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REGISTERED No. D (D)-72

The Gazette of India

EXTRAORDINARY

PART II—Section 3—Sub-section (i)

PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY

No. 8] NEW DELHI, FRIDAY, JANUARY 7, 1977/PAUSA 17, 1898

Separate paging is given to this Part in order that it may be filed as a separate compilation

MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS

NOTIFICATION

New Delhi, the 7th January 1977

G.S.R. 9(E) —In exercise of the powers conferred by section 2 of the Union Territories (Laws) Act. 1950 (30 of 1950). the Central Government hereby extends to the Union territory of Delhi, the Haryana Relief of Agricultural Indebtedness Act, 1976 (Haryana Act 18 of 1976), as in force in the State of Haryana on the date of this notification, subject to the following modifications, namely—

Modifications

1. Throughout the Act,—

(1) for the figures, letters and works "and day of August, 1975", wherever they occur, the words "appointed day" shall be substituted, (li) except in clause (f) of section 2, for the words "commencement of this Act", wherever they occur, the words "appointed day" shall be substituted;

(111) except in sub-clause (1) of clause (f) of section 2, for the words "State Government", wherever they occur, the word "Administrator" shall be substituted;

(IV) for the words, figures and brackets "the Punjab Registration of Money Lenders Act, 1938 (Punjab Act 3 of 1938)", wherever they occur the words, figures and brackets "the Punjab Registration of Money Lenders Act, 1938 (Punjab Act 3 of 1938), as extended to the Union territory of Delhi" shall be substituted

(25)

2 In section \, for sub section (2), the following sub sections shall be sub .gtituted, namely —

"(2) It extends to the whole of the Union territory of Delhi.

(3) It shall come Into force on such date ag the Administrator may, by notification in the Delhi Gazette, appoint ',

3 In section 2,—

(D clause (a) shall be re-lettered as clause (aa), and before the clju=e as so re lettered, the following clause shall be inserted, namely — '(a) "Administrator" means the Administrator of the Union territory of Delhi appointed by the President under article 23& of the Consti- tion,¹;

(ii) after clause (aa) as so re-lettered, the following clause shall be inserted, namely —•

(aaa) "appointed day' means th^ date on which this Act comes into torce,',

(iu*) in cl mse (b) m sub clause (vn) for the words "Central Government in the Gazette", the words "Administrator in the Delhi Gazette' shall be substituted,

(Iv) in clause (c), for sub-clause (ii.), the following sub-clause shall be substi- tufed namely —

"(ii) a Panchayati Adalal constituted under the Delhi Panchayat Raj Act, 19Ii4 (Delhi Act, 3 of 1955), ,

(v) m clause (e), for the words, figuies and brackets "the Punjab Co-operative Societies Act, 1001 (Punjab Act 25 of 19tM)', the words figures and brackets ' the Delhi Co operative Societies Act, 1972 (Parliament Act 35 of 1972)" shall be substituted,

(vi) m clause (f), for the words "date of commencement of this Act' the words "appointed day' shall be substituted,

4 Section 3 shall be omitted

.5 In section 25,—

(a) in subsection (1) for the words "Official Gazette", the words 'Delhi ANNEXUHF

(aa) "agricultural labouiur" n.eans a person who follows any one or more of the following agricultural occupations in the capacity ol a labourer on hire or exchange, whether paid in cash or m kind or partly in cash and partly In kind —

(I) farming including cultivation and tillage of soil, etc.;

(II) dairy farming,

Cm) production, cultivation, growing and harvesting of any horticultural commodity,

fiv) raising of livestock, bees or poultry, and

(v) any practice performed en a farm es incidental to or in conjucllon with farm operations (including any forestry or timbering operations) and preparation for market and delivery to storage or to market or to carriage for transportation of farm products,

1 means the date on which this Act comes into force,

(b~) "bank" means —

i'i) banking company as defined in the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 (Central Act 10 of 144J),

(n) the State Bank of India constituted under the State Bank of India Act, 1955 (Parliament Act 23 of ]9S5),

(m) a subsidiary bank, as defined in the State Bank of India (Subsidiary Banks) Act, 1950 (Parliament Act 38 of 1959),

tlv) a corresponding new Bank constituted under the Banking Companies (Acquisition ond Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970 (Parliament Act 5 of 1070),

(v) any hanking Institution notified by the Central Government under sec- tion 31 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 (Central Act 10 of 1P49);

(vi) the Agricultural Refinance- and Development Corporation constituted under the Agiicultural Refinance end Development Corporation Act, 19G3 (Parliament Act 10 of 1903),

(vil) any other financial institution notified by the Administrator in the Delhi Gazette as a bank for the purpose of this Act;

(c) "civil court" includes—

(i) a court exercising lurisdlchon under tha Provincial Insolvency Act, 1020 (Central Act 5 of 1920),

(n) a Panchayati Adulat constituted under the Delhi Panchayat Raj Act, 1954 (OelhJ Act ?, of 1955),

Clii) a court exercising pnweis under the Provincial Small Cause Courts Act, 1887 (Central Act 0 ef 1887);

(d) "Collector" means the Head Revenue Officer of a District, and includes any other officer appointed under this Act by the Administrator by notification to exercise th>" powers of a Colled or;

(vi) any liability in respect of wages or *muneration due as salary or otherwise for .services rendered,

Cvii) any liability in respect of maintenance whether under a decree of civil court or otherwise;

(viii) any debt which represents the price of any goods or property purchased by a debtor,

(ix) any advance of money given tn the debtor by a person as the price of goods or property to be sold later on;

(x) any advance of wages whether m cash or in kind, or partly in cash or partly in kind, made to a debtor at his instance by a person In pur- suance of a contract of service for a specified period'

Provided that the rate of wages settled is not lesg than the minimum rate of wages fixed by law;

(xi) any sum recoverable as arrears of land revenue,

(g) "debtor" means an agricultural labourer, a marginal farmer a small farmer or a rural artisan, who owes a debt;

(E) "marginal farmer" means a person who ownb land not exceeding one hectare of unlrrigated agricultural land and whose principal means of livelihood is income from such land or by manual labour on land not exceeding one hectare of ummgated agricultural land or from produc- tion or repair of. traditional tools, implements and other articles or things used for agriculture or purposes ancillary thereto or by practis- ing craft by hls own labour or by the labour of the members- of his family In a rural area,

(I) "rural artisan¹' means a person who does not own any agricultural land and whose principul means of livelihood is production or repair of traditional took, implements and other articles or things used for agriculture or purposes uncilLiry thereto and also a person who nor- mally earns his livelihood by practising a craft either by his own labour or by the labour of the n smber^ of his family m a rural area,

(j) "small farmer" means a perso 1 who owns land exceeding one hectare but not exceeding two he^tar^- of unirrigated agricultural land and whose principal means of livelihood Is income from such, land or by manual labour on land axceedm? one hectare but not exceeding two hectares of umrrigated agricultural land or from production or repair of tradi- tional tools. Implements and other articles or things used for agrirullure or purposes ancillary theieto or by practising craft by his own labour or by the labour of the members of his family in a rural area

Explanation.—For the purposes of clauses (h) and (V), one hectare of perennially Irrigated land shall be equated with two hectares of non-perennial irrigated lpno and three hectares of un-irngated land

3 [Omitted 1

4 Interest not to acoure In resoect of debt—No interest shall accrue in respect of debt on or after the appointed day.

5 DlfcCharee of debt—Notwithstanding anything contained in any enactment for the time being m force or in any contract or other instrument having the force of law,—

(a) every debt, together with any interest payable thereon, owed ™ the appointed day by an agricultural labourer, a rural artisan, or a mar. Klnal farmer/whose annual household Income does not exceed two thousand and four hundred rupees, shall be deemed to be wholly dis- . charged; nv> everv debt owed to any person by en agricultural labourer, a rural artisan or I m a r g i n/ farmer, whose annual household Income exceeds two thousan^and four hundred rupees and a small farmer shall toe deemed to be wholly discharged if—

day,

(n) he, in the discharge of his debt, pays, after the appointed day, a sum which, together with sny sum already paid in the discharge of such debt, Is cquivalbiil to double the amount of the debt;

(L¹) every property pledged or mortgaged by a debtor whe-se debt is deemed to bp discharged under clause (a; or clause (b), shall stand released in his iavour when _uch debt it deemed to be discharged and the creditor shall, if he is in possession thereof, return the same to the debtor forthwith,

(J) subject to the provisions of clau^ts (a) and (b), the liability of a debtor to repay the r^jbL, trgether with auv interest payable thereon, shall noL e\( eed t'venty per i Pnl oi. the gross value of his annual household lncurae rruliipll'd by seven and such liability shall be spread for re- payment over a prrnd upto seven vears to be reckoned from the date el nrriei ot r nuai a'lon No ice ovtry of amount in excess of the dent liability 'cclci duwn ihall be made and the portion on the debt jn e'i ess ^hertnf shall le oximkfujshed

debtor is not the applicant, notice of the order under sub-section ( l) shall be sent to him in a similar manner

12 Notice calling auditors to submit statements of debets.—(1) On the date fixed, the debt settlement officer shall publish, In such manner ah may be prescnb ed, a notice, calling upon every creditor of the debtor to submit a statement of debts owed to such creditor by the debtor Such statement wherein the creditor shall show whether he is registered undei the Punjab Registration of Money Lenders Act, 1938 (Punjab Act 'A of 1!JJ8), as extended to the Union territory of Delhi, and had complied with the piovlsions thereof, shall be submitted to the debt settlement officer in writing within a period of two months from the date of publication of the notice

Provided that, if the debt settlement officer is satisfied that any creditor was, for good and sufficient cause, unable to comply with such direction or to produce the documents required under bUb-section (1) of section 13 within the period fixed, it may extend the period foi the Lsul mission of his statement of the debts owed to him or fortheproduction of such documents

(2) Every debt owed to a single creditor of which no such statement has been submitted to the settlement officer in compliance with the provisions of sub-sect on (1) shall be deemed to be duly discharged for all pui poses and all occasions against such creditor; and evcrv debt owed to two oi more creditors jointly, of which such a statement or statements signed bv all such creditors or their recog- nised agents has or have not been so submitted, shall be deemed to be so dis- charged against such creditors as have failed to submit the said statement but only to the extent of their respective shaies in the said debt

(3) If the creditor or any of the joint creditors faiLs without sufficient cause to be present in person or by his recognised agent or, with the permission of the debt settlement officer by legal bractitloner at any of the heannK fixed by the debt settlement officer, or fails to produce full particulars and documents as re- uulred under sub section (1) of section Id, the debt due to him or to the joint creditors as the case may be, shall be deemed for all purposes and all occasions to have been fully discharged

(4) If any creditor proves to the sailsfaction of the debt settlement officer that the notice was not served on him and thdt he had no knowledge of its publication, or that he was unavoidably absent at anv oi the hearing fixed by the debt settle- ment officer, the debt settlement officer may revive that debt

13 Procedure on sub-mission of statements of d e b t s . —( l) E v e ry c r e d i t or s ub mltting in compliance with a notice issued under sub-section (1) of section U a sUtement of the debts owed to him ShaD furnish along with such statement, full Particulars of all such debts, and shall at the same time produce all documents (including entnes in books of account) on which he relies to support his claims, together with a true copy of every such document

Provided that a deciee or order of a civil court shall he conclusive evidence fii tn the amount of the debt to which tho decree relates, but the amount may be reduced i fT exceeds double the principal loan or has been made up by including staple interest at a rate higher than si* per cent per annum

(2) 'The debt settlement officer shall after marking for the burpose of Identi- fication every origSal document so pioduced and veiifvmg the correctness of the COP7 retain the copy and return the original to the creditor

14 power of debt setttlement officer to adjudicate.—

m Any person aggrieved by a decision of the debt settlement officer under

s u b i i c t C o) may fppeal therefiom to the Collector.

Provided that an appeal shall not He from an order refusing to review or con-

firming on review a previous order

statement furnished by the creditor under section 13, other than a debt declared non-genuine or unenforceable, th" principal amount originally advanced, the amount paid by the debtor towards the principal or Interest or both and the in- terest at the rate of six per cent per annum from the date the principal amount was advanced to the appointed day, however, that in calculating the Interest, the payment made by the debtor from time to time shall first be adjusted against the interest due on the date of payment and then towards the principal and onwards interest shall bo calculated on the principal amount thus remaining outstanding

(5) Where the debtor Is found to have repaid to the creditor an amount equal to, or exceeding, double the principal amount, or the debtor on being apprised of such findings pays an amount which makes the total repayment equal to double the amount of principal, the debt settlement officer shall declare the debt as fully discharged and thereupon the provisions of clause (c) of section 5 shall apply to thP debt In case the amount repaid to the creditor is found to be in excess of double the principal, the debt settlement officer shall order the refund of the "lame to the debtor by the creditor.

(G) The debt settlement officer shall estimate the annual household income of a debtor and determine, for the purposes of section 5, his liability and capacity to repay the debts outstanding against him

(1) In the cases not falling under sub-section (5), the debt settlement officer shall, keeping in view the outstanding amount of principal and interest as deter- mined under sub-section (4) and the paying capacity of the debtor determined under sub-section (6) as the case may be, order the payment of the amount In yearly e jual instalments not exceeding seven

Provided that in no case the debtor shall be required to pay towards the principal and interest any amount that exceeds double the principal

Provided further where the amount of yearly instalment in respect of all the- debt¹; exceeds the paying capacity of the debtor, the debts shall be proportionately- reduced so as to make the yearly instalment equal to the paying capacity and on- payment of the instalments so determined, the debt or debts shall stand fully dis- charged

15, Consequences of non-reeistratlon under Punjab Act 3 of 1938.—In record - in? findings under section 14, the debt settlement officer may, where a creditor i<; not registered In accordance with the provisions of the Punjab Registration of Monev Lenders Act, 1938 (Punjab Act 3 of 1938), as extended to the Union terri- tory of Delhi, disallow the whole of his claim and dprlare the debt a.s fully dis- charged and where the creditor is found to have failed to comply with the pro- visions of the said Act with regard to maintenance and publication of accounts, disallow whole of the interest on the princibal amount

16 Power of debt settlement officer to require attendance of persons and pio-

duction of documents and to receive evidence—A debt settlement officer appointed under section 9 may exPrcise all such powers connected with the summoning and examining of parties and witnesses and with tho production of documents as are conferred on civil courts by the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (Central Act 5 of 1908), and every proceeding before the debt settlement officer shall be deemed to be a judicial proceeding

17 Dismissal of application in default—If in the opinion of the debt settlement officer any applicant fails to conduct his application with due diligence, the debt- settlement officer may dismiss the application at any stage

18 Decision of debt settlement officer to be final.—If anv question arises in any proceedings under this Act whether a loan or liability is a debt or not, or whether a person is debtor or not, the decision of the debt settlement officer shall be final, and shall not be called into question in any court.

19 Bar Of civil suits.—No civil court shall entertain.—

(a) any suit, appeal or application for revision—

(i) to question the validity of anv procedure or the legality of anv order issued under this Act, or

(ii) to recover any debt which has been deemed to have been duly dis- charged under the provisions of this Act;

(h) anv application to execute a decree passed by a civil court against a debtor,

(c) any suit for declaration, or any suit or application for inunction affecting any proceedings under this Act before a debt settlement officer

20 Review,—Any person considering himself aggrieved by an order of the debt settlement officer and who, from the discovery of any new and important matter or evidence which, after fh" exi.

Provided that ho shall not under this section pass an order reversing or modi- fying anv order affecting any person interested without giving such person an opportunity of being heard

Provided further that no application for review shall he entertained if present- ed more than twelve months after the date of the order sought to be reviewed

'?] Bar of appeal or revision.—Save as otherwise expressly provider! in this Act, no appeal or revision shall lie against any order passed by a debt settlement officer

22 Appearance of party before debt settlement officer by legal practitioner—In

anv proceedings under this Act, any party may be represented by an agent autho- rised in writing or with the permission of the debt settlement officer by a legal practitioner

23 Application of provisions of Parliament Act 36 of 1963.—The provisions of the Limitation Act, 1963 (Parliament Act Hfi of 1963) shall apply to an applica- tion made by a creditor under section 8 as if the application were a plaint in a suit for recovery of the loan.

24 Recovery of awns due.—The order of the Debt Settlement Officer passed under this A-l shall be executed by the civil court having jurisdiction in the area as jf it were a decree or order of that court

25. Powers to make rules.—(1) The Administrator may, notification in the Delhi Gazette, make rules, to provide for all matters for which provision Is neces- sary or expedient for the purpose of giving effect to the provisions of this Act

(2) 'The rules made under sub-section (1) shall be subject to previous publi- cation m the Delhi Gazette

(3) [Omitted,1

26. Amendment of section 4 of Punjab Act 3 of 1938.—Section 4 of the Punjab Registration of Money Lenders Act, 1938 (Punjab Act 3 of 1938), as extended to the Union territory of Delhi, shall be re-numbered as sub-section ( l) of that section and after sub-section (1) as sore-numbered, the following sub-sections shall be inserted, namely—

"(2) No money lender shall carry on the business of advancing loans un- less he gets himself registered under sub-section (1),

('.'•) Any money lender who contravenes the provisions of sub-section (2) shall be liable, on conviction, to a fine not exceeding one thousand rupees for the first offence and two thousand rupees for every sub- sequent offence.".

27 [Omitted.]

[No U-11015/l/76-UTL(137) ]

MAHESH PRASAD, J t. Secy

4i

MINTED BY THE GENERAL MANAOEB, GOVERNMENT OF INDIA PRESS, MINTO ROAD, H1W ""LHI AND FOBUSHKD BY THE CONTBOIXEB OF PUBLICATIONS, DELHI, 1 9 77