Definitions

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,- (a) "agricultural labourer" means a person who follows any one or more of the following agricultural operations in the capacity of a labourer on hire or exchange, whether paid in cash or in kind or partly in cash and partly in kind and who does not hold more than one standard acre of land and whose annual income does not exceed two thousand and four hundred rupees :- (i) farming including cultivation and tillage of soil, etc., (ii) dairy farming, (iii) production, cultivation, growing and harvesting of any horticulture commodity, (iv) raising of livestock, bees or poultry, and (v) 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; (b) "bank" means- (i) a banking company as defined in the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 ; (ii) the State Bank of India constituted under the State Bank of India Act, 1955 ; (iii) a subsidiary bank as defined in the State Bank of India (Subsidiary Banks) Act, 1959 ; (iv) a corresponding new Bank constituted under the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970 ; (v) the Agricultural Refinance and Development Corporation, constituted under the Agricultural Refinance and Development Corporation Act, 1963 ; (vi) the Agricultural Finance Corporation, a Company incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956 ; (vii) a Regional Rural Bank established under the Regional Rural Banks Act, 1976 ; and (viii) any other financial institution notified by the State Government in the official Gazette as a bank for the purposes of this Act ; (c) "Civil Court" includes- (i) any court exercising jurisdiction under the Provincial Insolvency Act, 1920 ; and (ii) a court exercising powers under the Provincial Small Cause Courts Act, 1887 ; (d) "Co-operative society" means a society registered or deemed to have been registered under the Orissa Co-operative Societies Act, 1962 ; (e) "debt" means all liabilities to a money-lender in cash or kind secured or unsecured, payable under a decree or order of a Civil Court or otherwise including any transaction which is in substance a debt, and subsisting on the date of the commencement of this Act whether due or not due ; (f) "money-lender" means a money-lender as defined in the Orissa Money-Lenders Act, 1939 ; (g) "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 also a person who normally earns his livelihood by practicing a craft either by his own labour or by the labour of the members of his family in the rural area and whose annual income does not exceed two thousand and four hundred rupees ; (h) "scheduled debtor" means a person who is a small farmer or a rural artisan or an agricultural labourer and who is primarily resident in the State of Orissa ; (i) "small farmer" means a person who owns land measuring not more than one standard acre and whose principal source of income is agriculture or any allied occupations ; (j) "standard acre" means a standard acre as defined in the Orissa Land Reforms Act, 1960.