Mahajati Sadan Act, 1949
No: 16 Dated: Apr, 14 1949
THE MAHAJATI SADAN ACT, 1940
West Bengal Act 16 of 1949
An Act to provide for the speedy acquisition of the land and the unfinished buildings thereon, commonly known as the Mahajati Sadan, for the continuance and completion of the erection of the Mahajati Sadan, for the maintenance, management and use thereof and for the creation of a body of trustees.
Whereas certain sums of money were subscribed by the people of India with the object of erecting a building to be used and utilised mainly for purposes described in the Second Schedule and were collected by a Committee called the Subhas Congress Fund Committee constituted at a meeting of the people of Calcutta for the purpose of collecting such subscriptions;
And Whereas in furtherance of the said object Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose took a lease of the land described in item (a) of the First Schedule from the Corporation of Calcutta and initiated the erection thereon of the buildings hereinafter referred to as the Mahajati Sadan of which the foundation stone was laid by Kaviguru Rabindra Nath Tagore;
And Whereas the erection of the Mahajati Sadan could not be completed for being so used and utilised by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose;
And Whereas it is expedient to provide for the speedy acquisition of the properties described in the First Schedule, for the continuance and completion of the erection of the Mahajati Sadan, for the maintenance, management and use thereof and for the creation of a body of trustees;
It is hereby enacted as follows:-
1. Short title and commencement. - (1) This Act may be called the Mahajati Sadan Act, 1949.
(2) It shall come into force on such date as the [State] Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint.
2. Definitions. - In this Act, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context,-
(a) "the Board" means the Board of Trustees for the Mahajati Sadan constituted under this Act,
(b) "Collector" means the First Land Acquisition Collector, Calcutta,
(c) "person interested" has the same meaning as in the Land Acquisition Act, 1894,
(d) the expression "purposes of the Mahajati Sadan" means purposes relating to the erection, equipment, maintenance, repairs, additions, alterations, management, control, use or application of the Mahajati Sadan or of any property or Fund held for or in connection with the Mahajati Sadan and includes the purposes referred to in clause (i) of section 8.
(e) "trustee" means a member of the Board.
3. Incorporation of Trustees. - Subject to the provisions of this Act, the entire management and control of the Mahajati Sadan shall, on and from the date on which the notification referred to in section 8 is published in the Official Gazette, be vested in a Board to be called 'the Trustees for the Mahajati Sadan' and the Board shall be a body corporate having perpetual succession and a common seal, with power to acquire and hold property both movable and immovable and to enter into contracts and do all acts necessary and consistent with the purposes of this Act and shall by the said name sue and be sued.
4. Constitution of the Board. - (1) The Board shall be constituted by the [State] Government in such manner and consisting of such number of trustees not exceeding eleven, of whom not more than four may be ex-officio trustees, as may be prescribed by rules made by the [State] Government.
(2) All acts done by majority of the trustees present and voting at a meeting of the Board and all acts done in pursuance of a majority decision of the trustees obtained by circulation to the trustees of the matter requiring decision shall be deemed to be acts of the Board.
(3) The Board may appoint a person to act as its Secretary and may also appoint in such manner as may be prescribed by rules made by the [State] Government a Managing Committee and such other Committees as the Board may think fit and delegate to such Committee or Committees such of its powers as it may deem expedient.
(4) Orders for the payment of money on behalf of the Board shall be deemed to be sufficiently authenticated if signed by two trustees and countersigned by the Secretary of the Board.
5. Trustees, Officers and servants to be public servants. - Every trustee and every member of the Managing Committee and every officer and servant of the Board shall be deemed to be a public servant within the meaning of section 21 of the Indian Penal Code.
6. Acquisition. - (1) The [State] Government may acquire the properties described in the First Schedule (hereinafter in this section referred to as the said properties) by publishing in the Official Gazette a notice to the effect that the [State] Government has decided to acquire the said properties in pursuance of this section.
(2) When the notice as aforesaid is published in the Official Gazette, the said properties shall, on and from the beginning of the day on which the notice is so published, vest absolutely in the [State] Government free from all incumbrances, and thereupon the [State] Government may take possession of the said properties in such manner as if may think fit.
(3) When the said properties are acquired in pursuance of this section, there shall be paid to the persons interested such compensation as may be determined and apportioned by the Collector-
(a) in accordance with agreements reached between the persons interested and the [State] Government, or
(b) where no such agreement can be reached, in the manner and in accordance with the principles set out in the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, so, however, that the market value referred to in clause first of sub-section (1) of section 23 of the said Act shall be deemed to be the market value of the said properties on the date of publication of the notice referred to in sub-section (1),
and claimed by such persons within three months from the date of publication of the notice referred to in sub-section (1).
(4) The decision of the Collector under sub-section (3) shall be final and shall not be called in question in any Court.
7. Erection of Mahajati Sadan. - When the properties described in the First Schedule are acquired in pursuance of section 6, the erection of the Mahajati Sadan shall be continued and completed as far as may be in accordance with the original plan approved by Nataji Subhas Chandra Bose and sanctioned by the Corporation of Calcutta with such alterations therein as the [State] Government may think fit, and the Mahajati Sadan shall thereafter be equipped in such manner as the [State] Government may think fit.