In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires:––
(1) “backward classes” means such classes of citizens other than scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, as may be identified and notified for the purpose of reservation for appointments or posts in the services under the Government ;
1[(1A) “Board” shall mean the Jammu and Kashmir Property Tax Board constituted under the Jammu and Kashmir Property Tax Board Act, 2013 ;]
(2) “budget-grant” means the total sum entered on the expenditure side of a budget estimates 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 shop, house, out-house, stable, latrine, urinal, shed, hut, wall or any other structure, whether of masonry, bricks, wood, metal or other material and includes a well but does not include any portable shelter ;
(4) “bye-laws” means a bye-law made under this Act, by notification in the 2[Government Gazette] ;
(5) “Casual vacancy” means a vacancy occurring otherwise than by efflux of time in the office of a Councillor or in any other elective office ;
(6) “Chief Electoral Officer” means the Chief Electoral Officer 3[x x x] ;
(7) “Commissioner” means the Commissioner of the Corporation appointed by the 4[State Government] ;
(8) “Corporation” means the Municipal Corporation declared and constituted under sections 3 and 4 of this Act ;
(9) “Corrupt practice” means any of the practices specified in section 21 ;
(10) “dangerous disease” means––
(a) cholera, plague, chicken-pox, small-pox, tuberculosis, leprosy, enteric fever, cerebro-spinal meningitis and diphtheria ; and
(b) any other epidemic, endemic or infectious disease which the Commissioner may, by notification, in the 2[Government Gazette], declare to be dangerous disease for the purpose of this Act ;
(11) “Director” means the Director of Urban Local Bodies appointed by the Government ;
(12) “District” means a district in the 5[Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir] ;
(13) “District Judge” means the District Judge having jurisdiction over the municipal area ;
6[(14) “District Planning Committee” means a District Planning Committee constituted under section 47-A of the Jammu and Kashmir Panchayati Raj Act, 1989 ;]
(15) “Divisional Commissioner” means the Commissioner of the Division in which the Corporation is situated and includes any other officer appointed by the Government to perform all or any of the functions of the Divisional Commissioner under 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 of sewage, offensive matter, polluted water, waste water, rain water or sub-soil water ;
(17) “dry latrine” means a latrine or privy from where night soil is removed through manual scavenging ;
7[(17-a) “economically weaker section” means such class of persons, 8[x x x x x] as may be notified by the Government from time to time, for the purpose of providing housing sites of 9[such dimension as may be prescribed] ;
(18) “entertainment” includes any exhibition, performance, amusement, game or sport which persons are ordinarily admitted on payment ;
(19) “factory” means a factory as defined in the Factories Act, 1948 ;
(20) “filth” includes offensive matter and sewage ;
(21) “Finance Commission” means the Finance Commission constituted by the Government under section 249 of the Jammu and Kashmir Municipal Act, 2000 ;
10[(21-a) “floor space index” means the area that can be constructed on a piece of land divided by the total area of the land] ;
(22) “goods” includes animals ;
(23) “Government” means the Government of the 11[State of Jammu and Kashmir] ;
12[(23-a) “group housing” means more than two buildings on a plot with one or more floors and with one or more dwelling units in each floor] ;
(24) “house gully” or “serving 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 or other receptacle for filth or other polluted matter, by Corporation employees or other person employed in the cleaning thereof or in the removal of such matter therefrom ;
(25) “hut” means any building which is constructed principally of wood, bamboo, mud, leaves, grass, cloth or thatch and includes any structure of whatever material made which Corporation may declare to be a hut for the purpose of this Act ;
(26) “land” includes benefits that arise out of land, things attached to the earth or permanently fastened to anything attached to the earth and rights created by law over any street ;
(27) “licensed architect” , “licensed draftsmen” , “licensed engineer” , “licensed plumber” , “licensed surveyor” , and “licensed town planner” means respectively a person licensed under the provisions of this Act as an architect, draftsman, engineer, plumber, surveyor and town planner ;
13[(27-a) “low income group” means such class of persons, 8[x x x x] as may be notified by the Government from time to time, for the purpose of providing housing sites which may be of 9[such dimension as may be prescribed] ;
(28) “member” in relation to the Corporation means a Councillor thereof ;
(29) “municipal area” means the territorial area of the Corporation declared under section 3 of this Act ;
(30) “municipal drain” means a drain vested in the Corporation ;
(31) “municipal market” means market vested in or managed by the Corporation ;
(32) “municipal slaughter house” means a slaughter house vested in or managed by the Corporation ;
(33) “municipal water works” means water works vested in the Corporation ;
(34) “municipality” means an institution of self-Government constituted under section 3 of the Jammu and Kashmir Municipal Act, 2000 which may be a Municipal Committee or a Municipal Council or a Municipal Corporation ;
(35) “nuisance” includes any act, omission, place, animal or a 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 ;
(36) “occupier” includes––
(a) any person who for the time being is paying or is liable to pay to the owner the rent or any portion of the rent or any portion of the land or building in respect of which such rent is paid or is payable ;
(b) an owner in occupation of, or otherwise using his land or building ;
(c) a rent-fee tenant of any land or building ;
(d) a licensee in occupation of any land or building ; and
(e) any person who is liable to pay to the owner damages for the use and occupation of any land or building ;
(37) “offensive matter” includes animal carcasses, kitchen or stable refuse, dung, dirt and putrid or putrefying substances, other than sewage ;
(38) “owner” includes a person who for the time being is receiving or is entitled to receive, the rent of any land or building whether on his own account or on account of himself and other or as an agent, trustee, guardian or receiver or any other person who should so receive the rent or be entitled to receive it if the land or building or part thereof were let to a tenant ;
(39) “population” means the population as ascertained at the last preceding census of which the relevant figures have been published ;
(40) “premises” means any land or building or part of a building and includes:––
(a) the garden, ground and out-house, if any, appertaining to a building or part of a building ; and
(b) any fittings affixed to a building or part of a building for the more beneficial enjoyment thereof ;
(41) “prescribed” means prescribed by rules made under this Act ;
(42) “private market” means a market which is not a municipal market ;
(43) “private slaughter house” means a slaughter house which is not a municipal slaughter house ;
(44) “private street” means any street, which is not a public street and includes any passage securing access to two or more places belonging to the same or different owners ;
(45) “public place” means any place which is open to the use and enjoyment of the public, whether it is actually used or enjoyed by the public or not ;
(46) “public securities” means any securities of the Central Government or a Government or any securities guaranteed by the Central Government or a State Government or any securities issued under this Act ;
(47) “public street” means any street which vests in the Corporation or which under the provisions of this Act becomes, or is declared to be a public street ;
(48) “railway administration” means and would have the same meaning as assigned to it in the Indian Railway Act, 1890 ;
14[x x x x]
(50) “regulation” means a regulation made by the Corporation under this Act, by notification, in the 2[Government Gazette] ;
(51) “reside” : ––
(a) a person shall be deemed to “reside” in any dwelling house which or some portion of which he sometimes, although not uninterruptedly uses as a sleeping apartment ; and
(b) a person shall not be deemed to cease to “reside” in any such dwelling house merely because he is absent from it or has elsewhere another dwelling house in which he resides, if there is, liberty of returning to it at any time, and no abandonment of the intention of returning to it ;
(52) “rubbish” includes ashes, broken bricks, broken glass, dust, mulba, mortar and refuse of any kind which is not filth ;
(53) “rural areas” means the part of the municipal area which immediately before their inclusion within the limits of the municipal areas were situated within the local limits of a Gram Panchayat but shall not include such portion thereof, as may, by virtue of a notification under section 417 cease to be included in the rural areas as herein defined ;
(54) “Scheduled Castes” shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in clause (24) of Article 366 of the Constitution of India ;
(55) “Scheduled Tribes” shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in clause (25) of Article 366 of the Constitution of India ;
(56) “sewage” means night soil and other contents of latrines, urinal, cesspools or drains and polluted water from sinks, bathrooms, stables, cattle sheds and other like places, and includes trade effluents and discharges from manufactures of all kinds ;
(57) “ shed” means a slight or temporary structure for shade or shelter ;
15[(57-a) “shelter fee” means fee levied and collected in lieu of the reservation of land or floor area, as the case may be, being an amount equal to the market value of the land or floor area determined on the basis of the rates notified by the Government, which is required to be reserved for the economically weaker sections and the lower income groups] ;
(58) “slaughter house” means any place ordinarily used for the slaughter of animals for the purpose of selling the flesh thereof for human consumption ;
(59) “Special Tribunal” means the Tribunal constituted under section 4 of the Jammu and Kashmir Special Tribunal Act, 1988 ;
(60) “street” shall mean any road, footway, square, court alley, gully or passage, accessible whether permanently or temporarily to the public and whether a thoroughfare or not, and shall include every vacant space, notwithstanding that it may be private property and partly or wholly obstructed by any gate, post chain or other barrier, if houses, shops or other buildings abut thereon, and if it is used by any person as means of access to or from an public place or thoroughfare, whether such persons be occupiers of such buildings or not, but shall not include any part of such space which the occupier of any such building has right at all hours to prevent all other persons from using as aforesaid and shall include also the drains or gutters therein, or either side or the land, whether covered or not by any pavement, verandah or other erection, up to the boundary of any abutting property, not accessible to the public ;
16[(60A) “Taxable annual value” means the taxable annual value of any land and building or vacant land or both determined under section 88 for the purpose of assessment of property tax ;]
(61) “trade effluent” means any liquid either with or without particles of matter in suspension therein, which is wholly or in part produced in the course of any trade or industry carried on at trade premises *[and in relation to any trade premises] means any such liquid as aforesaid which is so produced in the course of any trade or industry carried on at those premises, but does not include domestic sewage ;
(62) “trade premises” means any premises used or intended to be used for carrying on any trade or industry ;
(63) “trade refuse” means the refuse of any trade or industry ;
(64) “vehicle” includes a carriage, cart, van, dray, truck, hand-cart, bicycle, tricycle, cycle rickshaw, auto-rickshaw, motor vehicle and every wheeled conveyance which is used or is capable of being used on a street ;
(65) “ward” means a municipal ward of the Corporation made under subsection (2) of section 4 of this Act for the purpose of election of a member ;
(66) “water course” includes any river, stream or channel whether natural or artificial ;
(67) “water seal latrine” means a latrine with a minimum water seal of 20 mm in which excreta is pushed in or flushed by water and is not required to be removed by human agency ;
(68) “water works” includes all lakes, tanks, streams, cisterns, springs, pumps, wells, reservoirs, aqueducts, water trucks, sluices, main pipes, culverts, hydrants, stand-pipes and conduits and all lands, buildings, machinery, bridges and things used for, or intended for the purpose of supplying water ;
(69) “workshop” means any premises (including the precincts thereof) other than a factory, wherein any industrial process is carried on ; and
(70) “year” means a year commencing on the 1st day of April.
(1) “backward classes” means such classes of citizens other than scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, as may be identified and notified for the purpose of reservation for appointments or posts in the services under the Government ;
1[(1A) “Board” shall mean the Jammu and Kashmir Property Tax Board constituted under the Jammu and Kashmir Property Tax Board Act, 2013 ;]
(2) “budget-grant” means the total sum entered on the expenditure side of a budget estimates 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 shop, house, out-house, stable, latrine, urinal, shed, hut, wall or any other structure, whether of masonry, bricks, wood, metal or other material and includes a well but does not include any portable shelter ;
(4) “bye-laws” means a bye-law made under this Act, by notification in the 2[Government Gazette] ;
(5) “Casual vacancy” means a vacancy occurring otherwise than by efflux of time in the office of a Councillor or in any other elective office ;
(6) “Chief Electoral Officer” means the Chief Electoral Officer 3[x x x] ;
(7) “Commissioner” means the Commissioner of the Corporation appointed by the 4[State Government] ;
(8) “Corporation” means the Municipal Corporation declared and constituted under sections 3 and 4 of this Act ;
(9) “Corrupt practice” means any of the practices specified in section 21 ;
(10) “dangerous disease” means––
(a) cholera, plague, chicken-pox, small-pox, tuberculosis, leprosy, enteric fever, cerebro-spinal meningitis and diphtheria ; and
(b) any other epidemic, endemic or infectious disease which the Commissioner may, by notification, in the 2[Government Gazette], declare to be dangerous disease for the purpose of this Act ;
(11) “Director” means the Director of Urban Local Bodies appointed by the Government ;
(12) “District” means a district in the 5[Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir] ;
(13) “District Judge” means the District Judge having jurisdiction over the municipal area ;
6[(14) “District Planning Committee” means a District Planning Committee constituted under section 47-A of the Jammu and Kashmir Panchayati Raj Act, 1989 ;]
(15) “Divisional Commissioner” means the Commissioner of the Division in which the Corporation is situated and includes any other officer appointed by the Government to perform all or any of the functions of the Divisional Commissioner under 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 of sewage, offensive matter, polluted water, waste water, rain water or sub-soil water ;
(17) “dry latrine” means a latrine or privy from where night soil is removed through manual scavenging ;
7[(17-a) “economically weaker section” means such class of persons, 8[x x x x x] as may be notified by the Government from time to time, for the purpose of providing housing sites of 9[such dimension as may be prescribed] ;
(18) “entertainment” includes any exhibition, performance, amusement, game or sport which persons are ordinarily admitted on payment ;
(19) “factory” means a factory as defined in the Factories Act, 1948 ;
(20) “filth” includes offensive matter and sewage ;
(21) “Finance Commission” means the Finance Commission constituted by the Government under section 249 of the Jammu and Kashmir Municipal Act, 2000 ;
10[(21-a) “floor space index” means the area that can be constructed on a piece of land divided by the total area of the land] ;
(22) “goods” includes animals ;
(23) “Government” means the Government of the 11[State of Jammu and Kashmir] ;
12[(23-a) “group housing” means more than two buildings on a plot with one or more floors and with one or more dwelling units in each floor] ;
(24) “house gully” or “serving 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 or other receptacle for filth or other polluted matter, by Corporation employees or other person employed in the cleaning thereof or in the removal of such matter therefrom ;
(25) “hut” means any building which is constructed principally of wood, bamboo, mud, leaves, grass, cloth or thatch and includes any structure of whatever material made which Corporation may declare to be a hut for the purpose of this Act ;
(26) “land” includes benefits that arise out of land, things attached to the earth or permanently fastened to anything attached to the earth and rights created by law over any street ;
(27) “licensed architect” , “licensed draftsmen” , “licensed engineer” , “licensed plumber” , “licensed surveyor” , and “licensed town planner” means respectively a person licensed under the provisions of this Act as an architect, draftsman, engineer, plumber, surveyor and town planner ;
13[(27-a) “low income group” means such class of persons, 8[x x x x] as may be notified by the Government from time to time, for the purpose of providing housing sites which may be of 9[such dimension as may be prescribed] ;
(28) “member” in relation to the Corporation means a Councillor thereof ;
(29) “municipal area” means the territorial area of the Corporation declared under section 3 of this Act ;
(30) “municipal drain” means a drain vested in the Corporation ;
(31) “municipal market” means market vested in or managed by the Corporation ;
(32) “municipal slaughter house” means a slaughter house vested in or managed by the Corporation ;
(33) “municipal water works” means water works vested in the Corporation ;
(34) “municipality” means an institution of self-Government constituted under section 3 of the Jammu and Kashmir Municipal Act, 2000 which may be a Municipal Committee or a Municipal Council or a Municipal Corporation ;
(35) “nuisance” includes any act, omission, place, animal or a 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 ;
(36) “occupier” includes––
(a) any person who for the time being is paying or is liable to pay to the owner the rent or any portion of the rent or any portion of the land or building in respect of which such rent is paid or is payable ;
(b) an owner in occupation of, or otherwise using his land or building ;
(c) a rent-fee tenant of any land or building ;
(d) a licensee in occupation of any land or building ; and
(e) any person who is liable to pay to the owner damages for the use and occupation of any land or building ;
(37) “offensive matter” includes animal carcasses, kitchen or stable refuse, dung, dirt and putrid or putrefying substances, other than sewage ;
(38) “owner” includes a person who for the time being is receiving or is entitled to receive, the rent of any land or building whether on his own account or on account of himself and other or as an agent, trustee, guardian or receiver or any other person who should so receive the rent or be entitled to receive it if the land or building or part thereof were let to a tenant ;
(39) “population” means the population as ascertained at the last preceding census of which the relevant figures have been published ;
(40) “premises” means any land or building or part of a building and includes:––
(a) the garden, ground and out-house, if any, appertaining to a building or part of a building ; and
(b) any fittings affixed to a building or part of a building for the more beneficial enjoyment thereof ;
(41) “prescribed” means prescribed by rules made under this Act ;
(42) “private market” means a market which is not a municipal market ;
(43) “private slaughter house” means a slaughter house which is not a municipal slaughter house ;
(44) “private street” means any street, which is not a public street and includes any passage securing access to two or more places belonging to the same or different owners ;
(45) “public place” means any place which is open to the use and enjoyment of the public, whether it is actually used or enjoyed by the public or not ;
(46) “public securities” means any securities of the Central Government or a Government or any securities guaranteed by the Central Government or a State Government or any securities issued under this Act ;
(47) “public street” means any street which vests in the Corporation or which under the provisions of this Act becomes, or is declared to be a public street ;
(48) “railway administration” means and would have the same meaning as assigned to it in the Indian Railway Act, 1890 ;
14[x x x x]
(50) “regulation” means a regulation made by the Corporation under this Act, by notification, in the 2[Government Gazette] ;
(51) “reside” : ––
(a) a person shall be deemed to “reside” in any dwelling house which or some portion of which he sometimes, although not uninterruptedly uses as a sleeping apartment ; and
(b) a person shall not be deemed to cease to “reside” in any such dwelling house merely because he is absent from it or has elsewhere another dwelling house in which he resides, if there is, liberty of returning to it at any time, and no abandonment of the intention of returning to it ;
(52) “rubbish” includes ashes, broken bricks, broken glass, dust, mulba, mortar and refuse of any kind which is not filth ;
(53) “rural areas” means the part of the municipal area which immediately before their inclusion within the limits of the municipal areas were situated within the local limits of a Gram Panchayat but shall not include such portion thereof, as may, by virtue of a notification under section 417 cease to be included in the rural areas as herein defined ;
(54) “Scheduled Castes” shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in clause (24) of Article 366 of the Constitution of India ;
(55) “Scheduled Tribes” shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in clause (25) of Article 366 of the Constitution of India ;
(56) “sewage” means night soil and other contents of latrines, urinal, cesspools or drains and polluted water from sinks, bathrooms, stables, cattle sheds and other like places, and includes trade effluents and discharges from manufactures of all kinds ;
(57) “ shed” means a slight or temporary structure for shade or shelter ;
15[(57-a) “shelter fee” means fee levied and collected in lieu of the reservation of land or floor area, as the case may be, being an amount equal to the market value of the land or floor area determined on the basis of the rates notified by the Government, which is required to be reserved for the economically weaker sections and the lower income groups] ;
(58) “slaughter house” means any place ordinarily used for the slaughter of animals for the purpose of selling the flesh thereof for human consumption ;
(59) “Special Tribunal” means the Tribunal constituted under section 4 of the Jammu and Kashmir Special Tribunal Act, 1988 ;
(60) “street” shall mean any road, footway, square, court alley, gully or passage, accessible whether permanently or temporarily to the public and whether a thoroughfare or not, and shall include every vacant space, notwithstanding that it may be private property and partly or wholly obstructed by any gate, post chain or other barrier, if houses, shops or other buildings abut thereon, and if it is used by any person as means of access to or from an public place or thoroughfare, whether such persons be occupiers of such buildings or not, but shall not include any part of such space which the occupier of any such building has right at all hours to prevent all other persons from using as aforesaid and shall include also the drains or gutters therein, or either side or the land, whether covered or not by any pavement, verandah or other erection, up to the boundary of any abutting property, not accessible to the public ;
16[(60A) “Taxable annual value” means the taxable annual value of any land and building or vacant land or both determined under section 88 for the purpose of assessment of property tax ;]
(61) “trade effluent” means any liquid either with or without particles of matter in suspension therein, which is wholly or in part produced in the course of any trade or industry carried on at trade premises *[and in relation to any trade premises] means any such liquid as aforesaid which is so produced in the course of any trade or industry carried on at those premises, but does not include domestic sewage ;
(62) “trade premises” means any premises used or intended to be used for carrying on any trade or industry ;
(63) “trade refuse” means the refuse of any trade or industry ;
(64) “vehicle” includes a carriage, cart, van, dray, truck, hand-cart, bicycle, tricycle, cycle rickshaw, auto-rickshaw, motor vehicle and every wheeled conveyance which is used or is capable of being used on a street ;
(65) “ward” means a municipal ward of the Corporation made under subsection (2) of section 4 of this Act for the purpose of election of a member ;
(66) “water course” includes any river, stream or channel whether natural or artificial ;
(67) “water seal latrine” means a latrine with a minimum water seal of 20 mm in which excreta is pushed in or flushed by water and is not required to be removed by human agency ;
(68) “water works” includes all lakes, tanks, streams, cisterns, springs, pumps, wells, reservoirs, aqueducts, water trucks, sluices, main pipes, culverts, hydrants, stand-pipes and conduits and all lands, buildings, machinery, bridges and things used for, or intended for the purpose of supplying water ;
(69) “workshop” means any premises (including the precincts thereof) other than a factory, wherein any industrial process is carried on ; and
(70) “year” means a year commencing on the 1st day of April.
1. Clause (1A) inserted by S.O. 3466 (E) of 2020 dated 5th October, 2020. 2. Now Official Gazette. 3. Words “of the State” omitted by S.O. 3466(E) 05.10.2020. 4. Now Government of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. 5. Substituted by S.O. 3466(E) of 2020 dated 5th October, 2020 for “State”. 6. Clause (14) substituted ibid. 7. Clause (17-a) inserted by Act No. XIII of 2012, s.5. 8. Words “being permanent residents of the State” by S.O. 3466 (E) of 2020 dated 5.10.2020. 9. Substituted for certain words ibid. 10. Clause (21-a) inserted by Act No. XIII of 2012, s. 5. 11. Now Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. 12. Clause (23-a) inserted by Act No. XIII of 2012, s. 5. 13. Clause (27-a) inserted ibid. 14. Clause (49) omitted by S.O. 3466 (E) of 2020 dated 5.10.2020. 15. Clause (57-a) inserted by Act No. XIII of 2012, s. 5. 16. Clause (60A) inserted by S.O. 3466 (E) of 2020 dated 5.10.2020. * To make the definition complete the words “and in relation to any trade premises” should be there. Administrative Department (Housing and Urban Development) may take note of it and move proposal for amending clause (61) accordingly. .....(Author).