1. Short title, extent and commencement.—(1) This Act may be called the Cantonments Act, 2006.
(2) It extends to the whole of India.
(3) It shall come into force on such date1
as the Central Government may, by notification in the
Official Gazette, appoint, and different dates may be appointed for different provisions of this Act and
any reference in any provision to the commencement of this Act shall be construed as a reference to the
coming into force of that provision.
2. Definitions.—In this Act, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context,—
(a) “Assistant Health Officer” means the medical officer appointed by the General Officer
Commanding-in-Chief, the Command, to be the Assistant Health Officer for a cantonment;
(b) “Board” means a Cantonment Board constituted under this Act;
(c) “boundary wall” means a wall which abuts on a street and which does not exceed two and a
half metres in height;
(d) “building” means a house, outhouse, stable, latrine, shed, hut or other roofed structure
whether of masonry, brick, wood, mud, metal or other material, and any part thereof, and includes a
well and a wall other than a boundary wall but does not include a tent or other portable and temporary
shelter;
(e) “casual election” means an election held to fill a casual vacancy;
(f) “casual vacancy” means a vacancy occurring otherwise than by efflux of time in the office of
an elected member of a Board and includes a vacancy in such office, arising under sub-section (2) of
section 16;
(g) “Chief Executive Officer” means the person appointed under this Act to be the Chief
Executive Officer of a cantonment;
(h) “civil area” means an area declared to be a civil area by the Central Government under
sub-section (1) of section 46;
(i) “civil area committee” means a committee appointed under section 47;
(j) “Command” means one of the Commands into which India is for military purposes for the
time being divided, and includes any area which the Central Government may, by notification in the
Official Gazette, declare to be a Command for all or any of the purposes of this Act;
(k) “dairy” includes any farm, cattle-shed, milk-store, milk-shop or other place from which milk
is supplied or in which milk is kept for purposes of sale or is manufactured for the sale into butter,
ghee, cheese or curds, and, in relation to a dairyman who does not occupy any premises for the sale of
milk, includes any place in which he keeps the vessels used by him for the storage or sale of milk;
1. 18th December, 2006, vide notification No. S.R.O. 15(E), dated 18th December, 2006, see Gazette of India,
Extraordinary, Part II, sec. 3(i).
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(l) “dairyman” includes the keeper of a cow, buffalo, goat, ass or other animal, the milk of which
is offered or is intended to be offered for sale for human consumption, and any supplier of milk and
any occupier of a dairy;
(m) “dangerous disease” means cholera, leprosy, enteric fever, smallpox, tuberculosis, diphtheria,
plague, influenza, venereal disease, hepatitis, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome and any other
epidemic, endemic, infectious or communicable disease which the Board may by public notice,
declare to be, an infectious, contagious or communicable disease for the purposes of this Act;
(n) “Defence Estates Circle” means one of the circles into which India is, for the purposes of
defence estates management, for the time being divided, and includes any area which the Central
Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare to be a Defence Estates Circle for all
or any of the purposes of this Act;
(o) “Defence Estates Officer” means the officer appointed by the Central Government to perform
the duties of the Defence Estates Officer for the purpose of this Act and the rules made thereunder;
(p) “Director General” means an officer of the Indian Defence Estates Service (IDES) appointed
by the Central Government to perform the duties of the Director General, Defence Estates for the
purpose of this Act and includes Senior Additional Director General and Additional Director General;
(q) “Director” means the officer appointed by the Central Government to perform the duties of
the Director, Defence Estates, the Command, for the purposes of this Act and the rules made
thereunder;
(r) “entitled consumer” means a person in a cantonment who is paid from the Defence Service
Estimates and is authorised by general or special order of the Central Government to receive a supply
of water for domestic purposes from the Military Engineer Services or the Public Works Department
on such terms and conditions as may be specified in the order;
(s) “Executive Engineer” means the officer of the Military Engineer Services of that grade,
having charge of the military works in a cantonment or where more than one such officer has charge
of the military works in a cantonment such one of those officers as the Officer Commanding the
station may designate in this behalf, and includes the officer of whatever grade in immediate
executive engineering charge of a cantonment;
(t) “factory” means a factory as defined in clause (m) of section 2 of the Factories Act, 1948
(63 of 1948);
(u) “Forces” means the regular Army, Navy and Air Force or any part of any one or more of
them;
(v) “General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, the Command (GOC-in-C, Command)” means the
Officer Commanding any of the Commands;
(w) “General Officer Commanding the Area” means the Officer Commanding any one of the
areas into which India is for military purposes for the time being divided, or any sub-area which does
not form part of any such area, or any area which the Central Government may, by notification in the
Official Gazette, declare to be an area for all or any of the purposes of this Act;
(x) “Group Housing” means a group of houses for dwelling purposes and may comprise all or any
of the following: namely, (a) a dwelling unit, (b) open spaces intended for recreation and
ventilation, (c) roads, paths, sewers, drains, water supply and ancillary installations, street lighting
and other amenities, (d) convenient shopping place, schools, community hall or other amenities for
common use;
(y) “Government” in relation to this Act means the Central Government;
(z) “Health Officer” means the senior executive medical officer in military employ on duty in a
cantonment;
(za) “hospital” includes family welfare centre, child welfare centre, maternity centre and health
centre;
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(zb) “hut” means any building, no material portion of which above the plinth level is constructed
of masonry or of squared timber framing or of iron framing;
(zc) “inhabitant”, in relation to a cantonment, or local area means any person ordinarily residing
or carrying on business or owning or occupying immovable property therein, or declared as such by
the Chief Executive Officer and in case of a dispute, as decided by the District Magistrate;
(zd) “intoxicating drug” includes a narcotic drug and psychotropic substance as defined in the
Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (61 of 1985) as modified from time to time;
(ze) “market” includes any place where persons assemble for the sale of, or for the purpose of
exposing for sales, meat, fish, fruits, vegetables, animals intended for human food or any other
articles of human food whatsoever, with or without the consent of the owner of such place
notwithstanding that there may be no common regulation for the concourse of buyers and sellers and
whether or not any control is exercised over the business of, or the persons frequenting, the market by
the owner of the place or by any other person, but shall not include a single shop or group of shops
not being more than six in number and shops within unit lines;
(zf) “military” includes Air Force, Navy and other defence related establishments;
(zg) “military officer” means a person who, being an officer within the meaning of the Army Act,
1950 (46 of 1950), the Navy Act, 1957 (62 of 1957) or the Air Force Act, 1950 (45 of 1950), is
commissioned, gazetted or in pay as an officer doing army, naval or air force duty with the army,
navy or air force, or is an officer doing such duty in any arm, branch or part of any of those forces;
(zh) “nuisance” includes any act, omission, place, animal or thing which causes or is likely to
cause injury, danger, annoyance or offence to the sense of sight, smell or hearing or disturbance to
rest or sleep, or which is or may be dangerous to life or injurious to health or property;
(zi) “occupier” includes an owner in occupation of, or otherwise using his own land or building;
(zj) “Officer Commanding the station or Station Commander” means the military officer for the
time being in command of the forces in a cantonment and if such officer is likely to be absent for
more than thirty days, the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, the Command may nominate, by
an order, another military officer as “Officer Commanding the station or Station Commander”;
(zk) “ordinary election” means an election held to fill a vacancy in the office of an elected
member of a Board arising by efflux of time;
(zl) “owner” includes any person who is receiving or is entitled to receive the rent of any
building or land whether on his own account or on behalf of himself and others or an agent or trustee,
or who would so receive the rent or be entitled to receive it if the building or land were let to a tenant;
(zm) “party wall” means a wall forming part of a building and used or constructed to be used for
the support or separation of adjoining buildings belonging to different owners, or constructed or
adapted to be occupied by different persons;
(zn) “Principal Director” means the Officer appointed by the Central Government to perform the
duties of the Principal Director, Defence Estates, the Command for the purpose of this Act and the
rules made thereunder;
(zo) “private market” means a market which is not maintained by a Board and which is licensed
by a Board under the provisions of this Act;
(zp) “private slaughter-house” means a slaughter-house which is not maintained by a Board and
which is licensed by a Board under the provisions of this Act;
(zq) “public market” means a market maintained by a Board;
(zr) “public place” means any place which is open to the use and enjoyment of the public,
whether it is actually used or enjoyed by the public or not;
(zs) “public slaughter-house” means a slaughter-house maintained by a Board;
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(zt) “resident”, in relation to a cantonment, means a person who maintains therein a house or a
portion of a house which is at all times available for occupation by himself or his family even though
he may himself reside elsewhere, provided that he has not abandoned all intention of again occupying
such house either by himself or his family;
(zu) “regulation” means a regulation made by a Cantonment Board under this Act by notification
in the Official Gazette;
(zv) “rule” means a rule made by the Central Government under this Act by notification in the
Official Gazette;
(zw) “shed” means a slight or temporary structure for shade or shelter;
(zx) “slaughter-house” means any place ordinarily used for the slaughter of animals for the
purpose of selling the flesh thereof for human consumption;
(zy) “soldier” means any person who is a soldier or sailor or an airman subject to the Army Act,
1950 (46 of 1950), the Navy Act, 1957 (62 of 1957) or the Air Force Act, 1950 (45 of 1950), as the
case may be, and who is not a military officer;
(zz) “spirituous liquor” means any fermented liquor, any wine, or any alcoholic liquid obtained by
distillation or the sap of any kind of palm tree, and includes any other liquid containing alcohol which
the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare to be a spirituous liquor
for the purposes of this Act;
(zza) “street” includes any way, road, lane, square, court, alley or passage in a cantonment,
whether a thoroughfare or not and whether built upon or not, over which the public have a right of
way and also the road-way or foot-way over any bridge or cause way;
(zzb) “sub-area” means one of the sub-areas into which India is for military purposes for the time
being divided and includes, for all or any of the purposes of this Act, any territory which the Central
Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare to be a sub-area for such purposes;
(zzc) “trade or commercial premises” means any premises used or intended to be used for
carrying on any trade, commerce or industry;
(zzd) “vehicle” means a wheeled conveyance of any description which is capable of being used
on a street, and includes a motor-car, motor lorry, motor omnibus, cart, locomotive, tram-car,
handcart, truck, motor-cycle, bicycle, tricycle and rickshaw;
(zze) “water-works” includes all lakes, tanks, streams, cisterns, springs, pumps, wells, reservoirs,
aqueducts, water-trucks, sluices mains, pipes, culverts, hydrants, stand-pipes, and conduits and all
machinery, lands, buildings, bridges and things used for, or intended for the purpose of supplying
water to a cantonment; and
(zzf) “year” means the year commencing on the first day of April.