Jammu and Kashmir Tenancy Act, 1980 (1923 A.D.)
No: 2 Dated: Feb, 14 1980
THE JAMMU AND KASHMIR TENANCY ACT, 1980 (1923 A. D.)
(Act No. II of 1980)
An Act to consolidate, amend and declare the law relating to the tenancy of land in the Jammu and Kashmir State.
Preamble. — Whereas it is expedient to consolidate, amend and declare the law relating to the tenancy of land in Jammu and Kashmir State;
It is hereby enacted as follows:-
CHAPTER I
Preliminary
1. Title extent and commencement. — (1) This Act shall be called the Jammu and Kashmir Tenancy Act, 1980, and shall extend to the whole of the Jammu and Kashmir State x x x.
(2) It shall come into force on and from the Ist of Poh, 1980.
(3) From the date when this Act comes into force all circulars, rules and orders previously issued regarding matters dealt with therein, so far as they may be repugnant to it, shall be considered repealed:
But all orders issued, rights acquired, liabilities incurred, or things done under the circulars, rules and orders hereby repealed shall be deemed to have been respectively issued, incurred or done under this Act.
2. Definitions — In this Act, unless there is something repugnant in the subject or context,—
(1) "land" means land which is not occupied as the site of any building in a town or village, and is occupied or has been let for agricultural purposes or for purposes sub-servient to agriculture or for pasture, and includes the site of buildings and other structures and trees standing on such land as well as areas covered by or fields floating over water, and sites of Jandars and Gharats:
Provided that, nothing in this Act shall apply to the site of any jandar or gharat attached to any canal under the management of the State Department of Public Works, or distributary thereof;
(2) "rent" means what ever is payable to a landlord in money, kind or service by a tenant, on account of the use or occupation of land held by him or on account of the use of water for irrigation;
(3) "pay" with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions, includes, when used with reference to rent, "deliver" and "render" with their grammatical variations and cognate expressions,
(4) "arrears of rent" means rent which remains unpaid after the date on which it becomes payable;
(5) "tenant" means a person who holds land, under the State, or under another person, and is, or but for a special contract in that behalf would be, liable to pay rent for that land, to the State or to that person; but it does not include —
(a) an inferior landholder, or
(b) a person to whom a holding has been transferred, or an estate or holding has been let on farm, for the recovery of an arrear of land revenue, or of a sum recoverable as such, or
(c) a mortgagee of the rights of a landholder,
(d) omitted.
(6) "landlord" means a person under whom a tenant holds land, and to whom the tenant is, or but for a special contract would be, liable to pay rent for that land;
(7) "tenant" and "landlord" include the predecessors and successors-in-interest of a tenant and landlord respectively;
(8) "tenancy" means a parcel or parcels of land held by a tenant of a landlord under one lease or engagement or one set of conditions, but may comprise land held by a tenant partly in right of occupancy and partly without such right;
(9) "improvement" means, with reference to a tenancy, any work which is suitable to the tenancy and consistent with the purpose for which it is held, by which the value of the tenancy has been and continues to be increased, and which, if not executed on the tenancy, is either executed directly for its benefit, or is, after execution, made directly beneficial to it:
Explanation I. — It includes, among other things—
(a) the construction of tanks, wells, water-channels and other works for the storage or supply or distribution of water for agricultural purposes;
(b) the construction of works for the drainage of land or for protection of land against floods or from erosion or other damage by water;
(c) the planting of trees, the reclaiming, clearing, enclosing, levelling and terracing of land for agricultural purposes, and other works of a like nature;
(d) the erection of buildings on the tenancy, or in its immediate vicinity, elsewhere than on the village site, required for the more convenient or profitable use or cultivation of a tenancy; and
(e) the renewal or reconstruction of any of the foregoing works, or such alteration therein, or additions thereto, as are not of the nature of mere repairs and as durably increase their value;
but it does not include such clearances, enbankments, levelling, enclosures, temporary wells, and water-channels or other works, or petty alterations or repairs to such works, as are made by tenants in the ordinary course of cultivation and without any special expenditure, or any other benefit; accruing to land from the ordinary operation of husbandry;
Explanation II. — A work which benefits several tenancies may be deemed to be, with respect to each of them, an improvement;
Explanation III. — Unless made with the written consent of the landlord, any work that substantially diminishes the value of any other part of the landlord's property, is not an improvement;
(10) "estate" "land-holder", "holding", "land revenue", "arrear of land revenue", "defaulter", "rate and cesses", "village-cesses", "village-officer", "Revenue officer", "muafidar", "agricultural year", "notification", "encumbrance", and "date of regular settlement" have the meanings assigned to those words in the Jammu and Kashmir Land Revenue Act, 1980;
(11) "land revenue" means land revenue assessed, or assessable, under any law or orders for the time being in force, whether payable to the State or assigned by the State to other person; also any sum payable in respect of land, by way of quit-rent or of commutation for service, to the State or to a person to whom the State has assigned the right to receive the payment;
it also includes any rate imposed in respect of the increased value of land due to irrigation, but does not include any fluctuating abiana imposed in addition to the fixed assessment on account of crops matured by means of irrigation, except in so far as such a biana may be declared by notification issued by the Government in that behalf, to be a rate imposed in respect of the increased value of the land due to irrigation;
(12) "abi land" means all irrigated lands and for purposes of section 16, includes such dry lands as grow sugar-cane, wheat, maize and linseed.