The rajasthan scheduled debtors (moratorium on debts) act, 1976

THE RAJASTHAN SCHEDULED DEBTORS 
(MORATORIUM ON DEBTS) ACT, 1976 
(Act No. 15 of 1976) 
[received the assent of the President on the 13th day of February, 1976] 
 
 
An Act to impose moratorium on the recovery of debts due from 
marginal and small farmers, agricultural labourers and rural artisans in 
Rajasthan. 
Be it enacted by the Rajasthan State Legislature in the Twenty -seventh 
Year of the Republic of India as follows:- 
1. Short title, extent and commencement. - (1) This Act may be called 
the Rajasthan Scheduled Debtors (Moratorium on Debts) Act, 1976. 
(2) It shall extend to the whole of the State of Rajasthan. 
(3) It shall come into force at once 
2. Definitions. - In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,- 
(a) "agricultural labourer" means a person who follows any one or 
more of the following agricultural occupations in the capacity of 
a labourer on hire or exchange, whether paid in cash or in kind 
or partly in cash and partly in kind:- 
(i) farming including cultivation and tillage of soil; 
(ii) dairy farming; 
(iii)production, cultivation, growing and harvesting of any 
horticultural commodity; 
(iv) raising of livestock, bees or poultry; and 
(v) any practice performed on a farm as incidental to or in 
conjunction with farm operations (including any forestry or 
timbering operations) and preparation for market and 
delivery to storage or to market or to carriage for 
transportation of farm products; 
(b) "agriculturist" means a person who earns his livelihood wholly 
or mainly, from:- 
(i) agriculture, or 
(ii) rent from agricultural land, in case he belongs to any of the 
categories of persons mentioned in clauses (a) to (h) of 
subsection (1) of Section 46 of the Rajasthan Tenancy Act, 
1955 (Rajasthan Act 3 of 1955); 
(c) "civil court" includes,- 
(i) any court exercising jurisdiction under the Provincial 
Insolvency Act, 1920 as adapted by the Rajasthan 
Adaptation of Central Laws Ordinance, 1950 (Ordinance 
No. IV of 1950); 
(ii) a Panchayat established under the Rajasthan Panchayat Act, 
1953 (Rajasthan Act XXI of 1953) and a Nyaya Up -Samiti 
constituted under Section 27-B of the said Act; 
(iii) a court of small cause as defined in clause (i) of Section 4 
of the Raja sthan Small Causes Courts Ordinance, 1950 
(Ordinance No. VIII of 1950); 
(iv) a debt relief court established under Section 3 of the 
Rajasthan Relief of Agricultural Indebtedness Act, 1957 
(Rajasthan Act 28 of 1957); and 
(v) any other court exercising appel late or revisional 
jurisdiction over the decisions of a civil court; 
(d) "co-operative society" means a society registered or deemed to 
be registered under the provisions of the Rajasthan Co -operative 
Societies Act, 1965 (Rajasthan Act 13 of 1965); 
(e) "debt" includes all liabilities owing to a creditor in cash or kind, 
secured or unsecured, payable under a decree or order of a civil 
court or otherwise and subsisting on the date of commencement 
of the Rajasthan Scheduled debtors (Moratorium on Debts) 
Ordinance, 1975 (Ordinance No. 21 of 1975) whether due or not 
due; 
(f) "marginal farmer" means an agriculturist who holds land as a 
Khatedar or Ghair Khatedar tenant and cultivates it personally 
and also a person who cultivates land as a sub -tenant or share 
cropper and which, in area, does not exceed the limits specified 
below:- 
(i) 0.33 hectare land under assured irrigation capable of 
growing at least two crops in a year; 
If such had been divided or partitioned as the case may be, on 
the date of the commence ment of the rajasthan Scheduled 
Debtors (Moratorium on Debts) Ordinance, 1975 
(Ordinance No 21 of 1975); and 
(g) words and expressions used, but not defined, in the Act, 
shall have the same meaning as is assigned to them in the 
Rajasthan Tenancy Act, 1955 (Rajasthan Act 3 of 1955). 
3.  Inapplicability of the Act to certain debts and liabilities.  - The 
provisions of this act shall not affect the following debts and liabilities 
of a scheduled debtor:- 
(a) any rent due in respect of any property let out to a scheduled 
debtor; 
(b) any liability arising out of breach of trust or any tortious 
liability; 
(c) any liability in respect of wages or remuneration due as salary 
or otherwise for services rendered to a scheduled debtor; 
(d) any liability in respect of maintenance whether under a decree 
of a court or otherwise; 
(e) any debt due to:-  
(i) the Central Government or the State Government; 
(ii) any local authority; 
(iii) a banking company as defined in Section 5 of the 
Banking Regulation Act. 1949 (Central Act 10 of 1949), 
including the State Bank of India constituted under the 
State Bank of India Act, 1955 (Central Act 23 of 1955), a 
Subsidiary Bank as defined in the State  Bank of India 
(Subsidiary Banks) Act, 1959 (Central Act 38 of 1959) 
and a corresponding new bank as defined in the Banking 
Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) 
Act, 1970 (Central Act 5 of 1970); 
(iv) any banking institution notified by the Cent ral 
Government under Section 51 of the Banking Regulation 
Act, 1949; 
(v) a co-operative society; 
(vi) a Government company as defined in Section 617 of the 
Companies Act, 1956 (Central Act 1 of 1956); 
(vii) the Agricultural Finance Corporation Limited, a 
company incorpor ated under the Companies Act, 1956 
(Central Act 1 of 1956); 
 
(viii)  the Rajasthan State Agro-Industries Corporation; 
(ix)  a corporation or any other body corporate by whatever 
name called and established or constituted by any law for 
the time being in force; and 
(x)   any other financial institution that may be notified by the 
State Government in the Official Gazette; 
(f) any sum recoverable as a public demand or arrears of land revenue 
under any law for the time being in force. 
4. Fixation of Prescribed Period. - The prescribed period for the 
purposes of this Act shall be one year on and from the date of 
commencement of the Rajasthan Scheduled Debtors (Moratorium on 
Debts) Ordinance, 1975 (Ordinance No. 21 of 1975) and it may be 
extended from time to time, by the State Government, by a notification 
published in the Official Gazette, for a further period not exceeding one 
year in the aggregate. 
 
5. Moratorium on debts. - (1) All proceedings in execution of any 
decree for money, all proceedings for making final any preliminary 
decree for fore-closure or sale in enforcement of a mortgage and all 
proceedings in execution of any final decree for foreclosure or sale in 
enforcement of a mortgage passed by any civil court against a scheduled 
debtor in respect of a debt shall be stayed during the prescribed period. 
 
(2) Where proceedings in execution of any decree have been 
stayed under sub-section (1), all attachment of growing crops, 
agricultural produce, live-stock and other movable property made in 
execution of such decree and subsisting on the date on which the stay 
order is passed, shall be deemed to be withdrawn. 
 
(3) All proceedings under the Provincial Insolvency Act, 1920 
(Central Act V of 1920), against a scheduled debtor pending in any civil 
court on the date of coming into force of the Rajasthan Scheduled 
Debtors (Moratorium on Debts) Ordinance, 1975 (Ordinance No. 21 of 
1975) shall be stayed during the prescribed period. 
 
(4) All suits for money and for foreclosure or sale in enforcement 
of a mortgage against a scheduled debtor in respect of a debt, and all 
appeals from decrees or orders passed in such suits, pending in any civil 
court on the date of commencement of the Ordinance mentioned in sub-
section (3) shall be stayed during the prescribed period. 
(5) No suit for money and no suit for foreclosure or sale in 
enforcement of a mortgage against a scheduled debtor in respect of a 
debt nor any appeal from any decree or order passed in any such suit, 
shall be instituted during the prescribed period in any civil court. 
 
(6) No application for execution of any decree referred to in 
subsection (1) or for making final any preliminary decree for foreclosure 
or sale referred to therein, shall be entertained by any civil court against 
a scheduled debtor during the prescribed period. 
 
6. Power to issue certificate. - The Tehsildar, Naib Tehsildar and 
Inspector Land Records within the local limits of whose jurisdiction a 
debtor actually and voluntarily resides, or carries on business, or 
personally works for gain and such other officer or authority as may be 
prescribed shall be competent to issue a certificate in the prescribed form 
and manner certifying that the debtor is an agricultural labourer, a 
marginal farmer or a rural artisan or a small farmer. 
 
7. Presumption and burden of proof. - Where in any proceeding for 
the recovery of debt in a civil court, the debtor produces a certificate 
issued in his favour under Section 6, the civil court shall presume that 
the debtor is a scheduled debtor and the burden of proving the contrary, 
shall lie on the creditor. 
 
8. Instalment decrees. - Where any decree referred to in subsection 
(1) of Section 5 is payable by instalments and any instalment payable 
thereunder falls due within the prescribed period then, notwithstanding 
anything contained in such decree:- 
 
(a) failure to pay such instalment on the due date shall not be 
deemed to be a default; 
(b) no instalment shall be deemed to have fallen due during 
the prescribed period; 
(c) the unpaid instalments shall be payable after the expiry of 
the prescribed period on the same dates and with the same intervals 
as are provided in the decree; and 
(d) the decree shall be deemed to have been amended 
accordingly. 
9. Computation of the Period of limitation. - (1) The prescribed 
period shall be excluded in computing the period of limitation prescribed 
by the Limitation Act, 1963 (Central Act 36 of 1963), or any other law 
for the time being in force for suits, appeals and applications referred to 
in sub-section (5) and (6) of Section 5. 
(2) In computing the period of twelve years prescribed in Section 
48 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (Central Act V of 1908), for an 
application for execution of any decree referred to in su b-section (1) of 
Section 5 or in sub -section (6) of the said Section, the prescribed period 
shall be excluded 
 
10. Restriction on transfer. - Every transfer of immovable property 
or of any interest therein made by a scheduled debtor who is a judgment 
debtor of any decree referred to in sub -section (1) of Section 5, during 
the prescribed period, shall be void as against the holder of such decree. 
 
11. Repeal.  - The Rajasthan Scheduled Debtors (Moratorium on 
Debts) Ordinance, 1975 (Ordinance No. 21 of 1975) is hereby repealed. 
 
 

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