Rajasthan Scheduled Debtors (Moratorium on Debts) Act, 1976
No: 15 Dated: Feb, 13 1976
Rajasthan Scheduled Debtors (Moratorium on Debts) Act, 1976
(Act No. 15 of 1976)
An Act to impose moratorium on the recovery of debts due from marginal and small farmers, agricultural labourers and rural artisans in Rajasthan.
Be it enacted by the Rajasthan State Legislature in the Twenty-seventh Year of the Republic of India as follows:-
1. Short title, extent and commencement. - (1) This Act may be called the Rajasthan Scheduled Debtors (Moratorium on Debts) Act, 1976.
(2) It shall extend to the whole of the State of Rajasthan.
(3) It shall come into force at once
2. Definitions. - In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-
(a) "agricultural labourer" means a person who follows any one or more of the following agricultural occupations in the capacity of a labourer on hire or exchange, whether paid in cash or in kind or partly in cash and partly in kind:-
(i) farming including cultivation and tillage of soil;
(ii) dairy farming;
(iii) production, cultivation, growing and harvesting of any horticultural commodity;
(iv) raising of livestock, bees or poultry; and
(v) any practice performed on a farm as incidental to or in conjunction 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;
(b) "agriculturist" means a person who earns his livelihood wholly or mainly, from:-
(i) agriculture, or
(ii) rent from agricultural land, in case he belongs to any of the categories of persons mentioned in clauses (a) to (h) of subsection (1) of Section 46 of the Rajasthan Tenancy Act, 1955 (Rajasthan Act 3 of 1955);
(c) "civil court" includes,-
(i) any court exercising jurisdiction under the Provincial Insolvency Act, 1920 as adapted by the Rajasthan Adaptation of Central Laws Ordinance, 1950 (Ordinance No. IV of 1950);
(ii) a Panchayat established under the Rajasthan Panchayat Act, 1953 (Rajasthan Act XXI of 1953) and a Nyaya Up-Samiti constituted under Section 27-B of the said Act;
(iii) a court of small cause as defined in clause (i) of Section 4 of the Rajasthan Small Causes Courts Ordinance, 1950 (Ordinance No. VIII of 1950);
(iv) a debt relief court established under Section 3 of the Rajasthan Relief of Agricultural Indebtedness Act, 1957 (Rajasthan Act 28 of 1957); and
(v) any other court exercising appellate or revisional jurisdiction over the decisions of a civil court;
(d) "co-operative society" means a society registered or deemed to be registered under the provisions of the Rajasthan Co-operative Societies Act, 1965 (Rajasthan Act 13 of 1965);
(e) "debt" includes all liabilities owing to a creditor in cash or kind, secured or unsecured, payable under a decree or order of a civil court or otherwise and subsisting on the date of commencement of the Rajasthan Scheduled debtors (Moratorium on Debts) Ordinance, 1975 (Ordinance No. 21 of 1975) whether due or not due;
(f) "marginal farmer" means an agriculturist who holds land as a Khatedar or Ghair Khatedar tenant and cultivates it personally and also a person who cultivates land as a sub-tenant or share cropper and which, in area, does not exceed the limits specified below:-
(i) 0.33 hectare land under assured irrigation capable of growing atleast two crops in a year;
(ii) 0.50 hectare land under assured irrigation capable of growing atleast one crop in a year;
(iii) 1 hectare barani land in fertile zone, semi-fertile zone or hilly zone;
(iv) 2.67 hectares land in semi-desert zone; and
(v) 3.67 hectares land in desert zone;
(g) "prescribed period" means the period specified as prescribed period in Section 4 and includes every extension thereof made under that Section;
(h) "proceeding" means any proceeding in a civil court started on a plaint, petition of appeal, application or otherwise;
(i) "rural area’ means an area which does not fall within a municipality;
(j) "rural artisan" means a person who does not hold any land and whose principal means of livelihood is production or repair of traditional tools, implements and other articles or things used for agriculture or for purposes ancillary thereto, and also a person who normally earns his livelihood by practising a craft either by his own labour or by the labour of the members of his family in a rural area;
(k) "Scheduled debtor" means an agricultural labourer, a marginal farmer, a rural artisan or a small farmer;
(l) "small farmer" means a person referred to in clause (f) who holds land exceeding the area specified in that clause but not exceeding the area double thereof;
(m) reference to land under assured irrigation capable of growing at least two crops or one crop in a year made in clause (f) shall have the same meaning as is given to these expressions by or under the Rajasthan Imposition of Ceiling on Agricultural Holdings Act, 1973 (Rajasthan Act 11 of 1973) and reference to various zones given in the said clause shall mean the areas of the State as specified under each such zone in the Schedule appended to the said Act;
(n) where land is held by co-tenants or by members of joint Hindu family, the area of land held by each co-tenant or each member of joint Hindu family shall, for the purpose of clause (f) and clause (1), be deemed to be the extent of land which would have been allotted to such co-tenant or such member of joint Hindu family if such land had been divided or partitioned as the case may be, on the date of the commencement of the Rajasthan Scheduled Debtors (Moratorium on Debts) Ordinance, 1975 (Ordinance No. 21 of the 1975); and (o) words and expression used, but not defined, in this Act, shall have the same meaning as is assigned to them in the Rajasthan Tenancy Act, 1955 (Rajasthan Act 3 of 1955).