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 the Companies Act, 1956.

(2) ‘company‘ means a company registered under the Companies Act, 1956.

(3) ‘co-operative society‘ means a society registered under the Hyderabad Co-operative Credit Societies Act No. II of 1323 F.

(4) ‘loan‘ means a loan secured or unsecured, advanced on interest in cash or in kind, and shall include every transaction which is in substance a loan, but shall not include the following:-

(a) a deposit of money or other property in a Post Office or in a bank or in a company or with a co-operative society;

(b) a loan to or by and deposit with, any society or association registered under any law;

(c) a loan advanced by Government or by any local authority authorised by Government;

(d) a loan advanced by a bank, a co-operative society or a company;

(e) a sum of money advanced on the basis of a negotiable instrument as defined in the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 other than a promissory note;

(f) a loan advanced to an agricultural labourer by his employer;

(g) a loan advanced by one trader to another trader in the ordinary course of business, in accordance with practice in trade;

(h) a sum of money payable to a trader by a person other than a cultivator or a labourer for articles sold on which interest is charged by reason of non-payment on due date;

(5) ‘principal‘ means the amount of loan actually advanced to the debtor;

(6) ‘interest‘ includes the return to be made expressly or impliedly in excess of the actual amount of loan advanced;

(7) ‘money lender‘ means a person including a pawn-broker, who, within the meaning of this Act, only advances loan in the ordinary course of his business or does so along with other business, and shall also include the legal representative of such person and the person claiming to be his representative on the ground of succession or assignment or otherwise;

(8) ‘pawn-broker‘ means a person who in the ordinary course of his business advances loan and takes goods in pawn as security for payment of such loan;

(9) ‘trader‘ means a person who in the ordinary course of his business buys and sells goods and property and shall also include the following persons:- a wholesale dealer and retailer, a commission agent, a broker, a controller of factory, a contractor, a factory owner, but shall not include a person who sells only his non-agricultural produce or cattle or buys agricultural produce or cattle for his own use;

(10) ‘cultivator‘ shall mean a person who is a member of the agricultural class within the meaning of the Prevention of Agricultural Land Alienation Act No.III of 1349 F. and whose main source of livelihood is agriculture;

(11) ‘labourer‘ shall mean a person who earns his livelihood merely by physical labour and who receives wages in cash or in kind not exceeding one rupee per day or thirty rupees per month;

(12) ‘prescribed‘ shall mean prescribed by rules made under this Act;

(13) ‘stranger‘ means a person who is not a citizen of India within the meaning of the Citizenship Act, 1955 (Central Act 57 of 1955).