Definitions.

2. Definitions. In this Act, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context,- (1) [xxxxxxx] (2) "backward classes" means such classes of citizens other than scheduled castes and scheduled tribes as may be identified and notified for the purposes of reservation for appointments or posts in the services under the State Government ; (3) "building" means any shop, house, hut, out-house, stable, a factory, an industrial shed and a temporary structure erected by means of tents and structures, raised for entertainment purposes whether roofed or not and whether used for the purposes of human habitation or otherwise and whether of masonry, bricks, wood, mud, thatch, metal or any other material whatever, and includes a wall and a well; (4) "building line" means a line beyond which the outer face or any part of an external wall of a building may not project in the direction of any street, existing or proposed ; (5) "built area" is that portion of a municipality of which the greater part has been developed as a business or residential area; (6) "bye-laws" mean bye-laws made under this Act; (6-a). “cattle” means domestic animals and includes elephants, camels, buffaloes, cows, oxen, horses, mares, geldings, ponies, colts, fillies, mules, asses, pigs, rams, ewes, sheep, lambs, goats and kids;”; and (7) "committee" means a committee of a municipality, constituted or deemed to have been constituted by or under this Act ; (8) "compost manure" means the produce prepared from dung by subjecting it to the process of compost making in the manner prescribed by rules ; (9) "Deputy Commissioner" or "Deputy Commissioners of the districts" includes Additional Deputy Commissioners, or any other officer at any time appointed by the State Government to perform in any district or districts the functions of a Deputy Commissioner under this Act ; (10) "Director" means the Director of Urban Local Bodies appointed by the State Government; (11) "District" means a revenue district; (12) "District Planning Committee" means a committee constituted under article 234 ZD of the Constitution of India and under section 185 of the Himachal Pradesh Panchayati Raj Act, 1994 (4 of 1994) at the district level to consolidate the plans prepared by the Panchayats and the municipalities in the district ; (13) "dry latrine" means a latrine from which the excreta is removed manually ; (14) "dung" means night soil, sewage, sullage, sludge, refuse, filth or rubbish or animal matter of any kind ; (15) "election" means and includes the entire election process commencing on and from the date of notification calling for such election of members and ending with the date of declaration and notification of results thereof ; (16) "erect or re-erect any building" includes- (a) any material alteration or enlargement of any buildings; (b) the conversion by structural alteration into a place 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 at one such place ; (d) the conversion of two or more places of human habitation into a greater number of such places ; (e) such alterations of a building as effect an alteration of its drainage or sanitary arrangements, or materially affects its security ; (f) the additions of any rooms, buildings, out-houses or other structures to any building ; (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.; (17) "Executive Officer" means a person, by whatever name called, appointed under section 305 of this Act to discharge the functions of the Executive Officer in relation to a Municipal Council and that of Secretary in relation to a Nagar Panchayat ; (18) "explosive" and "petroleum" have the meanings, assigned to those words in the Indian Explosive Act, 1884, (4 of 1984) and the Petroleum Act, 1934 (30 of 1934), respectively; (19) "factory" shall have the meaning assigned to it in the Factory Act, 1948 (63 of 1948); (20) "infectious disease" means cholera, plague, small-pox, tuberculosis or such other dangerous disease as the State Government may notify in this behalf. (21) “inhabitant” include any person ordinarily residing or carrying on business, or owning or occupying immovable property, in any municipality; or in any local area which the State Government has by notification under this Act, proposed to declare to be a municipality; and in case of any dispute; means any person or persons declare by the Deputy Commissioner to be inhabitant or inhabitants; (22) “municipal council” means the municipal council constituted by or under this Act; (23) “municipal area” means the territorial area of municipality notified by the state Government and Include any territorial area which form part of municipality and commencement of this Act‘ (24) “municipality” means an institution of Self Government constituted as a Nagar Panchayat or municipal council under this Act; (25) “Nagar Panchayat” means the Nagar Panchayat constituted under this Act; (26) “nuisance” includes any act, omission , place or thing which causes is likely to cause injury, danger, annoyance or offence to the sense of sight, smell or hearing or which is or may be dangerous to life or injurious to health or property ; (27) “occupier” include an owner in actual occupation of his own land or building, and also any person for the time being paying or liable to pay to the owner the rent or any portion of the rent of the land or building in respect of which the word is used; for the proposes of Chapters VI and X, occupier shall include hotel-keeper, lodging house-keeper, and any owner whose premises are let to more than one tenant; (28) “Office bearer” means in relation to a municipality a member , Vice-President or a President of a municipality and in relation to municipal corporation , a councillor, Mayer or Deputy Mayer of the Municipal corporation and in relation to a panchayat an office bearer of panchayat as defined in clause (23) of section 2 of the Himachal Pradesh Panchayti Raj Act, 1994 ‘ (29) “owner” include the person for the time being receiving the rent of land and buildings, or either of them, whether on his own account or as agent or trustee for any person or society or for any religious or charitable purpose, or who would so receive the same if the land or building were let to tenant; (30) “panchayat” means an institution of self-government (by whatever name called) constituted for rural areas under the Himachal Pradesh Panchayti Raj Act,1994; (31) “population” means the population as ascertained at the last preceding census of which the relevant figures has been published; (32) “public place” means a place which is open to the use or enjoyment of the public whether or not private property and whether or not vested in the municipality; (33) “public street” shall mean any street --- (i) heretofore levelled, paved, metalled, channelled, sewered or repaired out of municipal or other public funds unless before such work was carried out there was an agreement with the proprietor that the street should not thereby become a public street or unless such work was done without the implied or express consent of proprietor; or (ii) Which under the provisions of Section 182 is declared by the municipality to be or under any other provisions of this Act become, a public street; (33-a) 'ratable value' shall mean,— (a) In the case of land, the ratable value shall be based upon per square metre of the actual area of land multiplied by the unit area rate of tax and relevant factors prescribed for the particular zone and in the case of building, the ratable value shall be based upon per square metre of plinth area multiplied by unit area rate of tax and relevant factor prescribed for the particular zone; (28) ―Office bearer‖ means in relation to a municipality a member , Vice-President or a President of a municipality and in relation to municipal corporation , a councillor, Mayer or Deputy Mayer of the Municipal corporation and in relation to a panchayat an office bearer of panchayat as defined in clause (23) of section 2 of the Himachal Pradesh Panchayti Raj Act, 1994 ; (29) ―owner‖ include the person for the time being receiving the rent of land and buildings, or either of them, whether on his own account or as agent or trustee for any person or society or for any religious or charitable purpose, or who would so receive the same if the land or building were let to tenant; (30) ―panchayat‖ means an institution of self-government (by whatever name called) constituted for rural areas under the Himachal Pradesh Panchayti Raj Act,1994; (31) ―population‖ means the population as ascertained at the last preceding census of which the relevant figures has been published; (32) ―public place‖ means a place which is open to the use or enjoyment of the public whether or not private property and whether or not vested in the municipality; (33) ―public street‖ shall mean any street— (i) heretofore levelled, paved, metalled, channelled, sewered or repaired out of municipal or other public funds unless before such work was carried out there was an agreement with the proprietor that the street should not thereby become a public street or unless such work was done without the implied or express consent of proprietor; or (ii) Which under the provisions of Section 182 is declared by the municipality to be or under any other provisions of this Act become, a public street; (33-a) 'ratable value' shall mean,— (a) In the case of land, the ratable value shall be based upon per square metre of the actual area of land multiplied by the unit area rate of tax and relevant factors prescribed for the particular zone and in the case of building, the ratable value shall be based upon per square metre of plinth area multiplied by unit area rate of tax and relevant factor prescribed for the particular zone; (b) for levy of tax on lands and buildings, the entire municipal area shall be divided into different zones and each zone shall have relevant factors having different values; (c) for the purpose of determination of unit area tax, there shall be five factors i.e (i) location (ii) occupancy (iii) age of building (iv) use of building and (v) type of structure. Each factor shall have different value for different zone as may be determined by the municipality, from time to time; and (d) the mode for levy, calculation and assessment of tax as per provisions of this Act, which relates to the classification, usages of the buildings, or apportionment of buildings, or vacant land and open spaces forming part of the land and building shall be prescribed by bye-laws: Provided that annual deduction of ten per cent on the ratable value of building shall be allowed on account of repair and maintenance expenses necessary for the maintenance of the building and a rebate of ten percent shall also be allowed on the amount of tax, in case the amount of tax specified in the bill is paid within fifteen days from the date of receipt of such bill, however, this rebate shall not be applicable in the case of defaulters who are in arrear of tax. (34) ―rule‖ mean the rule made under this Act; (35) ―scheduled caste‖ shall have the same meaning as assigned to it clause (24) of the article 366 of the constitution of India ; (36) ―scheduled tribe‖ shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in clause (25) of article 366 of the Constitution of India; (37) ―State Election Commission‖ means the State Election Commission constituted by the State Government under article 243k and 243ZA of the Constitution of India and section 160 of Himachal Pradesh Panchayti Raj Act ,1994; (38) ―State Finance Commission‖ means the State Finance Commission constituted by the State Government under article 243-1 and 243-Y of the Constitution of India and section 98 of Himachal Pradesh Panchayti Raj Act ,1994; (39) ―street‖ shall mean any road, footway square, court, ally or passage accessible, whether permanently or the temporary to the public, and whether a thoroughfare or not; and shall include every vacant space , notwithstanding that it may be private property of partly or wholly obstructed by any gate, posts, chain or other barrier, if houses, shops or other building abut thereon, and if it is used by any person as a means of access to or from any public place or thoroughfare, whether such person be occupiers of such buildings or not, but shall not include any part of such space which the occupier of any such space which the occupier of any such building has a right at all hours to prevent all other persons from using as aforesaid, and shall include also the drains or gutters therein, or on either side and the land, whether covered or not by any pavement, varandah or other erection, upto the boundary of any abutting property not accessable to the public; (40) ―unbuilt area‖ is an area within the municipal limits which is declared to be such at a special meeting of the municipality by a resolution confirmed by the State Government, or which is modified as such by the State Government; (41) ―vehicle‖ includes bicycle, tricycle and auto motor car and every wheeled conveyance which is used or capable of being used on a public street.