smaller urban area, as specified in clause (2) of article 243Q of the Constitution of India and includes other local areas already declared to be a municipal borough prior to the commencement of the Gujarat Municipalities (Amendment) Act, 1993; (14)"Municipality" means Nagar Panchayat constituted under section 5( 1) or as the case may be, "Municipal Council" constituted under section 5(2)"; (15) "nuisance" includes any act, omission, place or thing which causes or is likely to cause injury, danger, annoyance or offence to the sense of sight, smelling or hearing, or which is or may be dangerous to life or injurious to health or property; (17) "official year" means the year commencing on the first day of April; (18) "owner" includes the person for the time being receiving the rent of any land or building, whether on his own account or as agent or trustee for any other person or for any society or for any religious or charitable purposes, or who would so receive the rent if such land or building were let to a tenant; (19) "panchayat" means a panchayat of any class constituted under the Gujarat Panchayats Act, 1961; (20) "Population" in relation to the municipal borough means the population as ascertained in the last preceding census of which the relevent figures have been published; (20A) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under section 277; (21) "public securities" means- (a) securities of the Central Government and of the State Government, (b) stocks, debentures or shares in railway or other companies the interest whereon has been guaranteed by the Secretary of State for India in Council or the Central or the State Government, (c) debentures or other securities for money issued by or on behalf of any local authority in exercise of powers conferred by a Central Act or an Act of the Legislature of a State, or (d) a security expressly authorised by any order which the State Government makes in this behalf; (22) "public street" means any street- (a) over which the public have a right of way; or (b) heretofore levelled, paved, metalled, channelled, sewered or repaired out of municipal or other public funds; or (c) which under the provisions of section 147 or 148 is declared by the municipality to be, or under any other provisions of this Act becomes, a public street; (23) "private street" means a street which is not a public street; (24)"salaried servant of the Government" does not include a retired servant of the Government in receipt of a pension or a person in receipt of a salary from the Government who is not a full time servant of the Government; (24A) "State Election Commission" means State Election Commission referred to in article 243K of the Constitution of India; (25) "street" means any road, footway, square, court alley or passage, accessible whether permanently or temporarily to the public, whether a thoroughfare or not: and includes every vacant space, notwithstanding that it may be private property and partly or wholly obstructed by any gate, post, chain or other barrier, if houses, shops or other buildings abut thereon and if it is used by any persons as a means of access to or from any public place or thoroughfare, whether such persons be occupiers of such buildings or not; but does not include any part of such space which the occupier of any such building has a right at all hours to prevent all other persons from using as aforesaid; (26) "tax" means any tax, rate, cess, fee or other impost leviable under this Act, and includes a water rate; (27) "vehicle" includes bicycles, tricycles, motor cars, and every wheeled conveyance which is used or capable of being used on a public street; (28) "water closet" means a closet which has separate fixed receptacle connected to a drainage system and separate provision for flushing from a supply of clean water either by the operation of mechanism or by automatic action,