Section 3 in Bengal Tenancy Act, 1885

3. Definitions.

- In this Act, unless there is something repugnant in the subject or context,-

(1)"Agricultural year" means the Bengali year commencing on the first day of Baisakh :Provided that where, immediately before the commencement of the Bengal Tenancy (Amendment) Act, 1928, any other year has prevailed for agricultural purposes that year shall continue to prevail for those purposes until the first day of Baisakh next following the date of the commencement of that Act;

(2)"Collector" means the Collector of a district or any other officer appointed by the State Government to discharge any of the functions of a Collector under this Act;

(3)"complete usufructuary mortgage" means a transfer by a tenant of the right of possession in any land for the purpose of securing the payment of money or the return of grain advanced or to be advanced by way of loan upon the condition that the loan, with all interest thereon, shall be deemed to be extinguished by the profits arising from the land during the period of the mortgage;

(4)"estate" means land included under one entry in any of the general registers of revenue-paying lands and revenue-free lands, prepared and maintained under the law for the time being in force by the Collector of a district, and includes Government khas mahalsand revenue-free lands not entered in any register;

(5)"holding" means a parcel of land or an undivided share thereof, held by a raiyat or an under-raiyat and forming the subject of a separate tenancy whether the raiyat or under-raiyat has held the land before or after the commencement of the Bengal Tenancy (Amendment) Act, 1928;

(6)"landlord" means a person immediately under whom a tenant holds, and includes the Government;

(7)"pay", "payable" and "payment" used with reference to rent, include "deliver", "deliverable" and "delivery";

(8)"Permanent Settlement" means the Permanent Settlement of Bengal made in the year 1793;

(9)"permanent tenure" means a tenure which is heritable and which is not held for a limited time;

(10)"prescribed" means prescribed by rules made by the State Government under this Act;

(11)"proprietor" means a person owning whether in trust or for his own benefit, an estate or a part of an estate;

(12)"registered" means registered under any Act for the time being in force for the registration of documents;

(13)"rent" means whatever is lawfully payable or deliverable in money or kind by a tenant to his landlord on account of the use or occupation of the land held by the tenant :In sections 53 to 68, both inclusive, sections 72 to 75, both inclusive, Chapter XIV and Schedule III of this Act, "rent" includes also money recoverable under any enactment for the time being in force as if it was rent;

(14)"Revenue-officer" in any provision of this Act includes any officer whom the State Government may appoint by name or by virtue of his office to discharge any of the functions of a Revenue-officer under that provision;

(15)"signed" includes "marked" when the person making the mark is unable to write his name, it also includes "stamped" with the name of the person referred to;

(16)"succession" includes both intestate and testamentary succession;

(17)"tenant" means a person who holds land under another person, and is, or but for a special contract would be, liable to pay rent for that land to that person :Provided that a person who, under the system generally known as "adhi", "barga" or "bhag", cultivates the land of another person on condition of delivering a share of the produce to that person, is not a tenant, unless-

(i)such person has been expressly admitted to be a tenant by his landlord in any document executed by him or executed in his favour and accepted by him, or

(ii)he has been or is held by a Civil Court to be a tenant;

(18)"tenure" means the interest of a tenure-holder or an under-tenure-holder;

(19)"village" means the area defined, surveyed and recorded as a distinct and separate village in-

(a)the general land revenue survey which has been made of the State of West Bengal, or

(b)any survey made by the Government which has been adopted by notification in the Calcutta or Eastern Bengal and Assam and Gazette or which may be adopted by notification in the Calcutta Gazette, as defining villages for the purposes of this clause in any specified area; and where a survey has not been made by, or under the authority of, the Government, such area as the Collector may, with the sanction of the Board of Revenue, by general or special order, declare to constitute a village :

Provided that, when an order has been made under section 101 directing that a survey be made and a record-of-rights prepared in respect of any local area, estate, tenure or part thereof, the Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare that in such local area, estate, tenure or part thereof "village" shall mean the area which for the purposes of such survey and record-of-rights may be adopted by the Revenue-officer with the sanction of the Board of Revenue accorded under the provisions of section 115A as the unit of survey and record.