Definitions

In this Act, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context,-

1. (1) "bank" means a company carrying on the business of banking and-
   • (i) registered under any of the enactments relating to companies for the time being in force in India or in the United Kingdom or in any of the British Dominions, or in any of the Colonies or Dependencies of the United Kingdom, or
   • (ii) incorporated by an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom or by Royal Charter or Letters Patent or by any Central Act;
2. (2) "company" means a company-
   • (a) registered under any of the enactments relating to companies for the time being in force in India or in the United Kingdom or in any of the British Dominions, or any of the Colonies or Dependencies of the United Kingdom, or
   • (b) incorporated by an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom or by Royal Charter or Letters Patent or by any Central Act;
3. (3) "co-operative society" means a society registered or deemed to be registered under the Madras Co-operative Societies Act, 1932;
4. (4) "Court" includes a court acting in the exercise of insolvency jurisdiction;
5. (5) "creditor" means a person, including a pawnbroker, who in the regular course of business advances a loan and includes the legal representative and the successor-in-interest whether by inheritance, assignment or otherwise of the person who advanced the loan;
6. (6) "interest" does not include any sum lawfully charged in accordance with the provisions of this Act by a creditor for or on account of cost, charges, or expenses, but save as aforesaid, includes any amount, by whatsoever name called, in excess of the principal, paid or payable to a creditor in consideration of or otherwise in respect of a loan;
7. (7) "loan" means an advance of money or in kind at interest, being for a sum, or being of a value, of less than five hundred rupees at a time in any one transaction, and includes any transaction which the Court finds in substance to amount to such an advance but does not include-
   • (i) a deposit of money or other property in a Government Post Office Savings Bank, or in a bank, in a company or with a co-operative society;
   • (ii) an advance made by a bank, a company or a co-operative society;
   • (iii) an advance made by Government or by any person authorized by Government to make advances in their behalf, or by any local authority;
   • (iv) an advance made by any person bona fide carrying on any business, not having for its primary object the lending of money, if such loan is advanced in the regular course of such business;
   • (v) an advance made by a landlord to his tenant, by a lessor to his lessee, by one partner in cultivation or co-sharer to another for the purpose of carrying on agriculture;
   • (vi) an advance made on the basis of a negotiable instrument as defined in the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, other than a promissory note;
8. (8) "pawnbroker" means a person who carries on the business of taking goods and chattels in pawn for a loan;
9. (9) "pawner" means a person delivering an article for pawn to a pawnbroker;
10. (10) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act; and
11. (11) "principal" means in relation to a loan the amount actually lent to the debtor.