Definitions

In this Act, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context— (1) “Bank” means a company carrying on the business of banking and registered under any of the enactments relating to companies for the time being in force in the United Kingdom or in any of the Colonies or Dependencies thereof or in any Part A State or Part C State or incorporated by an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom or by Royal Charter or Letters Patent or by any Act of Parliament. (2) “Company” means a company registered under any of the enactments relating to companies for the time being in force in the United Kingdom or any of the Colonies or Dependencies thereof or in any Part A State or Part C State or incorporated by an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom or by Royal Charter or Letters Patent and includes Life Assurance Companies to which the Indian Life Assurance Companies Act, 1912, applies. (3) “Co-operative Society” means a society registered under the provisions of Co-operative Societies Act, 1912. (4) “Court” includes a court acting in the exercise of insolvency jurisdiction. (5) “Creditor” means a person who in the regular course of business advances a loan as defined in this Act and shall include subject to the provisions of section 3 the legal representatives and the successor-in-interest whether by inheritance, assignment or otherwise of the person who advanced the loan. (6) “Interest” includes the return to be made over and above what was actually lent, whether the same is charged or sought to be recovered specifically by way of interest or otherwise. (7) “Loan” means an advance whether of money or in kind at interest and shall include any transaction which the court finds to be in substance a loan, but it shall not include— (i) a deposit of money or other property in a Government Post Office, Bank or any other Bank or in a company or with a co-operative society; (ii) a loan to or by or a deposit with any society or association registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, or under any other enactment; (iii) a loan advanced by the Central or any State Government or by any local body authorised by the Central or any State Government; (iv) a loan advanced by a bank, a co-operative society or a company whose accounts are subject to audit by a certificated auditor under the Companies Act; (v) a loan advanced to a trader; (vi) an advance made on the basis of a negotiable instrument as defined in the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, other than a promissory note; (vii) a transaction which is, in substance, a mortgage or a sale of immoveable property. (8) “Prescribed” means prescribed by rules made under this Act. (9) “Trader” means a person who in the regular course of business buys and sells goods or other property, whether moveable or immoveable, and shall include— a wholesale or a retail merchant, a commission agent, a broker, a manufacturer, a contractor, a factory owner, but shall not include a person who sells his own agricultural produce or cattle, or buys agricultural produce or cattle for his own use.