Tripura Land Revenue and Land Reforms Act, 1960
No: 43 Dated: Sep, 21 1960
THE TRIPURA LAND REVENUE AND LAND REFORMS ACT, 1960
ACT NO. 43 OF 1960
An Act to consolidate and amend the law relating to land revenue in the Union territory of Tripura and to provide for the acquisition of estates and for certain other measures of land reform.
BE it enacted by Parliament in the Eleventh Year of the Republic of India as follows:—
PART I
CHAPTER I.—PRELIMINARY
1. Short title, extent and commencement.—(1) This Act may be called the Tripura Land Revenue and Land Reforms Act, 1960.
(2) It extends to the whole of the Union territory of Tripura.
(3) It shall come into force on such date as the Administrator may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint; and different dates may be appointed for different areas and for different provisions of this Act.
2. Definitions.—In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—
(a) “Administrator” means the Administrator of the Union territory of Tripura;
(b) “agriculture” includes horticulture, the raising of annual or periodical crops or garden produce, dairy farming, poultry farming, stock breeding, grazing and pisciculture;
(c) “basic holding” means land used for agricultural purposes which is equal to two standard acres in area;
(d) “Collector” means the Collector of the district and includes any officer appointed by the Administrator to exercise and perform all or any of the powers and functions of a Collector under this Act;
(e) “commencement of this Act”, in relation to any provision, means the date specified in respect of that provision in a notification under sub-section (3) of section 1;
(f) “competent authority”, in relation to any provision, means any officer appointed by the Administrator to be the competent authority for the purpose of that provision;
(g) “family” except in Chapter XIII means, in relation to a person, the wife or husband of such person, his children, grandchildren, parents and brothers, and in the case of a Joint Hindu family, any member of such family;
(h) “family holding” means land used for agricultural purposes which is equal to 6.4 standard acres in area;
(i) “Government” means the Central Government;
(j) “holding” means a parcel of land separately assessed to land revenue;
(k) “improvement”, in relation to any land, means any work which materially adds to the value of the land and which is suitable to the land and consistent with the character thereof and includes—
(i) the construction of tanks, wells, water channels and other works for the storage, supply and distribution of water for agricultural purposes or for the use of man and cattle employed in agriculture;
(ii) the construction of works for the drainage of land or for the protection of land from floods or from erosion or from other damage by water;
(iii) the preparation of land for irrigation;
(iv) the conversion of one-crop into two-crop land;
(v) the reclaiming, clearing, enclosing, levelling or terracing of land used for agricultural purposes;
(vi) the erection on land or in the immediate vicinity thereof otherwise than on the village site, of a building or house for the occupation of the under-raiyat, his family and servants or of a cattle shed, a store-house or other construction for agricultural purposes or of any building required for the convenient or profitable use or occupation of the land; and
(vii) the renewal or reconstruction of any of the foregoing works or such alterations therein or additions thereto as are not of the nature of ordinary repairs;
(l) “minor” means a person who is deemed not to have attained majority under the Indian Majority Act, 1875 (9 of 1875);
(m) “Official Gazette” means the Tripura Gazette;
(n) “pay”, “payable” and “payment”, used with reference to rent, include “deliver”, “deliverable” and “delivery”;
(o) “person under disability” means—
(i) a widow;
(ii) a minor;
(iii) a woman who is unmarried or who, if married, is divorced or judicially separated from her husband or whose husband is a person falling under item (iv) or (v);
(iv) a member of the Armed Forces of the Union;
(v) a person incapable of cultivating land by reason of some physical or mental disability;
(p) “personal cultivation”, with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions, means cultivation by a person on his own account—
(i) by his own labour, or
(ii) by the labour of any member of his family, or
(iii) by servants or by hired labour on wages, payable in cash or in kind but not as a share of produce, under his personal supervision or the personal supervision of any member of his family;
Explanation I.—Land shall not be deemed to be cultivated under the personal supervision of a person or a member of his family unless such person or member resides in the village in which the land is situated or in a nearby village situated within a distance to be prescribed, during the major part of the agricultural season;
Explanation II.—In the case of a person under disability, supervision by a paid employee on behalf of such person shall be deemed to be personal supervision;
(q) “prescribed” means prescribed by rules made under this Act;
(r) “public purpose” includes a purpose connected with allotment of land to cultivators, under-raiyats ejected as a result of resumption, land-less agricultural workers or co-operative farming societies;
(s) “raiyat” means a person who owns land for purposes of agriculture paying land revenue to the Government and includes the successors-in-interest of such person;
(t) “rent” means whatever is lawfully payable, in money or in kind, or partly in money and partly in kind, whether as a fixed quantity of produce or as a share of the produce, on account of the use or occupation of land or on account of any right in land but shall not include land revenue;
(u) “standard acre” means one acre of „lunga‟ or „nal‟ or three acres of „tilla‟ land;
(v) “under-raiyat” means a person who cultivates or holds the land of a raiyat under an agreement, express or implied, on condition of paying therefor rent in cash or in kind or delivering a share of the produce and includes a person who cultivates or holds land of a raiyat under the system generally known as „bhag’, „adhi’ or „barga’;
(w) “village” means any tract of land which, before the commencement of this Act, was recognised as or was declared to be a village under any law for the time being in force or which may after such commencement be recognised as a village at any settlement or which the Administrator may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare to be a village;
(x) “year” means the agricultural year commencing on such date as the Administrator may, in the case of any specified area, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint.
PART II
CHAPTER II—REVENUE DIVISIONS, REVENUE OFFICERS AND THEIR APPOINTMENT
3. Power to create, alter or abolish districts, sub-divisions, etc.—(1) The Administrator may, with the previous concurrence of the Government, by notification in the Official Gazette, divide the Union territory of Tripura into one or more districts, and may similarly divide any district into sub-divisions, circles and tehsils, and may alter the limits of, or abolish, any district, sub-division, circle or tehsil.
(2) The districts, sub-divisions, circles and tehsils existing at the commencement of this Act shall continue respectively to be the districts, sub-divisions, circles and tehsils under this Act unless otherwise provided under sub-section (1).