Amendment status not verified — confirm the current text below against the official source.
In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,- (a) “agriculture” includes horticulture, farming, raising of annual or periodical crops, fruits, vegetables, flowers, grass, fodder, trees or any kind of cultivation of soil, the reserving of land for fodder, grazing or thatching areas, breeding and keeping of livestock including cattle, horses, donkeys, mules, pigs, breeding of fish and keeping of bees, and the use of land ancillary to the farming of land, but does not include- (i) keeping of cattle purely for the purpose of milking and selling the milk and milk products, (ii) a garden which is an appendage of buildings, and the expression “agricultural” shall be construed accordingly; (b) “amenity” includes roads and streets water and electric supply open spaces, parks, recreational area, natural feature, play grounds, street lighting, drainage sewerage and other utilities, services and conveniences; *(c) “building” includes any structure or erection, or part of a structure or erection, which is intended to be used for residential, industrial, commercial or other purposes, whether in actual use or not. However, for the purpose of apartment, building shall mean a building constructed on any land, containing more than eight apartments, or two or more buildings with a total of more than eight apartments or any existing building converted into more than eight apartments”; (d) “building operation” includes- (i) erection or re-erection of a building or any part thereof; (ii) roofing or re-roofing of any part of building or an open space; (iii) any material alteration or enlargement of a building; (iv) any such alteration of a building as is likely to alter its drainage or sanitary arrangements, or materially affect its security; (v) the construction of door opening on any street or land not belonging to the owner; (e) “commercial use” means the use of any land or building or part thereof for the purpose of carrying on any trade, business or profession or sale or exchange of goods of any type whatsoever and includes running of with a view to make profit hospitals, nursing homes, infirmaries, educational institutions, hostels, restaurants and boarding houses not being attached to any educational institution, sarais and also includes the use of any land or building for storage of goods or as buildings for storage of goods or as an office whether attached to any industry or otherwise; (f) “court” means the principal civil court of original jurisdiction in the district; (g) “development” with its grammatical variations means the carrying out of a building, engineering, mining or other operations in, on, over or under land, or the making of any material change in any building or land or in the use of either, and includes sub-division of any land; *As amended vide Himachal Pradesh Town and Country Planning (Amendment) Act 2013 (Act No.41 of 2013). Definitions 5 (h) “development plan” means interim development plan or development plan prepared under this Act; (i) “director” means the Director of Town and Country Planning appointed under this Act; (j) “existing land use map” means a map indicating the use to which lands in any specified area are put at the time of preparing the map, and includes the register prepared, with the map giving details of land-use. (k) “land” includes benefits to arise out of land and things attached to the earth or permanently fastened to anything attached to the earth; (l) “member” means a member of a Town and Country Development Authority or a Special Area Development Authority, as the case may be, and includes a Chairman thereof; (m) “occupier” includes- (i) a tenant, (ii) an owner in occupation of or otherwise using his land, (iii) rent free tenant, (iv) a licensee, and (v) any person liable to pay to the owner, damages for the use and occupation of the land; (n) “owner” includes a mortgagee in possession, a person who for the time being is receiving or is entitled to receive, or has received, the rent or premium for any land whether on his own account or on behalf of or for the further benefit of any other person or as an agent, trustee, guardian or receiver for any other person or for religious or charitable institutions or who would receive the rent or be entitled to receive the rent or premium if the land were to be let and includes a head of a Government department, General Manager of a Railway and the *“Chief Administrator by whatever name designated, or a local authority, statutory authority, company, corporation or undertaking in respect of properties under their control; (o) “planning area” means any area declared to be planning area under this Act; (p) “region” means any area established to be a region under this Act; (q) “regional plan” means a plan for the region prepared under this Act and approved by the State Government; (r) “sector” means any sector of a planning area for which, under the development plan, a detailed sectoral plan is prepared; (s) “slum area” means any predominantly residential area, where the dwellings which by reason of dilapidation, overcrowding, faulty arrangement of design, lack of ventilation, light or sanitary facilities or any combination of these factors are detrimental to safety, health or moral and which is defined by a development plan as a slum area; *As amended vide Himachal Pradesh Town and Country Planning (Amendment) Act 1995 (Act No. 7 of 1995) 6 (t) “Special area” means a special area designated as such under section 66; (u) “Special Area Development Authority” means an authority constituted under section 67; (v) “Town Development Scheme” means a scheme prepared for the implementation of the provisions of a development plan by the Town and Country Development Authority; and (w) “Town and Country Development Authority” means an authority established under section 40. *(x) “advertisement” means visible representation made to the general public either through announcement or display or in any other manner whatsoever, offering for sale or lease of a plot or apartment or inviting persons to purchase such plot or apartment to make advances or deposits for such purposes; *(y) “allottee” in relation to apartment or plot, means the person to whom such apartment or plot has been allotted, sold or otherwise transferred by the promoter; *(z) “apartment” whether called block, chamber, dwelling unit, flat, lot, premises, suite, tenement, unit or by any other name means a separate and self-contained part of any property including one or more rooms or enclosed spaces located on one or more floors or any part or parts thereof, in a building, or in a plot of land, used or intended to be used for residence, office, shop, showroom, or godown or for carrying on any business, industry, occupation, profession or trade or for any other type of independent use ancillary to the purpose specified above and with a direct exit to a public street, road or highway or to a common area leading to such street, road or highway and includes any garage or room whether or not adjacent to the building in which such apartment is located, provided by the promoter for the use by the allottee for parking any vehicle or as the case may be, for the residence of any domestic servant employed in such apartment; Explanation-I- If a basement, cellar, garage, room, shop or storage space is sold separately from any apartment, it shall be treated as an independent apartment and not as part of any other apartment or of the common areas and facilities; Explanation-II.-Notwithstanding that provision is made for sanitary, washing, bathing or other conveniences as common to two or more apartments, the apartments shall be deemed to be separate and self contained; *(za)“apartment number” means the number, letter or combination thereof, designating an apartment; *(zb)“apartment owner” means the person owning an apartment and an undivided interest in the common areas and facilities appurtenant to such apartment in the percentage specified in the conveyance deed of apartment; *(zc)“association” means an association consisting of the majority of the apartment owners in a building acting as a group in accordance with the bye-laws made by the association under the Himachal Pradesh Apartment Ownership Act, 1978; * As amended vide Himachal Pradesh Town and Country Planning (Amendment) Act 2013 (Act No.41 of 2013). 7 Explanation.- A member of a Co-operative Housing Society of the tenant co- partnership type, or an allottee under a hire-purchase agreement shall be deemed to be an owner, entitled to membership of the association. *(zd)“building regulations” means the rules or regulations or bye-laws made under any law for the time being in force for the erection or re-erection of buildings or parts thereof and for the purpose of this Act includes Zoning Regulations framed under any law for the time being in force; **(ze)“colony” means an area of land not less than 2500 square metres contiguous divided or proposed to be divided into plots or apartments or buildings for residential, commercial or industrial purposes including cyber city, cyber park, construction of flats in form of group housing or for construction of integrated commercial complexes, but does not include any area of Abadi-deh of a village falling inside its Lal Lakir or land divided or proposed to be divided- **(i) for the purpose of agriculture: Provided that such land shall not be used for the development of colony; **(ii) as a result of partition by way of inheritance or succession without a motive of developing a colony; and **(iii) by a company, institution or factory for providing residential accommodation for its employees: **Provided that there is neither profit motive nor ownership of such houses shall be transferred to the employees and their rights to accommodation shall be restricted to the period of their employment with such company, institution or factory; *(zf)“common areas and facilities” in relation to a building, means all parts of the building or the land on which it is located and all easements, rights and appurtenances belonging to the land or the building, which are neither in the exclusive possession of an apartment owner in terms of his conveyance deed of apartment, nor are handed over or intended to be handed over to the local authority or other public service agency and shall include the limited common areas and facilities; *(zg)“common expenses” means,- (i) all sums lawfully assessed against the apartment owners by the association for meeting the expenses of administration, maintenance, repair or replacement of the common areas and facilities; (ii) expenses, declared by the provisions of this Act or by the bye-laws made by the association under the Himachal Pradesh Apartment Ownership Act, 1978 (41 of 1978) or agreed upon by the association, as common expenses; and (iii) the Government or municipal taxes including ground rent and property tax, which is not assessed separately for each apartment; *(zh) “development charges” means the cost of external and internal development works; *(zi) “development works” means external and internal development works; *As amended vide Himachal Pradesh Town and Country Planning (Amendment) Act 2013,(Act No.41 of 2013). ** As amended vide Himachal Pradesh Town and Country Planning (Amendment) Act 2015, (Act No.14 of 2015). 8 *(zj) “estate agent” means a person who negotiates or acts on behalf of a person in a transaction of transfer of property whether by way of sale, lease, license, mortgage or otherwise with another person and receives remuneration for his services in the form of commission and includes a person who introduces to each other for negotiation such persons or their agents; Explanation. - The person who acts as described in this clause shall be deemed to be an estate agent even if he styles himself as a land or housing agent, property or real estate consultant, property dealer, realtor or by any other name; *(zk)“external development works” includes roads and road systems, water supply, sewerage and drainage systems, electric supply or any other work which may have to be executed in the periphery of, or outside, a colony for its benefit; *(zl) “internal development works” means roads, footpaths, water supply, sewers, drains, rain water harvesting system, tree planting, street lighting, provisions for community buildings and for treatment and disposal of sewerage and sullage water, or any other work within in a colony necessary for its proper development; *(zm)“joint family” means a Hindu undivided family and in the case of other persons, a group the members of which are by custom joint in possession of property or residence; *(zn)“limited common areas and facilities” means those common areas and facilities which are designated in writing by the promoter before the allotment, sale or transfer of any apartment, as reserved for use by the resident of certain apartments to the exclusion of other apartments; *(zo)“local authority” means a Municipal Corporation constituted under section 3 of the Himachal Pradesh Municipal Corporation Act, 1994 or a Municipal Council or a Nagar Panchayat constituted under section 3 of the Himachal Pradesh Municipal Act, 1994 or Panchayati Raj Institutions constituted under the Himachal Pradesh Panchayati Raj Act, 1994 or Cantonment Board or any other authority notified by the State Government for the purposes of this Act; *(zp)“natural disaster” means a catastrophe, mishap, calamity or grave occurrence in any area, arising from natural or manmade causes or by accident or negligence which results in substantial loss of life or human suffering or damage to, and destruction of property or damage to, or degradation of environment and is of such a nature or magnitude as to be beyond the coping capacity of the community of the affected area; *(zq)“natural hazards” means probability of occurrence, within a specified period of time in a given area, of a potentially damaging natural phenomenon; *(zr)“natural hazard prone areas” means areas likely to have,- (i) moderate to very high damage risk zone of earthquakes or (ii) significant flow or inundation or (iii) landslide potential or proneness or (iv) one or more of these hazards; *(zs)“person” includes company, firm, co-operative society, joint family and incorporated body of persons; *(zt)“prescribed” means prescribed by the rules made under this Act; *As amended vide Himachal Pradesh Town and Country Planning (Amendment) Act 2013 (Act No.41 of 2013). 9 *(zu)“promoter” means a person who,- (i) constructs or causes to be constructed a building consisting of apartments or converts an existing building or a part thereof into apartments for the purpose of selling all or some of the apartments to other persons and includes his assigns; or (ii) develops land into a colony, whether or not, he also constructs structures on any of the plots **“for the purpose of” selling to other persons, all or some of the plots whether open or with structures thereon; and **(iii) “constructs more than eight apartments or converts an existing building into more than eight apartments or develops a colony and the person who sells apartments or plots are different persons in any planning area, or any special area or any deemed planning area as specified in sub-section (3a) of section 1, the terms includes both of them;” Explanation.- A person who acts as described in sub-clause (iii) of this clause shall be deemed to be a promoter, even if- (i) he styles himself as a builder, colonizer, contractor, developer, estate promoter or by any other name; or (ii) he claims to be acting as the holder of a power of attorney from the owner of the land on which the building is constructed or colony is developed; and *(zv)“property” means the land, the building, all improvements and structures thereon and all easements, rights and appurtenances belonging thereto and includes every type of right and interest in land which a person can have to the exclusion of other persons, such as possession, use and enjoyment free from interference, right of disposition, franchises and hereditament.". CHAPTER-II DIRECTOR OF TOWN AND COUNTRY PLANNING