Chapter I PRELIMINARY

(1) This Act may be called the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957. (2) Except as otherwise provided in this Act, it extends only to Delhi. (3) The provisions of this Act, except this section which shall come into force at once, shall come into force on such date as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoints: Provided that different dates may be appointed for different provisions of this Act and any reference in any such provision to the commencement of this Act shall be construed as a reference to the coming into force of that provision.

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,— (1) "Administrator" means the Lieutenant Governor of the National Capital Territory of Delhi; (1A) "annual value" means the annual value of any vacant land or covered space of any building determined under section 116E; (1B) "Appellate Tribunal" means an Appellate Tribunal constituted under section 347A; (2) "budget-grant" means the total sum entered on the expenditure side of a budget estimate under a major head and adopted by the Corporation and includes any sum by which such budget-grant may be increased or reduced by transfer from or to other heads in accordance with the provisions of this Act and the regulations made thereunder; (3) "building" means a house, out-house, stable, latrine, urinal, shed, hut, wall (other than a boundary wall) or any other structure, whether of masonry, bricks, wood, mud, metal or other material but does not include any portable shelter; (4) "bye-law" means a bye-law made under this Act, by notification in the Official Gazette; (5) "casual vacancy" means a vacancy occurring otherwise than by efflux of time in the office of a council or an alderman or in any other elective office; (6) "Commissioner" means the Commissioner of the Corporation; (7) "Corporation" means the Municipal Corporation of Delhi established under this Act; (8) "corrupt practice" means any of the practices specified in section 22; (9) "dangerous disease" means— (a) cholera, plague, chicken-pox, small-pox, tuberculosis, leprosy, enteric fever, crebrospinal meningitis and diphtheria; and (b) any other epidemic, endemic or infectious disease which the Commissioner may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare to be a dangerous disease for the purposes of this Act; (10) "Delhi" means the entire area of the Union territory of Delhi except New Delhi and Delhi Cantonment; (11) "Delhi Cantonment" means the area for the time being within the local limits of the Delhi Cantonment Board; (15) "drain" includes a sewer, a house drain, a drain of any other description, a tunnel, a culvert, a ditch, a channel and any other device for carrying off sewage, offensive matter, polluted water, waste water, rain water or sub-soil water; (15A) "Election Commission" means the Election Commission of the National Capital Territory of Delhi referred to in section 7. (15B) "Election Commissioner" means the Election Commissioner of the National Capital Territory of Delhi appointed by the Administrator under section 7; (16) "entertainment" includes any exhibition, performance, amusement, game or sport to which persons are ordinarily admitted on payment; (17) "factory" means a factory as defined in the Factories Act, 1948 (63 of 1948); (18) "filth" includes offensive matter and sewage; (21) "goods" includes animals; (21A) "Government" means the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi; (22) "house-gully" or "service passage" means a passage or strip of land constructed, set apart or utilised for the purpose of serving as or carrying a drain or affording access to a latrine, urinal, cesspool