Chapter I Chapter I

Preliminary

1. (1) This Act may be called the 2[Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation] Act, 1955.
2. (2) It extends to the 2[city comprised by Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation] and shall come into force at once.

-1 2. In this Act, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context,-

1. (1) 'bakery or bake-house' means any place in which bread, biscuits, or confectionery are baked, cooked or prepared in any manner whatsoever for the purpose of sale;
2. (2) 'budget grant' means the total sum entered on the expenditure side of a budget estimate under a major head and finally adopted by the Corporation;
3. (3) 'building' includes a house, out-house, stable, latrine, godown, shed, hut, wall, fencing, platform and any other structure whether of masonry, bricks, wood, mud, metal or of any other material whatsoever;
4. (4) 'business' includes any trade, commerce or manufacture, or an adventure or any concern in the nature of trade, commerce or manufacture; [(4-a) 'ceiling limit' means the ceiling limit as specified in section 4 of the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, 1976;]
5. (5) 'cesspool' includes a settlement tank or other tank for the reception or disposal of foul matter from buildings; [(6) 'city' means the area declared by the State Government by notification to be the City of Greater Hyderabad.]
6. (7) 'Commissioner' means the Municipal Commissioner for the city appointed under section 104 and includes an acting commissioner appointed under section 110;
7. (8) 'company' means a company as defined in [the Companies Act, 1956] or formed in pursuance central Act of an Act of Parliament or of an Act of the of I956 Legislature of a State and includes any firm or association carrying on business in the [Telangana area of the State of Telangana] whether incorporated, or its principal place of business is situate therein, or not;
8. (9) 'the corporation' means the Municipal Corporation of the City;
9. (10) '#[Member]' means a person who is duly elected or deemed to be duly elected as a #[Member] of the Corporation under this Act;
10. (11) 'cubical contents' when used with reference to the measurement of a building means the space contained within the external surface of its walls and roof and the upper surface of the floor of its lowest storey, or where the building consists of one storey only, the upper surface of its floor;
11. (12) 'dairy' includes any farm, milk store, milk shop or other place from which milk is supplied only on or for sale or in which milk is kept for the purposes of sale, or manufactured into butter, ghee, cheese, curd or dried or condensed milk, for sale, and in the case of a dairy-man who does not occupy any place for the sale of milk, includes the place where he keeps the vessels used by him for the sale of milk, but does not include -
    • (a) a shop from which milk is not supplied otherwise than in a properly closed and unopened vessel in which it was delivered to the shop; or
    • (b) a shop or other place in which milk is sold for consumption on the premises only;
12. (13) 'dairy-man' includes any occupier of a dairy, any keeper of milch-kine who trades in milk, or any person who sells milk whether wholesale, or by retail;
13. (14) 'drain' includes a sewer, tunnel, pipe, ditch, gutter or channel and any cistern, flush tank, septic tank or other device for carrying off or treating sewage, offensive matter, polluted water, sullage, waste water, rain water, or sub-soil water and any culvert, ventilation shaft or pipe or other appliance or fitting connected therewith, and any ejector, compressed air main, sealed sewage main and special machinery or apparatus for raising, collecting, expelling or removing sewage or offensive matter from any place; [(14-a) 'Drainage' includes all liquid discharges except sewerage;]
14. (15) 'eating house' means any premises to which the public or any section of the public are admitted and where food is prepared, supplied or sold for consumption on the premises for the profit or gain of any person owning or having an interest in or managing such premises; [(15-A) 'election authority' means such officer or authority as may appointed by the State Election Commission to exercise such powers and to perform such functions in connection with the conduct of elections to the Municipal Corporations;]
15. (16) 'Election Tribunal' means a tribunal constituted under section 75;
16. (17) 'Factory' means a factory as defined in the Factories Act, 1948, and includes any premises as also its precincts wherein an industrial, manufacturing or trade process is carried with the aid of steam, water, oil, gas, electricity or any other form of power which is mechanically transmitted and is not generated by human or animal agency;
17. (18) 'filth' means-
    • (a) night soil or other contents of latrines, cess-pools and drains:
    • (b) dirt, dung, refuse, useless or offensive material thrown out in consequence of any process of manufacture, industry or trade; and
    • (c) putrid or putrifying substance; [(18-a) 'Finance Commission' means the Finance Commission constituted by the Governor under article 243-I of the Constitution of India;]
18. (19) 'financial year' means the year beginning on the first day of April or such other date as the Government may by notification appoint;
19. (20) 'food' includes every article other than drugs and water used by human beings for purposes of eating or drinking, any material or substance used or admixed in the composition, preparation, flavouring or colouring of such article and all confectionery, spices and condiments;
20. (21) 'frame building' means a building the external walls of which are constructed of timber framing or iron framing, and the stability of which depends on such frames;
21. (22) 'goods' includes animals; [(22-a) 'high rise building' means and includes all buildings with eighteen
22. (18) meters or more in height measured from the average level of the central line of street on which the site abuts. Staircase rooms, Lift rooms, Chimneys, elevated tanks above the top most floor and architectural features are excluded from the height of such buildings;]
23. (23) 'house-drain' means any drain of, and used for the drainage of, one or more buildings or premises and made merely for the purpose of communication with a municipal drain;
24. (24) 'house-gully' means a passage or strip of land constructed, set apart or utilised for the purpose of serving as a drain or for affording access to municipal servants or to persons employed in the cleansing of a privy, urinal, cesspool or other receptacle for filth or polluted matter, or in the removal of such matter therefrom;
25. (25) 'hut' means any building which is constructed principally of wood, mud, leaves, grass, cloth or thatches and includes any temporary structure, of whatever size or material, which the Corporation may for the purposes of this Act declare to be a hut;
26. (26) 'infectious disease' means cerebro-spinal fever, chicken-pox, cholera, diphtheria, enteric fever, epidemic influenza, leprosy, measles, plague, rabies, scarlet fever, small-pox, tuberculosis, typhus, yaws, or any other disease which the Government may by notification declare to be prevalent either generally throughout State or City or in such part or parts thereof as may be specified in the notification;
27. (27) 'the judge' means [in the cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, the Chief Judge, Court of Small Causes, Hyderabad] and shall include a Sub-Judge to whom such Judge may transfer in accordance with the provision of this Act an application or appeal for disposal;
28. (28) 'land' includes land which is being built upon or is built upon or covered with water, benefits to arise out of land, things attached to the earth or permanently fastened to anything attached to the earth and rights created by legislative enactment over any street;
29. (29) 'licensed' means a person licensed under this Act;
30. (30) 'Local authority' includes Municipal Corporation, City and Town Municipalities, District Boards and Cantonment Board;
31. (31) 'lodging-house' means a building or part of a building where lodging with or without board or other service is provided for a monetary consideration;
32. (32) 'market' includes any place where persons assemble for the sale of, or for the purpose of exposing for sale, livestock, food for livestock, meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, animals intended for human consumption or any other article of human food whatsoever with or without the consent of the owner of such place, notwithstanding that there may be no common regulation of the concourse of buyers and sellers and whether or not any control is exercised over the business carried on in or on the persons frequenting such place by the owner thereof or any other person;
33. (33) 'masonry building' means any building, other than a frame building or a hut and includes any structure a substantial part of which is made of masonry or of steel, iron or other metal; [(33-a) 'minerals water' means mineral water as defined in item A-32 of Appendix B to the Prevention of Food Adulteration Rules, 1955, framed under section 23 of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954;]
34. (34) 'municipal building', 'municipal drain', 'municipal market', 'municipal slaughter house' or 'municipal water works' means a building, drain, market, slaughter house or water works as respectively vest in or are managed by the Corporation under this Act;
35. (35) 'nuisance' includes any act, omission, place or thing which causes or is likely to cause injury, danger, annoyance or offence to the sense of sight, smell or hearing or disturbance to rest or sleep or which is or may be dangerous to life or injurious to health or property of the public or of persons in general who dwell in the vicinity, or occasion to exercise a public right;
36. (36) 'occupier' includes-
    • (a) any person who for the time being is paying or is liable to pay to the owner the rent or any portion of the rent of the land or building in respect of which such rent is paid or is payable,
    • (b) a rent-free tenant,
    • (c) licensee in occupation of any land or building, and
    • (d) any person who is liable to pay to the owner damages for the use and occupation of any land or building;
37. (37) 'octroi' means a cess levied on goods at the time of their entry into the limits of a City for purposes of consumption, use or sale therein;
38. (38) 'offensive matter' includes-
    • (a) filth,
    • (b) sewage,
    • (c) dust, house-sweeping, spittings, including chewed betel and tobacco, kitchen or stable refuse, pieces of broken glass or pottery-debris and waste paper;
39. (39) 'owner' means—
    • (a) when used with reference to any premises, the person who receives, the rent of the said premises, or who would be entitled to receive the rent thereof if the premises were let and includes-
      • (i) an agent or trustee who receives such rent on account of the owner;
      • (ii) an agent or trustee who receives the rent of, or is entrusted with, or concerned for, any premises devoted to religious or charitable or educational purposes;
      • (iii) a receiver, sequestrator or manager appointed by any court of competent jurisdiction to have the charge of or to exercise the rights of an owner of the said premises; and
      • (iv) a mortgagee-in-possession; and
    • (b) when used with reference to any animal, vehicle or boat includes the person for the time being in charge of the animal, vehicle or boat; [(39-a) 'Population' or 'population as at the last census' with all its grammatical variations and cognate expressions, means the population as ascertained at the [last census] of which all the relevant and necessary figures have been published;] [(39-b) 'packaged drinking water' (other than Mineral Water) means water manufactured, packaged, sealed, labelled and meant for commercial use for drinking purpose to the general public;]
40. (40) 'premises' includes messuages, buildings and lands of any tenure whether open or enclosed, whether built on or not and whether public or private;
41. (41) 'prescribed' means prescribed by rules made by Government under this Act;
42. (42) 'private street' means any street, which is not a 'public street' but does not include a pathway made by the owner of premises on his own land to secure access to or the convenient use of such premises;
43. (43) 'privy' means a place set apart for defecating or urinating or both, together with the structure comprising such place, the receptacle therein for human excreta and the fittings and apparatus, if any, connected therewith, and includes a closet of the dry type, an aquaprivy, a latrine and a urinal;
44. (44) 'public place' includes any park or garden, ground or any other place to which the public have or are permitted to have access;
45. (45) 'public securities' means-
    • (a) securities of the Central Government or any State Government,
    • (b) stocks, debentures or shares, the interest whereon has been guaranteed by the Central or any State Government,
    • (c) debentures or other securities for money issued by or on behalf of any local authority,
    • (d) securities expressly authorised by any order which the Government makes in this behalf;
46. (46) 'public street' means any street over which the public have a right of way, whether a thoroughfare or not and includes—
    • (a) a broadway over or a footway attached to any public bridge or cause-way, and
    • (b) the drain attached to any such street, public bridge or cause-way and the land, whether covered or not by any pavement, verandah, or other structure, which lies on either side of the roadway upto the boundaries of the adjacent property, whether that property is private property or property belonging to Government; [(46-a) 'qualifying date' in relation to the preparation and publication of every electoral roll under this Act, means the first day of January of the year in which it is so prepared and published;] [(46-b) 'Recognised Political Party' and 'Registered Political Party' shall have the meanings respectively assigned to them in the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, issued by the Election Commission of India under article 324 of the Constitution of India and in the Registration of Political Parites and Allotment of Symbols Order, 2001, issued by the State Election Commission under article 243 K read with article 243 ZA of the Constitution of India;]
47. (47) 'rack rent' means the amount of the annual rent for which the premises with reference to which the term is used might reasonably be expected to let from year to year as ascertained for the purpose of fixing the rateable value of such premises;
48. (48) 'rateable value' means the value of any building or land fixed in accordance with the provisions of this Act and the rules made thereunder for the purpose of assessment to property taxes;
49. (49) 'rubbish' includes dust, ashes, broken bricks, mortar waste, garden refuse and refuse of any kind which is not offensive matter or sewage;
50. (50) 'Schedule' means the schedule annexed to this Act;
51. (51) 'sewage' means night soil and other contents of water closets, latrines, privies, urinals, cesspools or drains and polluted water from sinks, bathrooms, stables, cattle-sheds and other like places and includes trade effluent and discharges from manufactories of all kinds; [(51-a) 'State Election Commission' means the State Election Commission constituted in pursuance of article 243-K of the Constitution of India;]
52. (52) 'street' includes any highway, and any cause-way, bridge, viaduct, arch, road, land, footway, sub-way, court, alley or riding path or passage, whether a through fare or not; and, when there is a footway as well as a carriage way in any street, the said term includes both;
53. (53) 'sweet meat shop' means any premises or part of any premises used for the manufacture, treatment or storing for sale, whether wholesale or retail, of any ice-cream, confectionery or sweetmeat of any kind whatsoever, for whomsoever intended and by whatsoever name the same may be known, and whether the same be for consumption on or outside the premises;
54. (54) 'trade effluent' means any liquid either with or without particles of matter in suspension therein, which is wholly or in part produced in the course of any trade or industry carried on at trade premises, and in relation to any trade premises, means any such liquid as aforesaid which is so produced in the course of any trade or industry carried on at those premises, but does not include sewage; [(55) 'vehicle' means a carriage, cart, van, dray, truck, handcart, bicycle, tri-cycle, cycle-rickshaw, and every wheeled conveyance which is used or is capable of being used on a street but does not include a motor vehicle within the meaning of the Motor Vehicles Act 1939;] [(55-a) 'Wards Committee' means a Wards Committee constituted under section-8A;]
55. (56) 'water closet' means a closet which has a separate fixed receptacle connected to a drainage system and separate provision for flushing from a supply of clean water either by the operation of mechanism or by automatic action;
56. (57) 'water connection' includes—
    • (a) any tank, cistern, hydrant, stand-pipe, meter or tap situated on any private property and connected with a water-main or pipe belonging to the Corporation; and
    • (b) the water-pipe connecting such tank, cistern, hydrant, stand-pipe, meter or tap with such water-main or pipe;
57. (58) 'water-course' includes any river, stream or channel;
58. (59) 'water for domestic purposes' shall not include water for cattle, or for horses, or for washing vehicles, when the cattle, horses or vehicles are kept for sale or hire, or by a common carrier, and shall not include water for any trade, manufacture or business, or for building purposes, or for watering gardens, or for fountains or for any ornamental or mechanical purposes;
59. (60) 'water works' includes a lake, stream, spring, well, pump, reservoir, cistern, tank, duct whether covered or open, sluice, mainpipe, culvert, engine, water-truck, hydrant, stand-pipe, conduit and machinery, land, building or thing for supplying or used for supplying water or for protecting services of water supply.

21[3.

1. (1) There shall be established a Municipal Corporation for the City of Greater Hyderabad with effect from the date of notification under sub-section (3): Provided nothing in this sub-section shall prevent the Government form establishing, with a view to secure efficiency and economy in the Municipal administration, a single Corporation for Greater Hyderabad on such terms and conditions as may be specified in the notification published in the *Telangana Gazette in this behalf.
2. (2) The Corporation established under sub-section (1) shall be a body corporate by the name of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and shall have perpetual succession and a common seal, and subject to any restrictions or qualifications imposed by or under this Act, or any other law, shall be vested with the capacity of suing or being sued in its corporate name, of acquiring, holding and transferring property, of entering into contracts, and of doing all things necessary, proper or expedient for the purposes for which it is constituted.
3. (3) Government may, from time to time, after consultation with the Corporation, by notification in the *Telangana Gazette, alter the limits of the City as declared under clause (6) of section 2 so as to include therein or to exclude therefrom, the areas specified in the notification. 22[(3A) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (3), the areas mentioned in Schedule ̳W‘ of this Act shall stand included and form part of the City:
   • (a) where an elected body of the Gram Panchayat constituted for such area prior to the commencement of the Telangana Panchayat Raj Act, 2018 is in existence on the date of expiry of the term of such elected body;
   • (b) where no elected body of the Gram Panchayat constituted for such area prior to the commencement of the Telangana Panchayat Raj Act, 2018, is in existence on the date of such commencement.]
4. (4) The power to issue a notification under sub-section (3) shall be subject to previous publication.]