Chapter I PRELIMINARY

(1) This Act may be called the Himachal Pradesh Relief of Agricultural Indebtedness Act, 1976. (2) It extends to the whole of the State of Himachal Pradesh. (3) It shall come into force at once.

1. (2) It extends to the whole of the State of Himachal Pradesh.
2. (3) It shall come into force at once.

(a) “agriculturist” means a person who cultivates land personally; (b) “appointed day” means the 13th November, 1975; (c) “appellate officer” means an officer appointed under sub- 1. For Statement of Objects and Reasons, see Rajpatra, Himachal Pradesh (Extraordinary) dated. 21st February, 1976, p. 634. section (1) of section 19; (d) “authority” means one or more persons to be appointed by the State Government as authorities by a notification for carrying out the purposes of this Act, in respect of areas to be specified in such notification; (e) “civil court” includes,- (i) any court exercising jurisdiction under the Provincial Insolvency Act, 1920 (5 of 1920); (ii) a Nyaya Panchayat established under the Himachal Pradesh Panchayati Raj Act, 1968 (19 of 1970); (iii) a court exercising powers W1der the Provincial Small Cause Courts Act, 1887 (9 of 1887); (f) “debt” with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions means any liability in cash or kind, whether secured or unsecured, due from a debtor whether payable under a decree or order of any civil court or otherwise; (g) “debtor” means a marginal farmer, a landless agricultural labourer or a rural artisan who is in debt; but does not include a small farmer; (h) “to hold land” with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions means to be lawfully in actual possession of land as owner, tenant or Government lessee and the expression “holding” shall be construed, accordingly; (i) “landless agricultural labourer” means a person who does not hold any land and whose principal means of livelihood is manual labour on agricultural land and includes a person who follows anyone or more of the following agricultural occupations in the capacity of labourer on hire or exchange, whether paid in cash, in kind or partly in cash and partly in kind:- (a) farming including cultivation and tillage of soil etc; (b) dairy farming; (c) production, cultivation, growing and harvesting of horticultural commodity; (d) raising of livestock, bees or poultry; and (e) 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; (j) “Local authority” means a Municipal Corporation or Municipal Committee, a Notified Area Committee or a Cantonment Board, as the case may be, constituted or deemed to have been constituted under any law relating to local authority for the time being in force; (k) “marginal farmer” means an agriculturist who earns his livelihood mainly by agriculture and who holds land not exceeding one hectare of unirrigated or half hectare of irrigated land: Provided that if a marginal farmer holds both classes of land then the area for the purpose of this clause shall be determined on the basis of half hectare of irrigated land counting as one hectare of unirrigated land and on the basis of this conversion ratio the total area of such farmer shall not exceed one hectare; (l) “member of a family” means father, mother, spouse, brother, unmarried dependant sister, divorced and dependent sister, son, son’s wife, or unmarried daughter, divorced and dependent daughter, son’s son, sons’ unmarried daughter, son’s divorced and dependent daughter and includes any relation residing with and actually dependant for his maintenance on the debtor; (m) “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 articles or things used for agriculture purposes or purposes ancillary thereto and also person who normally earns his livelihood by practising a craft either by his own labour or by the help of the labour of the members of his family in the rural area and whose annual house-hold income does not exceed two thousand and four hundred rupees; (n) “rural area” means an area outside the jurisdiction of a local authority; (o) “small farmer” means an agriculturist who earns his livelihood mainly by agriculture and who holds more than one hectare and less than two hectares of unirrigated or more than half hectare and less than one hectare of irrigated land: Provided that if a small farmer holds both classes of land then the area for the purpose of this clause shall be determined on the basis of one hectare of irrigated land counting as two hectares of unirrigated land and on the basis of this conversion ratio the total area of such farmer shall not exceed two hectares; (p) words and expressions used in this Act but not defined therein shall have the meanings, respectively assigned to them in the Himachal Pradesh Ceiling on Land Holdings Act, 1972 (19 of 1973). (2) If a question arises whether a person is a marginal or small farmer, or a landless agricultural labourer or a rural artisan, the question shall be referred to an officer not below the rank of a Tehsildar duly appointed by the State Government in that behalf and the decision of such officer on the question shall be final and conclusive and shall not be called in question in any civil court: Provided that no such question shall be decided unless an opportunity has been given to the interested parties to be heard.