West Bengal Bargadars Act, 1950

No: 2 Dated: Mar, 15 1950

THE WEST BENGAL BARGADARS ACT, 1950

West Bengal Act II of 1950

    An, Act to provide for the regulation of certain rights inter se of bargadars and owners of land and for the establishment of Bhag Chas Conciliation Boards for the settlement of disputes relating to certain matters between bargadars and owners of land.

    WHEREAs it is expedient and necessary to provide for the regulation of certain rights inter se of bargadars and owners of land and for the establishment of Bhag Chas Conciliation Boards for the settlement of disputes relating to certain matters between bargadars and owners of land;

    It is hereby enacted as follows :—

Preliminary

1. Short title, extent and commencement:- (1) This Act may be called the West Bengal Bargadars Act, 1950

(2) It extends to the whole of West Bengal.

(3) It shall come into force on the date on which the West Bengal Bargadars Ordinance, 1949, ceases to operate.

(4) It shall remain in force up to the 31st day of March, 1953.

2. Interpretation:- In this Act, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context,—

(a) "Appellate Officer" means an officer appointed under section 11;

(b) "bargadar" means a person who under the system generally known as adhi, barges or bhag, cultivates the land- of another person on condition of delivering a share of the produce of such land to that other person but shall not include any such person—

(i) if he has been expressly admitted to be a tenant by the owner in any document executed by him or executed in his favour and accepted by him, or

(ii) if he has been held by a Civil Court to be a tenant;

(c) "Board" means a Bhag Chas Conciliation Board established under sub-section (1) of section 6 and includes an officer authorised under the proviso to sub-section (4) of that section ;

(d) "Collector" includes any officer appointed by the State Government to exercise all or any of the powers of a Collector under this Act;

(e) "Court" includes the High Court;

(f) "notification" means a notification pliblished; in the official Gazette;

(g) "owner" in relation to any land cultivated by any person as a bargadar means the person whose land the bargadar so cultivates;

(h) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act; and

(i) "produce" includes straw or stalk of any crop.

3. Division. of produce:- The produce of any land cultivated by a bargadar shall be apportioned between the bargadar and the owner of such land in accordance with the following principles, namely :—

(1) If the bargadar and the owner whose land he cultivates agree in writing to any mode of division, such mode of division shall be adopted;

(2) If there is no such agreement as aforesaid—

(a) the bargadar or the owner, as the case may be, who supplies any seed far growing any crop shall be entitled to an amount of the produce equivalent to the quantity of seed supplied;

(b) the bargadar and the owner shall each be entitled to one-third of the balance of the produce which remains after deducting the amount of the produce referred to in paragraph (a) :

Provided that the bargadar shall receive a greater share of the balance of the produce, if he is entitled to such greater share under a written contract between himself and the owner or under any local custom or usage;

(c) the remainder of the produce left after deducting the quantities referred to in paragraphs (a) and (b) shall be divided between the bargadar and the owner in such proportion as would be fair and reasonable having regard to their respective contributions to the cost of cultivation including in particular the supply of plough-cattle, plough and other agricultural implements and manure and to the cost of protection or irrigation of the land.