Jammu and Kashmir Agrarian Reforms Act, 1976

No: 17 Dated: Aug, 21 1976

THE JAMMU AND KASHMIR AGRARIAN REFORMS ACT, 1976

Act No. XVII of 1976

    An Act to provide for transfer of land to tillers thereof subject to certain conditions and for better utilization of land in the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

Be it enacted by the Jammu and Kashmir 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 Jammu and Kashmir Agrarian Reforms Act, 1976.

(2) It shall extend to the whole of the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

(3) It shall come into force with effect from such date as the Government may, by notification in the Government Gazette, appoint.

CHAPTER I

Preliminary

2. Definitions— In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, —

(1) "ceiling area" means the extent of land measuring twelve and a half standard acres:

Category II	One hundred and ten kanals;
Category III	One hundred and forty kanals;
Category IV	One hundred and seventy-one kanals;

(2) "Commissioner" means any person appointed to be the Agrarian Reforms Commissioner under Section 18 and includes any person appointed to be the Joint Agrarian Reforms Commissioner under that section;

(3) "Defence force" means Army, Navy and Air Force of the Indian Union and includes Border Security Force Central Reserve Police, Assam Rifles, Jammu and Kashmir Militia and Indo-Tibetan Border Force/Police;

(4) "Demarcated forest" means a demarcated forest defined in the Jammu and Kashmir Forest Act, Samvat 1987;

(5) "Evacuees' land" means land, which is evacuees' property as defined in the Jammu and Kasmir Evacuees' (Administration of Property) Act, Samvat 2006;

(6) "Family" means husband his wife and their children excluding —

(a) a married daughter; and

(b) a major son separated from his father on or before the first day of September, 1971 and holding land separately in his name;

(7) "Head of the family" means the husband; in case of his death, wife; where both are dead, major son, if any, included in the family; and in the absence of such major son the guardian of the minor children;

Explanation.— Where the deceased husband had more than one wife, each wife along with her children will constitute a subordinate unit of the family having a separate head in accordance with this definition;

(8) "Intermediary" means a tenant not cultivating land personally and includes a person claiming through him;

(9) "Land" means land, which was occupied, or was let, for agricultural purposes or for purposes subservient to agriculture or for pasture in Kharif, 1971 and includes —

(a) structures on such land used for purposes connected with agriculture;

(b) areas covered by or fields floating over water;

(c) forest lands and wooded wastes;

(d) trees standing on land; and

but does not include an orchard on site of a building or a structure within Municipal Area, Town Area, Notified Area or village abadi or any land appurtenant to such building or structure;

(10) "Orchard" means a compact area of land having fruit trees grown thereon or devoted to cultivation of fruit trees in such number that the main use to which the land is put is growing of fruits or fruit trees;

(11) "Owner" means a landholder as defined in the Jammu and Kashmir Land Revenue Act, Samvat 1996 and includes a person claiming through him;

(12) "Personal cultivation" by a person shall mean cultivation —

(a) by the person himself; or

(b) by any member of the family, if any, to which he belongs; or

(c) by a Khana-nishin daughter or khana-damad or a parent of the person; or

(d) by a son, adopted son or pisarparwardah, not included in the family, if any, to which the said person belongs; or

(e) by brother or sister of the person; or

(f) in the case of such religious or charitable institutions of public nature as are notified by the Government, by a member of the management or, on behalf of the management, by a servant or hired labourer on payment of wages otherwise than as a share of crop; or

(g) in the case of a person, who is minor, insane, physically disabled or incapacitated by old age or infirmity, widow or serving in defence force, or in detention or prison, by a servant or hired labourer under the personal supervision of the guardian or any agent of such person; provided that such servant or hired labourer or guardian or agent does not bear the risk or cost of cultivation nor receives wages or remuneration as a share of crop;

Explanations.— (i) Unauthorized cultivation shall not be deemed to be personal cultivation and, where land has been occupied unauthorisedly, the person who, but for such unauthorized occupation, would have been personally cultivating such land shall be deemed to be in personal cultivation:

Provided that in the case of land —

(a) which cannot thus be deemed to be in the personal cultivation of any person; or

(b) covered by section 24 of the Jammu and Kashmir Big Landed Estates Abolition Act, Svt. 2007; or

(c) rights wherein have been transferred against the provisions of any law for the time being in force; personal cultivation shall be deemed to be that of the State:

Provided further that only by reason of his having been unauthorised cultivation, such person shall not be ineligible for allotment of the land becoming surplus under this Act, including such land.

(ii) Where any land has been exchanged in lieu of any other land as a result of consolidation proceedings under the Jammu and Kashmir Consolidation of Holdings Act, 1962, any person who was personally cultivating land, so exchanged in Kharif, 1971, shall be deemed to have been personally cultivating in that harvest the land acquired in lieu of that land.

(iii) Where any land has been left fallow during Kharif, 1971 in normal course of agricultural husbandry, personal cultivation of such land in Kharif, 1971 shall be deemed to be of the person who personally cultivated it for three consecutive harvests prior to Kharif, 1971.

(iv) Land under kah-krisham, pichi, Bedzar or safedzar, land growing fuel or fodder and un-culturable or banjar land situated outside demarcated, un-demarcated or berun-i-line forests, shall be deemed to be in personal cultivation of the owner.

(v) Patches of gair-mumkin and zeri-sayah (under the shade of trees) land existing in a survey number shall be deemed to have been in personal cultivation of the person cultivating the rest of the land in such survey number personally in Kharif, 1971.

(vi) Where land has been mortgaged with possession before or during Kharif, 1971 and the mortgage has not been redeemed before the commencement of this Act, the mortgagor shall, subject to the provisions of section 10, be deemed to have been personally cultivating such land in Kharif, 1971.

(vii) Where possession of land has been obtained temporarily on bilateral or trilateral basis or in lieu of payment of rent for purpose of transplanting saffron bulbs, in accordance with the custom known locally as 'kara-korh' or 'kadawar' in saffron growing areas of Kashmir Valley, personal cultivation of such land shall be deemed to be of that person who would, but for such custom, have been cultivating it personally.

(viii) Personal cultivation by a person shall not cease to be so merely because of engagement of hired labour:

Provided that the labour so engaged is supplemental to, and not in substitution of, the labour of such person; and that such labour is paid wages in cash or kind but not in crop share.

(ix) For determining the person personally cultivating land during Kharif, 1971, entries in Khasra Girdawari shall be presumed to be true unless the contrary is proved.

(x) Where a person, after having been inducted as tenant by alienee of a limited owner, has been in continuous cultivating possession of such land for not less than twenty years prior to Kharif, 1971, such person shall be deemed to be in personal cultivation of such land, any judgment, decree or order of any court or authority notwithstanding.

Note:— For purposes of this clause, "limited owner" shall have the meaning as under the Mitakshara School of Hindu Law.

(13) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act;

(14) "prospective owner" means a person eligible, by or under this Act, to be vested with the rights of an owner;

(15) "Schedule" means a Schedule appended to this Act;

(16) "Standard acre" means a measure of an area convertible into an ordinary acre of land in accordance with the provisions of Schedule I;

(17) "tiller" means tenant cultivating land personally and shall mean and include a person who was tiller in Kharif, 1971 or his legal heirs or his transferee in the case of any valid transfer of land made between 1st September, 1971 and 1st May, 1973, subject to the competent Revenue Officer being satisfied about the existence of a bona fide transfer to this effect;

Explanation. — A person who migrated from his place of residence during 1965 due to unavoidable circumstances shall be deemed to be a tiller of the land thus abandoned by him if such land was in occupation of somebody else as Supard-dar under orders of a competent authority;

(18) words and expressions not defined in this Act shall have the meaning as assigned to them in the Jammu and Kashmir Majority Act, Samvat 1977, the Jammu and Kashmir Tenancy Act, Samvat 1980, the Jammu and Kashmir Land Revenue Act, Samvat 1996, and the Jammu and Kashmir Displaced Persons (Permanent Settlement) Act, 1971.

Explanation.— For purposes of clauses (8) and (11), where a person, governed by Mitakshara School of Hindu Law, is recorded as owner or. intermediary of ancestral property, his male lineal decedents in the male line of decent shall not, where he was alive on the first day of September 1971, be deemed to be owners or intermediaries, as the case may be, of such property.