West Bengal Municipal Act, 1993
No: 22 Dated: May, 31 1994
THE WEST BENGAL MUNICIPAL ACT, 1993
West Bengal Act XXII of 1993
An Act to consolidate and amend the law relating to urban municipal affairs in West Bengal.
Whereas it is expedient to consolidate and amend the law relating to urban municipal affairs in West Bengal;
It is hereby enacted in the Forty-fourth Year of the Republic of India, by the Legislature of West Bengal, as follows :
Part I
CHAPTER I
Preliminary
1. Short title, extent and commencement. - (1) This Act may be called the West Bengal Municipal Act. 1993.
(2) It extends to the whole of West Bengal, except Calcutta as defined in clause (9) of section 2 of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation Act, 1980 (West Ben. Act LIX of 1980) and Howrah as defined in clause (15) of section 2 of the Howrah Municipal Corporation Act, 1980 (West Bengal Act 58 of 1980), and such other area as may constitute the territorial jurisdiction of a municipal corporation established by any law for the time being in force.
(3) It shall come into force on such date as the State Government may, by notification, appoint.
(4) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (2), it shall not take effect in any cantonment or part of a cantonment without the consent of the Central Government previously obtained.
(5) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (2), the provisions of this Act shall apply to the district of Darjeeling or any part thereof subject to such exception and modifications as the State Government may, by notification, direct :
Provided that nothing in this Act shall be construed to affect the powers of [the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration constituted under the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council Act, 1988
2. Definitions. - In this Act, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context.
(1) "Auditor" means an Auditor appointed under section 86, and includes any officer authorised by him to perform all or any of the functions of an Auditor under this Act;
(2) "bridge" includes a culvert;
(3) "building" means a structure constructed for whatsoever purpose or of whatsoever materials, and includes the foundation, plinth, wall, floor, roof, chimney, fixed platform, verandah, balcony, cornice, or projection or part of a building or anything affixed thereto or any wall (other than boundary wall of less than three metres in height) enclosing or intended to enclose any land, sign or outdoor display structure, but does not include a tent, samiana or tarpaulin shelter;
(4) "building line" means the line up to which the main wall of a building abutting on a street or a projected public street may lawfully extend;
(5) "bustee" means an area containing land occupied by, or for the purposes of any collection of huts or other structures used or intended to be used for human habitation;
Explanation. - If any question arises as to whether any particular area is or is not a "bustee", the Board of Councilors shall decide the question and such decision shall be final;
(6) "bye-law" means a set of regulations made by the municipality under this Act;
(7) "carriage" means any wheeled vehicle with springs or other appliances acting as springs, which is used for the conveyance of human beings or goods, and includes a /in-rickshaw, a van-rickshaw and a cycle-rickshaw, but does not include a motor vehicle or a bicycle or a tricycle or a perambulator or other form of vehicle designed for the conveyance of small children;
(8) "cart" means any cart, hackery or wheeled vehicle with or without springs, which is not a carriage or a motor vehicle as defined in this section, and includes a handcart, but does not include the trailor of a motor vehicle, a bicycle or a tricycle or a perambulator or other form of vehicle designed for the conveyance of small children;
(9) "Chairman" means the Chairman elected under section 17;
(10) "connected-privy" means a privy which is directly connected with a sewer;
(11) "Council" means the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council constituted under the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council Act, 1988;'.
(12) "cubical extent", with reference to the measurement of a building, means the space contained within the external surfaces of its wall and roof and the upper surface of the floor of its lowest or only storey;
(13) "dairy" includes any farm, cattle-shed, cow-house, milk-store, milk-shop or other place-
(a) from which milk is supplied on, or for sale, or
(b) in which milk is kept for the purposes of sale or used for manufacture or preparation for sale of-
(i) butter, or
(ii) ghee, or
(iii) cheese, or
(iv) curds, or
(v) dried, sterilized, condensed or toned milk,
but does not include-
(a) a shop or other place in which milk is sold' for consumption on the premises only, or
(b) a shop or other place from which milk is sold or supplied in hermetically closed and unopened receptacles in the same original condition in which it was first received in such shop or other place;
(14) "dairyman" includes any occupier of a dairy, or any cowkeeper who trades in milk, or any wholesale or retail seller of milk;
(15) "dangerous disease" means-
(a) cholera, plague, small-pox, cerebro-spinal meningitis, diptheria, tuberculosis, leprosy, influenza, encephalitis, poliomyelitis and syphilis; and
(b) any other epidemic, endemic, or infectious disease, which the State Government may, by notification, declare to be a dangerous disease for the purposes of this Act;
(16) "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 sullage, sewage, offensive matter, polluted water, rain-water or subsoil water:
(17) "drug" means any substance used as medicine or in the composition or preparation of medicines, whether for internal or external use, but does not include a drug within the meaning of clause (b) of section 3 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 (23 of 1940);
(18) "dwelling house" means a masonry building constructed, used or adapted to be used wholly or principally for human habitation;
(19) "electoral roll" means the electoral roll prepared, revised or corrected under section 29 by the State Election Commission;
(20) "food" includes every article used for food or drink by man, other than drugs or water, and any article which ordinarily enters into or is used in the composition or preparation of human food, and also includes confectionery, flavouring and colouring matters, spices and condiments;
(21) "footpath" or "footway" means pavement at the side of road for pedestrians;
(22) "habitable room" means- a room constructed or adapted for human habitation:
(23) "hill areas" has the same meaning as in the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council Act, 1988;
(24) "holding" means land held under one title or agreement and surrounded by one set of boundaries:
Provided that where two or more adjoining holdings form part and parcel of the site or premises of a dwelling house, manufactory, warehouse or place of trade or business, such holdings shall be deemed to be one holding for the purpose of this Act.
Explanation.-Holdings separated by a street or other means of communication shall be deemed to be adjoining within the meaning of this proviso;
(25) "house-drain" means any drain of one or more premises used for the drainage of such premises;
(26) "house-gully" means a passage or strip of land constructed, set apart or utilized for the purpose of serving as a drain or of affording access to a privy, urinal, cesspool or other receptacle for filthy or polluted matter to municipal employees or to persons employed in the cleansing thereof or in the removal of such matter therefrom, and includes the air space above such passage or land;
(27) "hut" means any building, no substantial part of which excluding the walls up to a height of fifty centimetres above the floor or floor level is constructed of masonry, reinforced concrete, steel, iron or other metal;
(28) "infectious disease" or "communicable disease" means any disease which may be transmitted from one person to another and declared as such by the State Government by notification;
(29) "inhabited room" means a room in which some person passes the night or which is used as a living room, and includes a room with respect to which there is a reasonable presumption (until the contrary is shown) that some person passes the night therein or that it is used as a living room;
(30) "land" includes benefits arising out of land, and things attached to the earth;
(31) "market" includes any place, by whatever name called, where persons assemble for the sale of meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, live stock, or any other article of food of a perishable nature, or any other article for which there is a collection of shops or warehouses or stalls, declared and licensed by the Municipality as a market;
(32) "masonry building" means any building other than a hut, and includes any structure, a substantial part of which is made of masonry, reinforced concrete, steel, iron or other metal;
(33) "milk" includes cream, skimmed milk, separated milk and condensed, sterilized, desiccated or toned milk;
(34) all drugs or articles of food which enter into the composition of food, the package or mark or label of which bears any statement, design or device regarding such drugs or articles of food or the ingredients or substances contained therein as may be false or may mislead in any particular, shall be deemed to be "misbranded" and a drug or an article of food shall also be deemed to be misbranded if it is offered for sale under the name of another drug or article of food;
[(35) "municipal area" means an area constituted as a municipal area under section 6,]
(36) "municipal drain" means a drain vested in the Municipality;
(37) "municipal market" means a market belonging to or maintained by the Municipality;
(38) "municipal slaughter house" means a slaughter house belonging to or maintained by the Municipality;
(39) "new building" means and includes-
(a) any building constructed or in the process of construction after the commencement of this Act,
(b) any building which, having collapsed or having been demolished or burnt down for more than one-half of its cubical extent, is reconstructed wholly or partially after the commencement of this Act, whether the dimensions of the reconstructed building are the same as those of the original building or not,
(c) any but which is converted into a masonry building after the commencement of this Act, and
(d) any building not originally constructed for human habitation which is converted into a place for human habitation after the commencement of this Act,
Explanation. - Sub-clause (b) applies where more than one-half of the cubical extent of any building has collapsed or been demolished or burnt down at the same time or at different times;
(40) "notification" means a notification published in the Official Gazette;
(41) "notified area" means an area constituted as a notified area under section 378;
(42) "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;
(43) 'occupier" includes any person for the time being paying or liable to pay to the owner the rent or fee or contractual payment of adjustment of rent or fee or any portion thereof or damages on account of the occupation of any land or building, and also includes a rent-free tenant:
Provided that an owner living in or otherwise using his own land or building shall be deemed to be the occupier thereof;
(44) "offensive matter" means kitchen or stable refuse, dung, dirt, putrid.or putrefying substance and filth of any kind which is not included in "sewage":
(45) "owner" includes the person for the time being receiving the rent of any land or building or of any part of any land or building, whether on his own account or as agent or trustee for any person or society or for any religious or charitable purpose, or as a receiver who would receive such rent if the land or building or any part of the land or building were let to a tenant;
(46) "premises" means any land or building or part of a building or any but or part of a hut, and includes -
(a) the garden, ground and out-houses, if any, appertaining thereto; and
(b) any fittings or fixtures affixed to a building or part of a building or but or part of a but for the more beneficial enjoyment thereof;
(47) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act;
(48) "private drain" means any drain which is not a municipal drain as defined in this section;
(49) "private street" means any street, road, lane, gully, alley, passage or square which is not a public street as defined in this section, and includes any passage securing access to three or more premises belonging to the same or different owners:
(50) "public building" means a building constructed, used or adopted to be used-
(a) as a place of public worship or as a school, college or other place of instruction (not being a dwelling house so used) or as a hospital, nursing home, maternity home, factory, work house, public theatre, public cinema, public hall, public concert-room, public lecture-room, public library or public exhibition-room or as a public place of assembly, or
(b) as a hotel. eating-house, lodging-house, home, hostel, refuge or shelter, or
(c) for any other public purpose;
(51) "public street" means any street, road, lane, gully, alley, passage, pathway, square or courtyard, whether a thoroughfare or not, over which the public have a right of way, and includes -
(a) the access or approach to a public ferry,
(b) the roadway over any public bridge or causeway,
(c) the footway attached to any such street, public bridge or cause-way,
(d) the passage connecting two public streets, and
(e) the drains attached to any such street, public bridge or cause¬way, and, where there is no drain attached to any such street, shall be deemed to include also, unless the contrary is shown, all land up to the boundary wall, ail, hedge or pillar of the premises, if any, abutting on the street, or if a street alignment has been fixed, then up to such alignment;
(52) one-third of the total number of Councilors holding office for the time being shall be a "quorum' for a meeting;
(53) "ratepayer" means a person liable to pay any rate, tax or fee under this Act;
(54) "registered medical practitioner" means a medical practitioner registered under the Bengal Medical Act, 1914 (Ben. Act VI of 1914);
(55) "rubbish" means dust, ashes, broken bricks, mortar, broken glass and refuse of any kind which is not offensive matter;
(56) "rules" means the rules made by the State Government under this Act;
(57) "service privy" means a fixed privy which is cleansed by hand daily or periodically, but does not include a movable commode;
(58) "sewage" means night-soil and other contents of privies, urinals, cesspools or drains, and includes trade effluents and discharges from manufactories of all kinds;
(59) "slaughterhouse" means any place used for the slaughter of cattle, sheep. goats, kids or pigs, or hens. fowls, chicken, ducks, turkeys or any other eatable birds for the purpose of selling the flesh thereof as meat;
[(60) "State Election Commission" means the West Bengal State Election Commission referred to in sub-section (1) of section 3 of the West Bengal State ,Election Commission Act, 1994 (West Ben. Act VIII of 1994);]
(61) "street" means a public or private street;
(62) "street alignment" means the line dividing the land comprised in, and forming part of, a street from the adjoining land;
(63) "watercourse" includes any river, stream or channel, whether natural or artificial;
[(64) "year" means a financial year beginning on the first day of April and ending on the thirty-first day of March of the following year.]