Chapter I Chapter I

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, - (a) "agriculture" includes horticulture, farming, growing of crops, fruits, vegetables, flowers, grass, fodder and trees; or any kind of cultivation of soil, breeding and keeping of livestock including cattle, horses, donkeys, mules, pigs, fish, poultry and bees; the use of land which is ancillary to the farming of land or any other agricultural purposes; but does not include the use of any land attached to a building for the purposes of garden to be used along with such building and the expression "agricultural" shall be construed accordingly; (b) "amenities" means any one or more than one utilities such as roads, streets, open spaces, parks, recreational grounds, play grounds, water and electric supply, street lighting, sewerage, drainage, public works and other utilities, services and conveniences; (c) "Arbitrator" means an Arbitrator appointed as such under Section 102; (d) "Authority" means the Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority constituted under Section 17 or a Special Urban Planning and Development Authority constituted under Section 29 or a New Town Planning and Development Authority constituted under Section 31; (e) "Board" means the Punjab Regional and Town Planning and Development Board constituted under Section 3; (f) "building" means any construction or part of a construction which is intended to be used for residential, commercial, industrial or other purposes, whether in actual use or not, and includes any out-house, stable, cattle shed and garage; (g) "building operations" include - (i) erection or re-erection of a building or any part of it; (ii) roofing or re-roofing of a building or any part of a building or an open space; (iii) any material alteration or enlargement of any building; (iv) any such alteration of a building as is likely to affect an alteration of its drainage or sanitary arrangements, or materially affect its security; (v) the construction of a door opening on any street or land not belonging to the owner; (h) "bypass" means a road specified in the Schedule to this Act, provided as a permanent diversion to a scheduled road, whether such diversion is situated within or without the limits of local authority and whether it is constructed before or after the commencement of this Act and includes a road which is specified as bypass by the State Government, by notification, for the purposes of this Act; (i) "Chapter" means a Chapter of this Act; (j) "Chief Administrator" means the Chief Administrator of the Authority; (k) "commerce" means the carrying of any trade, business or profession, sale or exchange of goods of any type whatsoever, and includes the running of, with a view to make profits, hospitals or nursing homes, infirmaries, educational institutions, and also includes hotels, restaurants and boarding houses not attached to educational institutions and the expression "commercial" shall be construed accordingly; (l) "commercial use" includes the use of any land or building or part thereof for purposes of commerce or for storage of goods, or as an office, whether attached to any industry or otherwise; (m) "Competent Authority" shall mean any person or authority appointed by the State Government, by notification, to exercise and perform all or any of the powers and functions of the competent authority under this Act: Provided that in relation to an area falling within the jurisdiction of a Municipality or a Municipal Corporation the powers of the Competent Authority under Chapter XI of this Act, except the powers in respect of change of land use exercised under Section 81, shall be exercised and performed by the Municipality or the Municipal Corporation in whose jurisdiction such an area falls; (n) "court" means a principal civil court of original jurisdiction, and includes any other civil court empowered by the State Government to perform the functions of the court under this Act within the pecuniary and local limits of its jurisdiction; (o) "development" with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions means the carrying out of building, engineering, mining, quarrying or other operations in, on, over or under land or making of any structural or material change in any building or land including that which affects the appearance or any feature of a heritage site and includes demolition of any part or whole of the building or change in use of any building or land and also includes reclamation, redevelopment, a layout or sub-division of any land and the exemption "develop" shall be construed accordingly; (oo) "development right" means a right to carry out development or to develop the land or building or both and shall include the transferable development right in the form of right to utilise the floor area ratio of land utilisable either on the remainder of the land partially reserved for the public purpose or elsewhere, as may be provided in the zoning regulations; (p) "engineering operations" include the formation or laying out of means of access to a road or the laying out of means of water supply, drainage, sewerage or of electricity cables or lines or of telephone lines or any other communication lines of cables; (q) "erect or re-erect" any building includes, - (i) any material alteration or enlargement of any building; (ii) the conversion, by structural alteration, into place for human habitation of any building not originally constructed for human habitation; (iii) the conversion into more than one place for human habitation of a building originally constructed as one such place; (iv) the conversion of two or more places of human habitation into a greater number of such places; (v) such alterations of a building as effect an alteration of its drainage or sanitary arrangements or materially effect its security; (vi) the addition of any rooms, buildings, out-houses, or other structures to any building; and (vii) 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; (r) "Estate Officer" means a person appointed by the Authority to perform the functions of an Estate Officer under this Act; (rr) "floor area ratio" means the ratio derived by dividing, the total covered area of all floors by the area of plot; (rrr) "Heritage site" includes buildings, artefacts, structures, areas, precincts of historical or aesthetical or architectural or educational or scientific or cultural or environmental significance and those natural features of environmental significance or scenic beauty as may be declared as such by the Competent Authority by a notification; (s) "Land" includes benefits to arise out of land and things attached to the earth or permanently fastened to anything attached to the earth; (t) "local authority" means a Municipal Corporation, a Municipal Committee, a Municipal Council, a Town Improvement Trust, a Cantonment Board, a Zila Parishad, a Panchayat Samiti or a Gram Panchayat, or, any other authority entrusted with the functions of a local authority under any law for the time being in force; (u) "Master Plan" means Master plan prepared under this Act and includes a New Town Development Plan; (v) "means of access" includes any means of access, whether private or public, for vehicles or for foot passengers, and includes a road; (w) "member" means a member of the Board or a member of the Authority and includes - (i) the Chairman and the Member Secretary, in the case of the Board; and (ii) the Chairman, Vice-Chairman and the Chief Administrator, in the case of the Authority; (x) "occupier" include, - (a) a tenant; (b) an owner in occupation of, or otherwise using his land or building or part thereof; (c) a rent-free occupant of any land or building or part thereof; (d) a licensee in occupation of any land or building or part thereof; (e) any person, who is liable to pay to the owner damages for the use and occupation of any land or building or part thereof; (y) "operational construction" means any construction whether temporary or permanent, which is necessary for operation, maintenance, development or execution of any of the following services, namely :- (i) railways; (ii) national highways; (iii) national waterways; (iv) airways and aerodromes; (v) posts and telegraphs, telephone, wireless, broadcasting and other such like forms of communication; (vi) regional grid for electricity; (vii) any other service which the State Government may, if it is of opinion that the operation, maintenance, development or execution of such other service is essential to the life of the community, by notification, declare to be a service for the purposes of this clause; Explanation. - For the removal of doubts, it is hereby declared that the construction of - (i) new residential buildings except those connected with operations like gate lodges, hospitals, clubs, institutions, schools, railway colonies, roads, drains and the like in the case of railways; and (ii) a new building, new structure of a new installation or any extension thereof, in the case of any other service, shall not be deemed to be construction within the meaning of this clause; (z) "owner" includes a mortgagee in possession, a person who for the time being is receiving or is entitled to receive, or has received, the rent or premium of any land whether on his own account or on account of or on behalf of or for the benefit of any other person or as an agent, trustee, guardian, or receiver for any other person or for any religious or charitable institution or who would so receive the rent or premium or be entitled to receive the rent or premium if the land were let to a tenant; and includes the Head of a Government Department, General Manager of a Railway, the Secretary or other principal officer of a local authority, statutory authority or company, in respect of properties under their respective control; (za) "Planning Agency" means the Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority, a Special Urban Planning and Development Authority, a New Town Planning and Development Authority, a local authority or the Town and Country Planning Wing of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, designated as such by the State Government under Section 57 of this Act for a planning area; (zb) "planning area" means a regional planning area, a local planning area or a site for a new town declared as such under Section 56 of this Act; (zc) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act; (zd) "reconstituted plot" means a plot which is altered in ownership or in any other way by the framing of a town development scheme under this Act; (ze) "Regional Plan" means a Regional Plan prepared under Chapter IX of this Act; (zf) "regulations" means regulations made by the Board, or the Authority under this Act; (zg) "road reservation in relation to a scheduled road" means the land, whether metalled or unmetalled, which vests in the State Government or the Central Government or a local authority, for the purposes of such road and the boundaries of which are demarcated by pillars, post or wires or in any other manner; (zh) "rules" means rules made under this Act; (zi) "scheduled road" means a road specified in the schedule to this Act which is wholly situated within the State of Punjab and where any road so specified is not so wholly situated, the portion of such road which is situated in the State of Punjab, and includes a "by-pass" and shall also include any road which the State Government may, by notification, add to the schedule to this Act.; (zj) "scheme" means any town and development scheme framed under this Act; (zk) "section" means the section of this Act; (zl) "State Government" means the Government of the State of Punjab; and (zm) "transferee" means a person, including a firm or other body of individuals, whether incorporated or not, to whom a site or building is sold, leased or transferred under this Act and includes his successors and assignees; and (zn) "Tribunal of Appeal" means the Tribunal of Appeal appointed as such under Section 105. In the Punjab Regional and Town Planning and Development Act, 1995, in section 43, after sub-section (7), the following sub-section shall be added, namely:- "(8) The terms and conditions for the disposal of land or building to be determined under this section shall be in consonance with the provisions of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (Central Act No. 16 of 2016) and the rules made thereunder.".