Kerala Land Conservancy Act, 1957
No: 8 Dated: Jan, 15 1958
THE KERALA LAND CONSERVANCY ACT, 1957
ACT 8 OF 1958
An Act to check the unauthorised occupation of Government lands.
Preamble. - Whereas it is necessary to enact a uniform law for checking the unauthorised occupation of Government lands;
Be it enacted in the Eighth Year of the Republic of India as follows:-
1. Short title, extent and commencement. - (1) This Act may be called the Kerala Land conservancy Act, 1957.
(2) It extends to the whole of the State of Kerala .
(3) It shall come into force at once.
2. Repeal. - The Travancore-Cochin Land Conservancy Act, 1951, and the Madras Land Encroachment Act, 1905 as in force in the Malabar district referred to in sub-section (2) of section 5 of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 (Central Act 37 of 1956), are hereby repealed.
3. Property of Government defined. - (1) All public roads, streets, lanes, and paths, the bridges, ditches, dykes and fences on or beside the same, the bed of the sea and of harbours and creeks below high water mark, the beds and banks of rivers, streams, irrigation and drainage channels, canals, tanks, lakes, backwaters and water courses, and all standing and flowing water, and all lands wheresoever situated, save in so far as the same are the property of-
(a) [Jenmies, Wargdars] or holders of Inams; or
(b) [persons registered in the revenue records as] holders of lands in any way subject to the payment of land revenue to the Government, or
(c) any other registered holder of land in proprietary right; or
(d) any person holding land under grant from the Government otherwise than by way of a [lease or licence].
(e) any person claiming through or holding under any of the persons referred to in clauses (a), (b), (c) or (d), are, and are hereby declared to be, the property of Government, except as may be otherwise provided by any law for the time being in force, subject to all rights of way and other public rights and to the natural and easement rights of other land owners and to all customary rights legally subsisting.
Explanation I. - Lands once registered in the name of a person but subsequently abandoned or relinquished, and all lands held by right of escheat, purchase, resumption, reversion or acquisition under the Land Acquisition Act for the time being in force, are the property of Government within the meaning of this section.
[Explanation 1A. - Where the ownership and possession, or the possession, of any land are or is vested in the Government under section 86 or section 87 of the Kerala Land Reforms Act, 1963 (1 of 1964), such land shall, so long as it is in the possession of the Government, be the property of Government within the meaning of this section.]
Explanation II. - In this section, the expression 'high-water mark' means the highest point reached by the ordinary spring tide at any season of the year.
Explanation III. - Where, in regard to roads, lanes and canals, survey stones had been, in the original demarcation under the Survey Act, in force, planted for the sake of convenience and safety inside compound walls and gates of compounds, in house verandhas door steps, porticoes masonry drains and similar structures of a permanent nature, such walls, gates, verandhas, etc., shall not be deemed to be property of Government within the meaning of this section.
[Explanation IV. - Lands belonging to the Government of any other state in India or to the Kerala State Electricity Board or to a University established by law or to a corporation owned or controlled by the Government of Kerala or to (any Panchayat as defined in the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act, 1994 (13 of 1994) or any municipality as defined in the Kerala Muncipality Act 1994 (20 of 1994)) shall be deemed to be the property of Government within the meaning of this section].
(2) All unassessed lands within the limits of private estates used or reserved for public purposes or for the communal use of villagers, and all public roads and streets vested in any local authority shall, for the purpose of this Act, be deemed to be the property of Government.