Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, 1994
[Act No. 11 of 1994]
[ 22nd April, 1994]
Preamble
An Act to provide for the Constitution of Gram Panchayats, Panchayat Samitis and Zila Parishads for better administration of the rural areas and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Haryana in the Forty-fifth Year of the Republic of India as follows:-
Part: I - PRELIMINARY
Section 1 - Short title, extent and commencement
(1) This Act may be called the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, 1994.
(2) It extends to the whole of the State of Haryana.
(3) It shall come into force on such date as the State Government may, by notification, in the Official Gazette, appoint.
Section 2 - Definitions
In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,--
(i) "Additional Director" means an officer appointed by the Government to perform the functions of an Additional Director under this Act;
(ii) "Adult" means a person, male or female, who has attained the age of eighteen years;
(iii) "Assembly" means the Haryana Legislative Assembly;
(iv) "Backward Classes" means such classes of citizens as may be specified by the Government from time to time;
(v) "block" means such local area in a district as may be declared by the Government, by notification in the Official Gazette, to be a block at intermediate level;
(vi) "Block Development and Panchayat Officer" means an officer appointed as such by the Government;
(vii) "building" means any shop, house, hut, out-house, shed or stable, whether used for the purpose of human habitation or otherwise and whether of masonry, bricks, wood, mud, thatch, metal or any other material whatsoever and includes a wall and a well;
(viii) "business" includes any trade, commerce or manufacture or an adventure or concern in the nature of trade, commerce or manufacture;
(ix) "bye-laws" means the bye-laws made by a Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti or Zila Parishad under this Act;
(x) "casual vacancy" means a vacancy occurring otherwise than by efflux of time;
(xi) "cattle" means and includes bulls, bullocks, heifers, cows and their youngs, elephants, camels, buffaloes, horses, mares, ponies, colts, mules, asses, swine, sheep, ewes, rams, lambs, goats, and kids;
(xii) "Chairman" means a Chairman of Panchayat Samiti elected under this Act;
(xiii) "Chief Executive Officer" means the Chief Executive Officer of a Zila Parishad;
(xiv) "Collector" means the Collector of a district in which the village is situated and includes any officer appointed by the Government to perform the functions of a Collector under this Act;
(xv) "Committee" means any Standing Committee or Local Committee or Sub-Committee constituted under this Act;
(xvi) "common land" means land which is not in the exclusive use of any individual and has, by usage, custom or prescription, been reserved for the common purposes of village community or has been acquired for such purposes;
(xvii) "competent authority" means such Government officer or authority as the Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette appoint to perform the functions of a competent authority under this Act;
(xviii) "Deputy Commissioner" means the Deputy Commissioner of a district and includes any officer not below the rank of an Assistant Commissioner appointed by the Government to perform the functions of a Deputy Commissioner under this Act;
(xix) "Director" means the Director of Panchayats appointed under this Act;
(xx) "District" means a revenue district in the State of Haryana;
(xxi) "District Development and Panchayat Officer" means an officer appointed by the Government to perform the functions of a District Development and Panchayat Officer under this Act;
(xxii) "erection or re-erection or enlargement" of any building includes-
(a) any material alteration or enlargement of any building;
(b) the conversion, by structural alteration, into a place of human habitation of any building not originally constructed for human habitation;
(c) the conversion of two or more places of human habitation into a lesser number of such places;
(d) the conversion of one or more places of human habitation into a greater number of such places;
(e) such alteration of a building as would affect a change in the drainage or sanitary arrangements or materially affect its security;
(f) the addition of any rooms, buildings out-houses or their structures to any building;
(g) the conversion, by any structural alteration into a place of religious worship or into a building used for a sacred purpose or any place or building not original meant or constituted for such purposes;
(h) roofing or covering an even space between walls or buildings, in respect of the structure which is formed by roofing or covering such space;
(i) conversion into a stall, shop, warehouse or godwon of any building not originally constructed for use as such or vice versa; and
(j) construction of a door in a wall adjoining any street or land not vested in the owner of the wall and opening on such street or land;
(xxiii) "Executive Officer" means an Executive Officer of a Panchayat Samiti;
(xxiv) "factory" means a factory as defined in the Factories Act, 1948 (Act 13 of 1948);
(xxv) "Finance Commission" means the Finance Commission constituted under clause (1) of article 243-1 of the Constitution of India;
(xxvi) "general election" means the election held under this Act for the constitution or reconstitution of a Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti or Zila Parishad, as the case may be, after the expiry of its term or otherwise;
(xxvii) "Government" means the Government of the State of Haryana;
(xxviii) "Gram Fund" means Gram Fund provided under this Act;
(xxix) "Gram Panchayat" means the Panchayat constituted at village level under this Act;
(xxx) "Gram Sabha" means a body consisting of persons registered as voters in the electoral rolls of a village comprised within the area of the Panchayat at the village level;
(xxxi) "Gram Sachiv" means a Gram Sachiv of a Gram Panchayat or group of Gram Panchayats appointed by the Government;
(xxxii) "Joint Director" means an officer appointed by the Government to perform the functions of a Joint Director under this Act;
(xxxiii) "Local Authority" means a Municipal Corporation, Municipal Council, Municipal Committee, Cooperative Society, Market Society, Improvement Trust, Cantonment Board, Urban Development Authority, Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti, Zila Parishad, a Board or Company or Corporation financed or aided by Central or State Government;
(xxxiv) "market" means a place for the sale or purchase of goods or animals;
(xxxv) "member" means a member of Panchayat Samiti or Zila Parishad, as the case may be;
(xxxvi) "municipality" means municipality as defined in the Haryana Municipal Act, 1973;
(xxxvii) "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 the health or property of the public, or of the people in general, who dwell in the vicinity or of persons who may have occasion to exercise a public right;
(xxxviii) "octroi" or "octroi duty" means a tax on the entry of goods into Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti or Zila Parishad area, for consumption, use or sale therein;
(xxxix) "offensive or dangerous trade" means any trade, business or industry dangerous to life, health or property or likely to cause nuisance, and which is so notified by the Government;
(xl) "owner" includes the person for the time being receiving the rent of any land or building or part thereof, whether on his own account or as agent, receiver or trustee or who would receive rent if the land or building or part thereof were let to a tenant;
(xli) "panch" means a member of a Gram Panchayat elected under this Act 1[***];
(xlii) "Panchayat area" means the territorial area of a Gram Panchayat;
(xliii) "Panchayat Samiti" means a Panchayat Samiti constituted for a block under this Act and having jurisdiction over the block area as notified in the official Gazette;
(xliv) "population" means the population as ascertained at the last preceding census of which the relevant figures have been published;
(xlv) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act;
(xlvi) "prescribed authority" means such authority as may be prescribed by rules made under this Act;
(xlvii) "President" means a president of a Zila Parishad elected under this Act;
(xlviii) "private market" means a market other than a public market;
(xlix) "public market" means any market owned by a Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti or Zila Parishad acquired, constructed, maintained or managed by a Gram Panchayat or Panchayat Samiti or Zila Parishad;
(l) "public place" means any place, building or structure situated within the jurisdiction of a Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti, Zila Parishad area to which the public has free access or which is open to be used for enjoyment of the public, whether such place is vested in a Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti, Zila Parishad or not;
(li) "public servant" means a public servant as defined in section 21 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (Central Act 45 of 1860) and shall include a panch, 1[***] sarpanch, member of Panchayat Samiti or Zila Parishad, Chairman or Vice-Chairman and President or Vice-President;
(lii) "public street" means a pathway, road, street, bridge-lane, square, court, alley or passage in a village, which the public has a right to use, and includes the drains or gutters on either side and the land upto the defined boundary of any abutting property, notwithstanding any projection over such land of any verandah or other superstructure;
(liii) "qualifying date" means the 1st day of January of the year in which the list of voters for the purposes of the general election of members for constituting or reconstituting a Gram-Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti or Zila Parishad, as the...
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