Punjab Tenancy Act, 1887
No: 16 Dated: Nov, 03 1887
The Punjab Tenancy Act, 1887
Act 16 of 1887
An Act to amend the law relating to the Tenancy of Land in the Punjab.
Whereas it is expedient to amend the law relating to tenancy of land in the Punjab.
It is hereby enacted as follows :-
Chapter I
Preliminary
1. Title, extent and commencement. - (1) This Act may be called the Punjab Tenancy Act, 1887.
(2) It extends to the whole of the territories administered by the State Government of Punjab and
(3) It shall come into force on such day as the State Government, with the previous sanction of the Central Government, may by notification appoint in this behalf.
2. Power to make rules in anticipation of Commencement. - (Repealed)
3. Repeal. - (Repealed).
4. Definitions. - In this Act, unless there is a 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 subservient to agriculture, or for pasture, and includes the sites of buildings and other structures on such land.
(2) "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.
(3) "rent" means whatever 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,
(4) "arrear of rent" means rent which remains unpaid after the date on which it becomes payable,
(5) "tenant" means a person who holds land under another person, and is, or but for a special contract would be, liable to pay rent for that land to that other person, but it does not include :-
(a) an inferior landowner, or
(b) a mortgagee of the rights of a landowner, or
(c) a person to whom a holding has been transferred, or an estate or holding has been let in farm, under the Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887, for the recovery of an arrear of land revenue or of a sum recoverable as such an arrear, or
(d) a person who takes from the Government a lease of unoccupied land for the purpose of subletting it,
(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 of land held by a tenant of a landlord under one lease or one set of conditions:
(9) "estate", "landowner" and "holding" have the meanings, respectively, assigned to those words in the Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887,
(10) "land revenue" means land revenue assessed under any law for the time being in force or assessable under the Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887, and includes -
(a) any rate imposed in respect of the increased value of land due to irrigation, and
(b) any sum payable in respect of land, by way of quit-rent or of commutation for service, to the Government or to a person to whom the Government has assigned the right to receive the payment:
(11) "rates and cesses" means rates and cesses which are primarily payable by landowners, and includes -
(a) the local rate, if any payable under the Punjab District Boards Act, 1883 (XX of 1883), and any fee leviable under Section 33 of that Act from landowners for the use of, or benefits derived from, such works as are referred to in Section 20, clauses (i) and (j) of that Act;
(b) any annual rate chargeable on owners of lands under Section 59 of the Northern India Canal and Drainage Act, 1873;
(c) the zaildari and village officer's cases; and
(d) sums payable on account of village expenses;
(12) "village-cess" includes any cess, contribution or due which is customarily leviable within an estate and is neither a payment for the use of private property or for personal service, not imposed by or under any enactment for the time being in force;
(13) "village officer" means a chief headman, headman or patwari;
(14) "Revenue Officer" or "Revenue Court" in any provisions of this Act means a Revenue Officer or Revenue Court having authority under this Act to discharge the functions of a Revenue Officer or Revenue Court, as the case may be, under that provisions;
(15) "jagirdar" includes any person, other than a village servant, to whom the land revenue of any land has been assigned in whole or in part by the Government or by an officer of the Government;
(16) "legal practitioner" means any legal practitioner within meanings of the Legal Practitioners Act, 1879 (Act XVII of 1879) except a mukhtar;
(17) "agricultural year" means the year commencing on the sixteenth day of June or on such other date as the State Government may by notification appoint for any local area;
(18) "notification" means a notification published by authority of the State Government in the Official Gazette; and
(19) "Improvement" means, with reference to a tenancy, any work which is suitable to the tenancy and consistent with the conditions or 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 wells and other work for the storage or supply of water for agricultural purposes;
(b) the construction of works for drainage and for protection against floods;
(c) the planting of trees, the re-claiming, enclosing, levelling and terracing of land for agricultural purposes and other works of a like nature;
(d) the erection of buildings required for the more convenient or profitable cultivation of a tenancy; and
(e) the renewal of reconstruction of any of the foregoing works, or such alterations 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, embankments, levelings, enclosures, temporary wells and water channels 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 operations 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- A work executed by a tenant is not an improvement if it substantially diminishes the value of any other part of his landlord's property.
(20) Omitted by the Indian (Adaptation of Existing Indian Laws) Order, 1947, Section 4(1).
For Himachal Pradesh Only
(20) Kismi Tenant means a Tenant who is recorded as a tenant and of Mad or Kisam in the records-of-rights of the Estate in which tenancy situate.