P MASTHANAIAH Vs. VEERAIAH CH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Andhra Pradesh Legislature enacted the Andhra Pradesh Agricultural Indebtedness (Relief) Act, 1977, with a view to provide relief from indebtedness to agricultural labourers, rurul artisans and small farmers in the State, and for matters connected therewith. "Agricultural labourer" is defined in clause (b) of Section 3 to mean" a person who does not hold any agricultural land and whose principal means of livelihood is by manual labour on agricultural land, in the capacity of a labourer on hire or on exchange, whether paid in cash or in kind or partly in cash and partly in kind". "Rural artisan" is defined in clause (r) to mean "a person who does not hold any agricultural land and whose principal means of livelihood is production or repair of traditional tools, implements and other articles or things used for agriculture or purpose ancillary thereto, and includes a fisherman and any person who normally earns his livlihood by practising a craft either by his own labour or by the labour of all or any of the members of his family in rural area". The expression "small farmer" is defined in clause (t) to mean "a person whose principal means of livlihood is income derived from .agricu tural land and who holds and personally cultivates, or who cultivated as a tenant or sharecropper or mortgagee with possession, agricultural land which does not exceed in extent (i) in the case of persons other than members of the Scheduled Tribes, one hectare, if it is wet, or two hectares, if it is dry; (ii) in the case of the members of the Scheduled Tribes, two hectares, if it is wet, or four hectares, if it is dry but does not include any person whose annual household income, other than from agriculture exceeds one thousand and two hundred rupees in any two years within three years immediately preceding the commencement of the Act. (Explanation omitted)..............".

(2.) The expression 'debtor' is defined in clause (j) to mean

(3.) "Debt" is defined in clause (i) as including any liability owing to a creditor in cash or in kind, whether secured, payable under a decree or order of a civil court or otherwise and subsisting at the commencement of this Act. Certain debts are accepted from this definition which it is unnecessary to mention here.