In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires -
(a) "annual value" means -
(i) double the land revenue for the time being assessed on any land, whether the assessment is leviable or not; or
(ii) where the land has been permanently assessed, or has been wholly or in part compounded for or redeemed, double the amount which, but for such permanent assessment, composition or re<l;ernption, would have been leviable; or
(iii) where no land revenue has been assessed, double the amount which would have been assessed if the average village rate had been applied:
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Provided that, in any tract in which, under the settlement for the time being in force, the improvement of the land due to canal irrigation has been excluded from account in assessing the land revenue and a rate has been imposed in respect of such improvement, that rate shall be added to the land revenue for the purpose of computing the annual value;
(b) "Backward Classes" means such classes of citizens as may be notified by the State Government from time to time;
(c) "Block" means such area in a district as may be declared by the State Government by notification, to be a Block.
(d) "~lock Development and Panchayat Officer" means the Block Development and Panchayat Officer and includes any other officer appointed by the State Government to perform all or any of the functions of the Block Development and Panchayat Officer under this Act;
(e) "business" includes any trade, commerce or manufacture or an adventure or concern in the nature of trade, commerce or manufacture;
(f) ''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 whatever, and includes a wall and a well;
(g) '1Jye-laws" means bye-laws made by a Gram Panchayat, or a Panchayat Samiti or a Zila Parishad under this Act;
(h) "Chairman or Vice-Chairman" means the Chairman or the Vice Chairman of a Panchayat Samiti-or a Zila Parishad, as the case may be;
(i) "Chief Executive Officer" means Chief Executive Officer of a Zila Parishad appointed under this Act;
(j) "Collector" means the Collector of a district and includes any officer not below the rank of a District Development and Pancbayat Officer specially appointed by the State Government to perform the functions of a Collector under this Act;
(k) "Commissioner" means the Divisional Commissioner or such other officer as may be appointed by the State Government to exercise the powers of a Commissioner under this Act;
(1) "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;
(m) "casual vacancy'' means a vacancy occurring otherwise than by efflux of time;
(n) "Deputy Chief Executive Officer" means an officer not below the rank of District Development and Panchayat Officer to be appointed under this Act as such for a Zila Parishad;
(o) "Deputy Commissioner" means the Deputy Commissioner of a district and includes any officer not below the rank of an Extra Assistant Commissioner specially appointed by the State Government to perform the functions of a Deputy 3 Commissioner under this Act;
(p) "Deputy Director" means an Officer appointed by the State Government to perform the functions of a Deputy Director under the Act;
(q) "Director" means the Director of Panchayats appointed under this Act and includes any officer not below the rank of Deputy Director appointed by the State Government to perform the functions of the Director;
(r) "District" means a revenue District in the State;
(s) "District Development and Panchayat Officer" means a District Development and Pancliayat Officer and includes an officer appointed by the State Government to perform the functions of a District Development and Panchayat Officer under this Act;
(t) "Election· Commission'' means the Election Commission constituted under Article· 243-K of the Constitution of India for the State of Punjab;
1[(tt) "Electronic and Print Media" means officfal websites on internet and newspapers in Punjabi, English and Hindi language having wide · circulation in the State of Punjab;]
(u) "Erection or Re-erection or Enlargement" of any building includes-
(i) any material alteration or enlargement of any building;
(ii) the conversion, by structural alteration, into a place of human habitation of any building not originally constructed for human habitation;
(iii) the conversion of two or more places of human habitation into a lesser number of such places;
(iv) the conversion of one or more places of human habitation into a greater number of such places;
(v) such alteration of a building as would effect a change in the drainage or sanitary arrangements or materially affect its security;
(vi) the addition of any rooms, buildings, out-houses or their structures to any building;
(vii) the conversion, by any structural alteration, into a place of religious worship or into a building used for a sacred purpose of any place or building not originally meant or constructed for such purpose;
(viii) roofing or covering an open space between walls or buildings, in respect of the structure which is formed by roofing or covering such space;
(ix) conversion into a stall, shop, warehouse or godown of any building not originally constructed for use as such or vice versa;
(x) 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;
(v) "Executive Officer" means an Executive Officer of a Panchayat Samiti · constituted under this Act;
(W) "existing law'' meap.s the Punjab Gram Panchayat Act, 1952 (Punjab Act l Inserted by Punjab Act No. 9 of 2014, w.e.f. 9.4.201 4.
4 4 of 1953) or the Punjab Panchayat Samitis and Zila Parishad Act, 1961 (Punjab Act 3of1961) as the case may be;
(x) "Factory" means besides a factory as defined in the Factories Act, 1948 (Central Act 13 of 1948) and any premises including any premises where in any industrial manufacturing or trade process is carried on with the aid of stream, water, oil, gas, electrical or any other form of power which is mechanically transmitted and is not generated by human or animal agency;
(y) "Gram Sabha" means a body consisting of persons registered as voters in the electoral rolls of the area of the Gram Panchayat, constituted under Section 3 of this Act;
(z) "Gram Sabha area" means territorial area of a Gram Sabha;
(za) "Gram Panchayat" means an institution of self-government for a Gram Sabha area constituted under Section 9;
(zb) "land" means land assessed to land revenue and includes land whereof the land revenue has been wholly or in part released, compounded for, redeemed or assigned;
(zc) "land-holder" means any person responsible for the payment of the land revenue, if any, assessed on land and includes the proprietor of land, the land revenue of which has been wholly, or in part released, compounded for redeemed or assigned;
(zd) "latrine" includes a privy, water-closet and urinal;
(ze) "local authority" includes a Municipal Corporation, Municipal Committee, Zila Parishad, Panchayat Samiti, Gram Panchayat, Sanitary Board, Town Board, Notified Area Committee, Improvement Trust, Urban Development Authority and Planning Authority constituted under this Act or under any law for the time being in force;
(zf) "market" means a place for the sale of goods or animals publically exposed where ordinarily or periodically at least four shops, stalls or sheds are set up or where at least ten animals are brought for sale;
(zg) "member' means a member of a Gram Panchayat, a Panchayat Samiti or Zila Parishad and includes Sarpanch of a Gram Panchayat and Chairman and Vice-Chairman of Panchayat Samiti or Zila Parishad;
(zh) "occupier" means any person in actual possession of any land or building or part thereof and includes an owner in actual possession and the tenant or licensee whether such tenant or licensee is liable to pay rent or not;
(zi) "Panch" means a member of the Gram Panchayat elected under this Act and includes a Sarpanch; "
(zj) "Panchayat'' means a Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti and Zila Parishad constituted under this Act;
(zk) "Panchayat area" means the territorial area of a Panchayat or Panchayat Samiti or Zila Parishad;
(zl) "Panchayat Samiti" means a Panchayat Samiti constituted for a Block 5 under this Act;
(zm) "panchayat Secretary" means the Secretary of the Gram Panchayat appointed under this Act;
(zn) "Population" means 1 [the rural population] as ascertained at the last preceding census of which the relevant figures have been published;
(zo) ''prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act;
(zp) "public 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;
(zq) "public place" mean~ any place, building or structure situated within a Panchayat area to which the public has free access;
(zr) "public servant" means a public servant as defined in section 21 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and shall Include a Panch and a Sarpanch or member of a Panchayat Samiti or a member of a Zila Panshad.
(zs) "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, up to the defined boundary of any abutting property, notwithstanding any projection over such side of any of any verandah or other superstructure;
2(zt) ''Sarpanch" means a Sarpanch of a Gram Panchayat elected under Section 10 of the this Act;]
(zu) "Schedule" means a Scheduled appended to this Act;
(zv) 1'Schedule Caste" means the Scheduled Caste specified in respect of the State of Punjab in the Constitution (Scheduled Caste) Order, 1950 for the time being in force;
(zw) "Social Education and Panchayat Officer" means Social Education and Panchayat Officer and includes an officer appointed by the State Government to perform the functions of a Social Education and Panchayat Officer under this Act;
(zx) "Standing Committee" means a Standing Committee constituted for a Gram Panchayat, a Panchayat Samiti or a Zila Parishad under this Act;
(zy) "Sub-Division Officer" means. the officer-in-charge of a Sub-Division of a District constituted for revenue and general purposes;
(zz) "tax" includes a cess, duty fee rate, toll or other impost leviable under this Act; .
(zza) "Village" means any local area, recorded as a revenue estate in the 1 Substituted for the words "the pop~lation as" vide Punjab Act No. 15 of 1998.
2 Substituted by Punjab Act No. 4 of 2012, prior to substitution clause (zt)_ was read as under :
"(zt)" Sarpanch" means Sarpanch of the Gram Panchayat elected under [section 13-A] of the this Act;" (w.e.f.
21.5.2012)" 6 revenue records of the district in which it is situated;
(zio) "Village level functionary" in relation to a Gram Sabha area means any person performing his official duties in that Gram Sabha area and includes Patwari, School Teacher, Secretary of a Co-operative Society and Forest Guard;
(zzc) ''Watercourse" means any channel which is maintained at the cost of irrigators and is supplied with water from any canal to which either the Northern India Canal and Drainage Act, 1873 or the Punjab Minor Canals Act, 1905 or any other Act for the time being in force applies and includes all subsidiary works connected with such channel except the sluice or outlet through which water is supplied to such channel;
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(zzd) "Zila Parishad" means a Zila Parishad of a district constituted under this Act;
(zze) the expressions "offence", "non-bailable offence", "cognizable offence", "complaint", "officer-in-charge of a police station" and "police station" have the same meanings as in section 2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973;
(zzf) the expressions "decree-holder'', "judgment-debtor", "legal representative" and "movable property" have the same meanings as in section 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908;
(zzg) the expressions "landowner", "tenant'' and ''land revenue" have the same meanings as in the Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887;
(zzh) words the expression used but not defined in this Act shall have the 1neanings assigned to them in the law for the time being in force relating to the Gram Panchayats, Municipalities, District Boards and Market Committees.
CHAPTER-II GRAM SABHAS AND GRAM PANCHAYATS
3. Establishment of Gram Sabha areas. (1) The State Government may, by notification, declare any village or group of contiguous villages with a population of not less than 1[tbree hundred] to constitute a Gram Sabha area:
Provided that a new Gram Sabha area may be constituted for any village or group of contiguous villages in respect of a separate distinct abadi or group of abadis having a population of not less than 2[three hundred] taking into consideJation its physical distance from the main viii.age or villages, as the case may be and other relevant facts: · 3[Provided further that a Gram,Sabha constituted prior to the commence1nent of the Punjab Panchayati Raj (Atnendment) Act, 2012, with a population of less than three hundred shall not be affected.]
1 Substituted Punjab Act No. 4of2012, for the words <;two hundered". (w.e.f. 21.5.2o'12 2 Substituted Punjab Act No. 4 of 2012, for the words "two hundered" . (w.e.f. 21.5.2012 3 Inserted by Punjab Act No. 4 of 2012. (w .e.f. 21.5.2012) 7 1Provided further that neither the whole nor any part of-
(a) a Notified Area under Section 241 of the Punjab Municipal- Act, 1911, or any other Act for the time being in force: or
(b) a Cantonment; or
(c) a Municipality of any class., or
(d) a Municipal Corporation;
shall be included in a Gram Sabha area unless the majority of voters in any Notified Area or Municipality of the Third Class desire the establishment of a Gram Sabha in which case the assets and liabilities, if any, of the Notified Area Committee or the Municipal Committee, as th, case may be, shall vest in the Gram Panchayat of that Gram Sabha and the Notified Area Committee or the Municipal Committee shall cease to exist.
(2) That State Government may, by notifiyation, include any area in or exclude any area from the Gram Sabha area:
(3) (i) where any area excluded from any Gram Sabha area under sub-section
(2) is either Included in any other Gram Sabha area or 1,9 constituted Into a new Gram Sabha area, the assets and liabilities of the Gram Panchayat of the Gram Sabha area from which such area is so excluded (hereinafter referred to as the existing Gram Panchayat) shall be apportioned between the successor Gram Panchayat~ in the manner specified her.einafter.
(ii) All lands and all stores, articles and other goods belonging to the existing Gram Pancbayat shall, -
(a) if within the Gram Sabha area of that Gram Panchayat pass on to the successor Gram Pancbayat in whose Gram Sabha area they are situated;
(b) if outside the Gram Sabha area of that Gram Panchayat be apportioned between the successor Gram Panchayats according to population ratio;
(iii) The Gram Fund, Bank Balances, grants received from the State Government from time to time shall be apportioned between the successor Gram Panchayats according to the population ratio:
Provided that a grant given by the State Government for the development of an area which forms part of the Gram Sabha area of any of the successor Gram Panchayats shall be transferred to that successor Gram Panchayat.
(iv) The right to recover arrears of any tax on property shall belong to the successor Gram Panchayat in whose Gram Sabha area the property is situated and the right to recover any other tax imposed by the existing Gram Panchayat shall belong to the successor Gram Panchayat in whose Gram Sabha area the place of assessment of that tax is situated.
( v) Where before the date of exclusion of Gram Sabha area the existing Gram Panchayat has made any contract for the purposes of that Gram Panchayat, that c;ontract shall be deemed to have been madet lnserted by Punjab Act No. 4 of 2012. (w.e.f. 21.5.2012).
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(a) if the purposes of the contract are on and from the day of exclusion of the Gram Sabha area, exclusively purposes of any one of the successor Gram Panchayat, by that successor Gram Panchayat; and .
(b) if the purposes of the contract are on and from that day not exclusively purposes of any one of the successor Grjun Panchayats, by all the Gram Panchayats;
and the rights and liabilities which have accrued or may accrue, under any such contract, shall to the extent to which they would have been the rights and liabilities of the existing Gram Panchayats, be the rights and liabilities of the successor Gram Panchayat, or, as the case may be, the successor Gram Panchayats according to their population ratio.
(vi) where the existing Gram Panchayat is a party to any legal proceedings with respect to any property, rights or liabilities subject to apportionment under this section, the successor Gram Panchayat which succeeds to, or acquire a share, in that property or those rights or liabilities, shall be deemed to be substituted or added as a party to those proceedings, and the proceedings may continue accordingly.
(vii) The benefit or burden of any assets and liabilities of the existing Gram Panchayat, not dealt with in the forgoing provisions of section shall, pass on to the successor Gram Panchayats in the manner agreed upon between them and in case no such agreement within a period of one year from the date of exclusion of the Gram Sabha area the State Government shall be competent to determine the same at the request of either of the Gram Panchayats.
( 4) If whole of the Gram Sabha area is included in an urban estate to which the provisions of the Punjab Municipal Act, 1911 or the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976, are applicable or in a city, municipality cantonment, or Notified Area under any law for the time being in force, the Gram Sabha and the Gram Panchayat for that area shall cease to exist and the assets and liabilities of the Gram Panchayat shall be disposed of in the prescribed manner.
4. Constitution of Gram Sabhas. (1) The State Government may. by notification establish a Gram Sabha by name for every area declared as Gram Sabha, area under section 3.
(2) Every person who is entered as voter on the electoral roll prepared by the State Election Commission and for the tim~ being in force pertaining to the area of a Gram Sabha, shall be member of the Gram Sabha.
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5. Meeting and quorum of Gram Sabha. (1) Every Gram Sabha shall hold two general meetings in each year, one in the month of ~ecem~er after the harvesting of the Sawni Crop (hereinafter called the Sawn_i meetmg) ~d the other In the month of June after the harvesting of the Han Crop (heremafter called the Hari meeting) on such date as may be fixed by the Sarpanch.
(2) In the event of his failing to hold two consecutive general meetings of the Gram Sabha, the Sarpanch shall automatically cease to hold office, from the last day of the month in which, the second meeting was to be held and ~lock Development and Panchayat Officer shall immediately inti.mat~ the happemng .of such cessation to the District Development and Panchayat Officer and on receipt 9 of such information the District Development and Panchayat Officer shall notify this fact to the Panchayat Samiti, Gram Sabha and such a Sarpanch.
(3) The Director may reinstate such a Sarpanch on his showing sufficient cause of his default to hold two consecutive meetings within a period of thirty days from the date of the notification of his cessation as Sarpanch under sub section (2).
(4) The Sarpanch should at any time, and where a requisition in writing of the Panchayat Samiti or of not less than one-fifth of the total number of members of the Gram Sabha has been received by him shall within thitty days from the receipt of such requisition, call an extraordinary general meeting of the Gram Sabha.
(5) If a general meeting or an extraordinary general meeting is not called as required by sub-sections (1) and (4), the Executive Officer of the Panchayat Samiti shall call such a meeting.
( 6) For any meeting of the Gram Sabha, one-fifth of the total number of its members shall form a quorum:
Provided that in the case of an adjourned meeting the quorum shall be one tenth and the provisions of this sub-section shall not apply to any other meeting of the Gram Sabha held due to adjournment for want of knowledge.
(7) The Secretary of the Gram Panchayat and the Gram Sewak shall attend every general meeting· of the Gram Sabha and in addition thereto the Gram Panchayat may call any village functionary serving in Gram Sabha area to attend such a meeting and tender advice in respect of any matter coming up before it.