Definitions

Definitions. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, -- (1) “adult unmarried person” means an unmarried person who has attained eighteen years of age; (1A) “Agricultural labourer” means a person whose principal means of livelihood is the income he gets as wages, in connection with the agricultural operations he performs; (2) “Agricultural year” means the year commencing with the 1st April in any year and ending with the 31st March of the year next succeeding, provided that the Collector may, with respect to any crop, area or category of land, by notification in the Official Gazette, specify the year between such other dates, as he may deem fit, as an agricultural year; (2A) “appellate authority” means an appellate authority constituted under section 109A; (3) “ceiling area” means the extent of land specified in section 92 as the ceiling area; (4) “Collector” means the chief officer in charge of the revenue administration of the Union territory of Puducherry, and includes in relation to any function to be performed by the Collector under this Act, such other officer not below the rank of a gazetted officer as the Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint for the purpose; (5) “commercial site” means any land (not being a kudiyiruppu or kudikidappu or karaima) which is used principally for the purposes of any trade, commerce, industry, manufacture or business; (6) “court” means where a particular court is not specifically mentioned, the court having jurisdiction, under the law for the time being in force relating to civil procedure, to entertain the suit for the possession of the holding or part thereof to which any legal proceeding under this Act relates; (7) “cultivate” with its grammatical variations means cultivate either solely by one’s own labour or with the help of the members of his family or hired labourers or both, or personally direct or supervise cultivation by such members or hired labourers or both, provided that such members or hired labourers have not agreed to pay or to take any fixed proportion or the produce of the land they cultivate as compensation for being allowed to cultivate it or as remuneration for cultivating it and in the case of a member of the Armed Forces or a seaman, “cultivation” includes cultivation on his behalf by any other person. Explanation. – For the purposes of this clause, “members of family” shall mean, -- (i) in the case of lands held by a joint family, members of such family; and (ii) in any other case, wife or husband, as the case may be, and the lineal descendants; (8) “cultivating tenant” means a tenant who is in actual possession of, and is entitled to cultivate, the land comprised in his holding; (9) “customary dues” means anything, other than rent, michavaram or renewal fees, -- (i) payable in cash or in kind by a tenant to his landlord; or (ii) allowed to be taken by the landlord form the holding. periodically or on the happening of any event or on the occasion of any festival, and includes onakazhcha, utsavakoppu, perunnalkazhcha, nombacharam and vishoukazhcha; (10) “double-crop nilam” means nilam on which more than one crop of paddy is ordinarily raised in an agricultural year; (11) “dry land” means land which is not nilam, garden or palliyal land; (12) “eviction” means the recovery of possession of land from a tenant or the recovery of a kudikidappu from the occupation of the kudikidappukaran; (13) “fair rent” means the rent payable by a cultivating tenant under section 33 or section 37 or section 39; (14) “family” means husband, wife and their unmarried minor children or such of them as exist; (15) “garden” means land used principally for growing coconut tree, arecanut trees or pepper vines, of any two or more of the same; (16) “Government” means the Administrator of the Union territory of Puducherry appointed by the President of India under article 239 of the Constitution; (17) “gross produce”, in the case of a nilam means the normal produce of than nilam less the cost of harvesting and, in the case of a garden or dry land, means the normal produce of that garden or dry land: (18) “holding” means a parcel or parcels of land held under a single transaction by a tenant from a landlord and shall include any portion of a holding as above defined which the landlord and the tenant have agreed or are bound to treat as a separate holding. Explanation I. – Where by act of parties or by operation of law, the interest of the tenant in his holding has been severed before the commencement of the Mahe Land Reforms (Amendment) Act, 1980, splitting up the holding into two more parts, or where a portion of the holding has been sub-leased, before the commencement of this Act, each such part or, as the case may be, each of the portions retained by the tenant and sub-leased, shall be deemed to be a separate holding. Explanation II. – Any land in respect of which a person is deemed to be a tenant under section 4, section 4A, section 4B, section 5, section 6, section 6A or section 6B shall be a holding for the purposes of this Act; (19) “improvement” means any work or product of a work which adds to the value of the holding, and includes --- (a) the erection of dwelling houses, building, appurtenant thereto and farm buildings; (b) the construction of tanks, wells, channels, dams and other works for the storage or supply of water for agricultural or domestic purposes; (c) the preparation of land for irrigation; (d) the conversion of single-crop into double-crop land;