Gujarat Agricultural Lands Ceiling Act, 1960
In this Act, unless the context requires otherwise- [ (1) "agriculture" includes- (a) horticulture, (b) the raising of crops, grass or garden produce. (c) the use by an agriculturist of the land held by him or part thereof for grazing. (d) the use of any land, whether or not an apannage to rice or paddy land, for the purpose of rabmanure, (e) dairy farming, (f) poultry farming. (g) breeding of live-stock, and (h) the cutting of wood ; Provided that in relation to any period prior to the specified date, "agriculture" shall not include any of the pursuits specified in sub-clauses (d), (e), (f), (g) and (h) and also such other pursuits as may have been prescribed prior to the specified date as pursuits not included in that word;] (2) "agricultural labourer" means a person whose principal means of livelihood is manual labour on agricultural land ; (3) "agriculturist" means a person who cultivates land personally; "[ (3A) "Amending Act of 1972" means the Gujarat Agricultural lands Ceiling (Amendment) Act, 1972;] (4) "appointed day" means the day on which this Act, comes into force; (5) "ceiling area" means the extent of land determined under section 5 to be the ceiling area; "[ (6) "class of land" means any of the following classes of land, that is to say:- (i) perennially irrigated land; (ii) seasonally irrigated land; (iii) superior dry crop land; (iv) dry crop land; which is a perennial source of water) shall be deemed to be irrigated land; Explanation II.—For the propose of paragraphs (a) and (b) of Explanation I, a certificate granted by "[a competent officer] in respect of any land, after such inquiry as he deems fit that it is perennially irrigated land, or as the case may be seasonally irrigated land and for the purpose of paragraph (g) of Explanation I. a certificate granted by such officer, in like manner, in respect of any source of water referred to in the said paragraph (g) that it is a perennial source of water, shall be conclusive evidence in that behalf;] ^1[Explanation III.—For the purposes of Expiation-II, "competent officer" means- (a) in relation to any other land or source of water which is situated within the jurisdiction of a canal-officer as defined in clause (6) of section 3 of the Bom- bay Irrigation Act, 1879 such canal officer ; and, (b) in relation to any other land or source of water, such officer as the State Government may "by notification in the official Gazette, designate in this behalf"] ^1 [ (6A) "Code" means the Bombay Land Revenue Code, 1879;]. (7) " Collector" includes an Additional Collector and an Assistant or Deputy Collector performing the duties and exercising the powers of a Collector under the relevant Code or any other officer specially empowered by the state Go-vernment to perform the functions of the Collector under this Act; (8) ^[ ] (9) "co-operative joint farming society" means a co-operative farming society- (i) in which the ownership of all the land under its control vests, and which gets all such land cultivated jointly by its members; or (ii) the members of which cultivate their lands jointly ; (10) "co-operative farming society", means a society registered as co-operative farming society under any law relating to the registration of co-operative societies in force in any part of the State of Gujarat; (11) "to cultivate" with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions means to till or husband the land for the purpose of raising or improving agricultural produce, whether by manual labour or by means of cattle or machinery or to carry on any agricultural operation thereon ; Explanation.—A person who enters into a contract only to cut grass or to gather the fruits or other produce of tress, on any land, shall not on that account only; be deemed to cultivate such land; (12) "to cultivate personally", means to cultivate land on one's own account— (i) by one's own labour, or (ii) by the labour of any member of one's family, or (iii) under the personal supervision of oneself or any member or one's family by hired labour or by servants on wages payable in cash or kind but not in crop share: Explanation.—In clause (d), the expressions "Ruler" and "Indian State" shall have the same meanings as are assigned to them in clauses (22) and (15) respectively of article 366 of the Constitution and the expression "covenant" shall have reference to the covenant which was referred to in article 291 of the Constitution before the repeal of that article by the Constitution (Twenty-Sixth Amendment) Act, 1971;]