Tamil Nadu Maritime Board Act, 1995

No: 4 Dated: Feb, 19 1996

Tamil Nadu Maritime Board Act, 1995

(Tamil Nadu Act 4 of 1996)

    An Act to provide for the constitution of a Maritime Board for minor ports in the State of Tamil Nadu and to vest the administration, control and management of such ports in that Board and for matters connected therewith.

    Be it enacted by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Tamil Nadu in the Forty-sixth Year of the Republic of India as follows :-

CHAPTER I

Preliminary

1. Short title, extent, commencement and application. - (1) This Act may be called the Tamil Nadu Maritime Board Act, 1995.

(2) It extends to the whole of the State of Tamil Nadu.

(3) It shall come in to force on such date, as the Government may, by notification, appoint.

(4) It applies to all the minor ports in the State to which the Indian Ports Act applies on the date of the commencement of this Act and the Government may, by notification, apply the provisions of this Act with effect from such date, as may be specified in the notification, to any other minor ports in the State to which the Indian Ports Act is extended by the Government under section 4 of that Act.

2. Definitions. - In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, -

(a) "appointed day", in relation to any minor port, means the day on which this Act is made applicable to that port;

(b) "Board" means the Tamil Nadu Maritime Board established under section 3;

(c) "Board security" means debentures, bonds or dock certificates issued by the Board in respect of any loan contracted by it under the provisions of this Act;

(d) "Chairman" means the Chairman of the Board and includes the person appointed to act in his place under section 9;

(e) "Collector of Customs" means the Collector of Customs specified in the Customs Act, 1962 (Central Act 52 of 1962);

(f) "dock" includes all basins, locks, cuts, entrances, graving docks, graving blocks, inclined planes, slipways, gridirons, moorings, transit sheds, warehouses, godowns, open plots and other works and things appertaining to any dock and also the portion of the sea enclosed or protected by the arms or groynes of a harbour;

(g) "foreshore", in relation to a port, means the area between the high water mark and the low water mark relating to that port;

(h) "goods" includes live stock and every kind of movable property;

(i) "Government" means the State Government;

(j) "high water maker", in relation to a port, means a line drawn through the highest points reached by ordinary spring tides at any season of the year at that port;

(k) "immovable property" includes wharlage-rights and all other rights exercisable on, over or in respects of, any land, wharf, dock or pier;

(l) "Indian Ports Act" means the Indian Ports Act, 1908 (Central Act 15 of 1980);

(m) "Land" includes the bed of sea or river below high water maker and also things attached to the earth or permanently fastened to anything attached to the earth;

(n) "Low water maker" in relation to a port means a fine drawn through the lowest points reached by ordinary spring tides at any season of the year at that port;

(o) "master", in relation to any vessel or craft making use of any minor port means any person having, for the time being, the charge or control of such vessel or craft, as the case may be, except a pilot, harbour master, dock master, or berthing master of the port;

(p) "member" means a member of the Board;

(q) "minor port" means a port other than a major port declared as such by the Central Government under any law;

(r) "owner", -

(i) in relation to goods includes any consignor, consignee, shipper or agent for the sale, custody, loading or unloading of such goods, and

(ii) in relation to any vessel or craft making use of any port, includes any port owner, charterer, consignee or mortgagee in possession thereof;

(s) "pier" includes any stage, staris, landing place, hard jetty, floating barge or pontoon and any bridges or other works connected therewith;

(t) "port" means any minor port to which this Act applies within such limits as may, from time to time, be defined by the Government under the Indian Ports Act;

(u) "port approaches", in relation to a port, means those parts of the navigable rivers and channels leading to the port in which the Indian Ports Act is in force;

(v) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules or regulations made under this Act;

(w) "pubic securities" means -

(i) promissory notes, debentures, stock or other securities of the Central Government or of any State of Government:

Provided that securities both the principal and the interest whereof have been fully and unconditionally guaranteed by any such Government shall be deemed, for the purposes of this clause, to be securities of such Government;

(ii) debentures or other securities for money issued by or on behalf of any municipal body, Improvement Trust or Port Trust under the authority of any law for the time being in force in the State (including the Board securities);

(x) "rate" includes any toll, due, rent, fee or charge leviable under this Act;

(y) "regulations" means regulations made under this Act;

(z) "rules" means rules made under this Act;

(aa) "vessel" includes anything made for the conveyance, mainly by water, of human being or of goods;

(ab) "Wharf" includes any wall or stage and any part of the land or foreshore that may be used for loading or unloading goods or for the embarkation or disembarkation of passengers and any wall enclosing or adjoining the same.