Section 5

Amendment status not verified — confirm the current text below against the official source.

The Coorg Tenants Act, 1957, as in force in the Coorg District. The Bill is generally modelled on the recommendations of the Mysore Tenancy and Agricultural Land Laws Committee constituted in May 1957, with some changes in the light of the opinion expressed in the Legislature and the suggestions of the Central Committee on Land Reforms constituted by the Planning Commission. The main features of the Bill are— (1) In future, leases will be permitted only in respect of lands held by persons suffering from some disability or persons serving in the Armed Forces or persons whose holding does not exceed a basic holding; (2) In respect of lands leased out at the commencement of the Act, the right of resumption is generally regulated such that a tenant is left with a part of the holding, except where the land leased out is itself less than a basic holding and cannot be sub-divided; (3) The rate of rent will be one-fourth of the gross produce in the case of irrigated lands and one- fifth of the gross produce in the case of other lands subject to the condition that the existing rents are not liable to enhancement; (4) The extent of land which a land-owner cannot resume for personal cultivation will vest in Government on a notified date and the tenants who are actually cultivating such lands will be given occupancy rights subject to payment of fifteen times the rent minus land revenue, which amount will be paid to the owner as compensation; (5) For regulating the rights of resumption and other all matters, the family holding is defined as the holding giving a income of Rs. 1,200 per annum; and (6) The ceiling limit to land holdings will be three fan holdings. Existing holdings under personal cultivation which are managed according to prescribed standards and existing plantation including coconut and areca plantations will be exempted from ceiling. (Published in the Karnataka Gazette (Extraordinary), Part IV-2A, dated 29th November, 1958, as No. 174, at p. 78.) II Amending Act No. 14 of 1965.—It is considered necessary to make certain amendments as suggested by the Government of India, to the Mysore Land Reforms Act, 1961, before the Act is brought into force. Hence the Bill. The more important amendments are the following:— (1) Transfers made after the passing of the Mysore Land Reforms Bill, 1961 by the State Legislature, i.e., 18th November 1961, will be disregarded both for purposes of determining the extent of land for resumption as also for determining the ceiling area. (2) In respect of the right of resumption, the rights of landlords to resume land will be limited in the Bombay Area to cases in which notices have been given within the prescribed period under the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act, 1948, and in the Hyderabad Area to cases in which declarations have been made within the prescribed period under the Hyderabad Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act, 1950, and the extent of land resumable will be determined in accordance with the aforesaid Acts. 6 (3) As regards restoration of possession to a tenant dispossessed from land held by him, the requirements that he should have held the land for a period of six consecutive years before the 10th day of September 1961 will be deleted, in order to enable tenants who may not satisfy this requirement to get possession restored. (4) Social provisions made in favour of the members of the Armed Forces of the Union area made applicable to personnel of the Merchant Navy, and in the case of any member of the Armed Forces of the Union who dies while engaged in operations for the defence of India such member‘s spouse, child and grand child dependant upon such member will also be governed by such special provisions. (5) As regardes surrenders to which section 25 of the Act is applicable, provision is made that the landlord will be permitted to accept surrenders only to the extent to which he could have resumed the land, the excess land being treated as surplus land. (6) The amount of compensation payable in cash under section 51 will be limited to two thousand rupees instead of ten thousand rupees. (7) As regards plantations, the limit of one hundred acres for development of plantation fixed in clause (ii) of the explanation to section 104 will be deleted, and the limitation on the interspersed land specified by clause (iii) of the same explanation will also be deleted. (8) Exemption granted to Government lands under section 107 will also be granted to lands belonging to or held on lease from religious and charitable institutions managed by or under the control of the Government. (Published in the Karnataka Gazette (Extraordinary), Part IV-2A, dated 9th April, 1965, as No. 86, at p. 16.) III Amending Act No. 38 of 1966.—According to section 14 of the Mysore Land Reforms Act, 1961, the statements by the landlords who bona fide require land for cultivating personally, or for any non-agricultural purpose had to be filed with the Tribunal within one year from the appointed day, namely, the 2nd October 1965. As certain preliminary formalities like determination and publication of areas where land having assured irrigation facilities lie, and notifying average annual rainfall of the different areas, had not been completed to enable the filing of such statements, it was considered necessary to amend sub-sections (2) and (4) of the said section to extend the time limit by three months. Accordingly Mysore Ordinance No. 2 of 1966 was promulgated. Certain minor clarificatory amendments to clause (c) of sub-section (2) of section 14 and to section 81A and 142 were also made. The present Bill is intended to replace the said Ordinance. Provision has also been made in the Bill for amending section 7 to enable dispossessed tenants to make applications for restoration of possession within fifteen months from the appointed day. The Director of Statistics has been empowered to notify the average annual rainfall of different areas for purposes of Part A of Schedule I to the Act. The explanation to this Part is also proposed to be amended for this purpose. (Published in the Karnataka Gazette Extraordinary, Part IV-2A, dated 9th November 1966, as No. 188, at p. 4.) 7 IV Amending Act No. 1 of 1967.—At present the Bombay Prevention of Fragmentation and Consolidation of Holidays Act, 1947, is in force in the Bombay Area and the Hyderabad Consolidation of Holdings and Prevention of Fragmentation Act, 1956, is in force in the Hyderabad Area. Both the First Five-Year Plan and the Second Five-Year Plan have emphasised that in all States, programmes for consolidation of holdings should be expanded and pursued with vigour. It is considered necessary to have a uniform Law relating to prevention of fragmentation and consolidation of holdings applicable throughout the new State of Mysore. Hence this Bill. The main features of the Bill are:— (1) A plot of land of less extent than appropriate standard area which is not profitable for cultivation is considered a fragment; (2) Future fragmentation of lands is prevented; (3) Every holder will be given a compact area equivalent in value to what he held before in the scattered fields; (4) Transfers or partitions which would result in creation of a fragment are prohibited; (5) During consolidation proceedings, nobody will become landless however small his holdings may be, and big holder will not get enlarged holdings; (6) Any owner of fragment can transfer such fragment to the owner of contiguous survey number on payment of compensation determined by the Deputy Commissioner. If the contiguous owner refuses to take it, he can transfer it to the State Government; (7) If a holding is burdened with lease, mortgage, debt or other encumbrances, such encumbrances shall be transferred therefrom and attach it self to the holding allotted to the original owner thereof in the scheme. Hence the Bill. (Published in the Karnataka Gazette (Extraordinary), Part IV-2A, dated 19th June 1964, as No. 156, at p. 26–27.) V Amending Act No. 5 of 1967.—Section 14 of the Mysore Land Reforms Act, 1961 required the landlords who bona fide required land for their personal cultivation or for any non-agricultural purpose to file statements with the Tribunal within one year from the appointed day, namely, the 2nd October, 1965. As certain preliminaries like determination and publication of areas having assured irrigation facilities and notifying average annual rainfall talukwise could not be completed before 2nd October 1966 to enable the filing of such statements the time limit was extended by three months firstly by Mysore Ordinance No. 2 of 1966, which was replaced by Mysore Act No. 38 of 1966. The extended time limit expired on 2nd January 1967. Before the expiry of the extended time limit, the determination and publication of areas where assured irrigation facilities lie could not be completed in the eight districts, viz., (1) Chickmagalur, (2) Dharwar, (3) Gulbarga, (4) Hassan, (5) Mysore, (6) Shimoga, (7) South Kanara and (8) Tumkur. It was therefore considered necessary to further extend the time limit in these eight districts for filing statements by landlords under section 14 by four months from 2nd January 1967. This was done by promulgation of Ordinance No. 1 of 1967. This Ordinance No. 1 of 1967 is now proposed to be replaced by the Bill. (Published in the Karnataka Gazette (Extraordinary), Part IV-2A, dated 27th March, 1967, as No. 79, at p. 3.) VI Amending Act No. 11 of 1968.—Certain Land Tribunals in the Bombay Area, while disposing of statements filed under section 14 of the Mysore Land Reforms Act, 1961, have held that in view of section 16(10B) of the Act, the provisions of sections 31A, 31B and 31C of the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act, 1948, are not applicable as these provisions had been suspended by the Bombay Tenancy (Suspension of Provisions and Amendment) Act, 1957 (Mysore Act 13 of 1957). As the intention is that the provisions of the said sections should apply to such cases, 8 it is considered necessary to make it clear. It is also necessary to amend section 103 to provide that the protection under section 6 of the Act does not extend to leases in favour of industrial and commercial undertakings. It is further necessary to provide for an appeal against the order of the prescribed authority under section 8(3) of the Act. Hence the Bill. (Published in the Karnataka Gazette (Extraordinary), Part IV-2A, dated 6th December, 1967, as No. 275, at p. 4.) VII Amending Act No. 6 of 1970.— The Bill is intended primarily to expedite the disposal of the accumulation of resumption Applications. Rent applications and other Miscellaneous applications under the Land Reforms Act with the Special Tribunals appointed for the purposes, by enabling all the Munsiff Court to function as Land Tribunals, and by separating the Judicial from executive functions and transferring the latter to the Tahsildars. This will also add to the conveniece of the parties as the territorial jurisdiction of the present Land Tribunals extend to more than one Taluk in many cases and the new arrangement would make the Tribunals more easily accessible in all the areas. The opportunity has been taken to define the areas specified in the Land Reforms Act in metric terms as desired by the Government of India and to remedy the lacuna observed by the High Court in one of their judgments regarding the powers of the Court to decide as to who is a tenant. (Published in the Karnataka Gazette (Extraordinary), Part IV—2A, dated 12th January 1970, as No. 16.) VIII Amending Act No. 4 of 1972.—Rent recovery suits filed by the landlords from 1966 onwards could not be disposed of in certain areas as the average yields of principal crops and the prices of such crops notified by the Tahsildars and the Chief Marketing Officer respectively had to be revised pursuant to the directions of the High Court on Writ Petitions filed before it. The notifications of average yield could be finalised in a few cases only in the year 1971. Consequently the rent recovery suits filed from 1966 are being disposed of now. It will be a great burden on tenants to pay the arrears of rent accrued from 1966. The present Bill is intended to save tenants from eviction if a sum equal to two years‘ rent is paid. Provision is also made for restoration of possession to the tenants evicted under certain circumstances. (Published in the Karnataka Gazette (Extraordinary), Part IV-2A, dated 11th April, 1972, as No. 135, at p. 5.) IX Amending Act No. 2 of 1973.—In the Mysore Land Reforms (Amendment and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1972 which is deemed to have come into force from 11th May, 1972, among other things it is provided that no order for restoration of possession of any land to the landlord on the ground of default in paying rent by the tenant shall be executed if the tenant pays to the land- lord an amount equal to the rent due for a period of two years. It was considered that this provision was not adequate enough to save the tenants from unfair eviction especially when the decrees presented for execution are more than one. It was also considered that the tenants do not get the required relief under this provision as it does not provide for payment of arrears of rent in easy instalments. In view of the urgency involved in providing further safeguards to the tenants, the Mysore Tenants (Relief in Payment of Arrears of Rent) Ordinance, 1972 was promulgated on 28th October, 1972 providing for— (i) recovery of accumulated arrears of rent in easy instalments to be fixed by the Munsiff Courts taking account the capacity of the tenant to pay; (ii) postponement of payment of instalment in case of suspension or remission of land revenue; (iii) exempting tenant from arrest and imprisonment in execution of decree or order; 9 (iv) execution of decrees for deliberate default in payment of instalment by the tenant. The Bill seeks to replace the said Ordinance. (Published in the Karnataka Gazette (Extraordinary), Part IV-2A, dated 22nd November, 1972, as No. 553, at p. 6.) X Amending Act No. 1 of 1974.—According to the existing provisions of the Mysore Land Reforms Act, 1961, a person can hold land upto 18 standard acres after 2nd October 1965 or 144 acres of last class of land. In the case of a person who had held land prior to 2nd October 1965, the extent to which he is permitted to continue to hold is 27 standard acres or 216 acres of last class of land. In the case of a family or a joint family, six additional standard acres are permitted to be held for each member in excess of five, subject however to double the ceiling limit applicable to the family. Thus a large family holding lands prior to 2nd October 1965 could own upto 432 acres of the last class of land. This is considered to be too liberal a scale having regard to the large number of landless persons desiring to take up cultivation. The existing law defines family as follows:— ―family‖ in relation to a person means such person, and if married, the wife or husband, as the case may be, and the dependant children and grand-children of such person. It is proposed to adopt a new definition, in which a family would consist of husband, wife and the minor children. This is the natural family. The ceiling for a family consisting of husband, wife and three minor children shall be 10 acres of land with assured irrigation capable of raising two crops of paddy in a year or one crop of sugarcane or 15 acres of irrigated land capable or raising only a single crop of paddy if irrigated from the river projects and major tanks; and 18 acres if irrigated from small tanks. Lands coming under lift irrigation will have a ceiling of 15 acres. Rainfed wet lands will have a ceiling of 25 acres. Dry lands will have a ceiling of 36 acres, 45 acres and 54 acres according to the range of rainfall. For larger families with more than 5 members a proportionate increase is made at the rate of two acres of first class of land for every additional member subject to an overall limit of twenty acres of first class of land. While applying the ceiling and determining the surplus land for a family, the lands held by the individual members will be added together. Where lands are held separately by the husband and wife of a family, the surplus to be surrendered shall be on pro-rata basis from the holding of each member of the family. Ceiling will not apply to the lands held by Co-operative Farming Societies but the extent held by each person in such society and also in firms, associations and private trusts shall be deemed to be his personal holding for applying the ceiling. Persons having assured income of not less than Rs. 12,000 per annum from non-agricultural source are not permitted to hold agricultural lands. Persons who are not cultivating personally are also not permitted to hold agricultural lands. The term ―to cultivate personally‖ is re-defined so as to require residence within 16 kilometres from the limits of the village in which the land is situated. The exemptions from the ceiling at present available to the lands exclusively used for grazing of cattle, forest land, land used for specialised farms, land used for sugarcane farms and land used for efficiently managed farms have been removed and exemptions from ceiling area made available only in the following cases, namely:— (a) lands owned by Government or taken on lease from Government for a period not exceeding twenty years; (b) lands given as a gallantry award; (c) lands used for stud farms approved by Government; (d) lands belonging to Agricultural Produce Marketing Societies. Section 8 regarding rent will apply even to exempted lands. In the case of Sugar Factories hundred acres of land with assured irrigation facilities for purposes of Research and seed farm are permitted to be held. 10 Orchards will be treated as dry lands and the ceiling of fifty-four acres is made applicable to them. The lands on which coconut trees are grown are treated as dry if they are grown without any irrigation. For computation of revised ceiling, transfers of lands made from 18th November 1961 will be taken into account. Rent: Under the existing law, the rent payable by the tenant to the landlord shall not exceed one- fourth of the gross produce or its value in cash in the case of land possessing facilities for assured irrigation from a tank or a river channel, and one-fifth of the gross produce or its value in cash in the case of any other land. This involves determination of average yield of principal crops, market prices of the various commodities and as such, fixation of rent has become cumbersome process involving much time and energy. The method of fixing the rent is proposed to be simplified by fixing the rent at ten times land revenue for dry lands possessing no facilities for irrigation from Government sources. For lands classified as dry but possessing irrigation facilities from Government sources an additional rent ranging from Rs. 22 per acre per annum to Rs. 66 per acre per annum on the basis of irrigation facilities made available from Government source of irrigation is made payable. The amount payable to the owner in respect of the non-resumable land vesting in Government under section 44 of the Act and the amount payable in respect of surplus land vesting in Government under section 72 will be a multiple of the net income, which is the same as rent. The multiple will be fifteen for net income upto Rs. 5,000 per annum, twelve for the next slab of net income from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 10,000 and ten for the slab of net income over Rs. 10,000 per annum paid in instalments through negotiable bonds as at present. The amount payable is limited to rupees two lakhs. The surplus land that would become available for distribution on applying the revised ceiling will be distributed by following the priorities given below, at the same time reserving fifty per cent of the surplus land for being allotted to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes:— (a) displaced tenants who have no Not less than one unit each. land. (b) landless agricultural labourers Not less than one unit each. and other landless persons. (c) other persons having less than Not less than the extent required one unit. to make up one unit. Opportunity has also been taken to— (i) authorise the Deputy Commissioner of the District to issue notifications of vesting of non- resumable lands in Government as and when such extents are determined by the authorities concerned; (ii) make the Assistant Commissioner the appropriate authority to investigate and locate lands which are deemed to be non-resumable under section 2(A), (29) and section 14(3); (iii) reduce the price payable by a tenant for site on which a dwelling house is built from twenty times the rent to ten times the rent; (iv) provide for application of ceiling to holdings becoming irrigable on a future date under Government irrigation projects; (v) divest Munsiff Courts of certain non-judicial powers and investing them in Revenue Officers; (vi) provide for the definition of ‗Tahsildar‘ to include Special Tahsildar‘; (vii) provide for review of the proceedings of the Tahsildar or the Assistant Commissioner by the Divisional Commissioner; (viii) substitute a new Schedule I in place of the existing one; And other consequential amendments to quicken the pace of implementation of the Act. (Obtained from the Mysore Land Reforms (Amendment) Bill 1972 in File No. LAW 55 LGN 72.) XI Amending Act No. 26 of 1974.—Section 48A of the Karnataka Land Reforms Act, 1961 (Karnataka Act 10 of 1962) provides that every person entitled to be registered as an occupant under section 45 may make an application to the Tribunal within six months from 1st March 1974. This time 11 limit is due to expire on 31st August 1974. It is proposed to extend it to 31st December 1974 as there is a great demand from the rural population to allow extension of time. Section 66 of the said Act as it stood prior to the promulgation of the Ordinance on 29th May 1974 allowed time for filing declarations of holdings upto 30th May 1974 and the filing of declarations had to be done in terms of A, B, C and D classes of lands. On further examination it was considered unnecessary to link up filing of declarations with the A, B, C and D classification of lands and that the time limit of 90 days from 1st March 1974 required to be extended further by 90 days to enable the declarants to file their declarations. Accordingly the Karnataka Land Reforms (Amendment) Ordinance 1974 (Karnataka Ordinance No. 3 of 1974) was promulgated on 29th May 1974 providing for filing of declaration with reference to irrigated, rainfed and dry lands within the extended time of 90 days from 30th May 1974. It is proposed to further extend the time upto 31st October 1974. Hence this Bill. (Published in the Karnataka Gazette (Extraordinary), Part IV-2A, dated 26th August, 1974, as No. 2694, at p. 4.) XII Amending Act No. 31 of 1974.—Section 133 of the Karnataka Land Reforms Act expressly provides that the Civil Courts shall stay the suits involving issues required to be decided under the said Act and refer such issues to the Tribunal for decision. In spite of the express provision in section 133, the Civil Courts had been granting injunctions against tenants in suits filed by land-lords under the specific Relief Act claiming that there were no tenants on the land as evidenced by entries in Record of Rights. The Courts took the view that actual possession on the relevant date and not legal title to the land was criteria in such suits. To safeguard tenants from dispossession in consequence of injunctions issued in such suits, further provision in the Land Reforms Act were considered desirable and accordingly an Ordinance (No. 6 of 1974) was issued on 3rd August 1974. Section 91 of the Karnataka Land Reforms (Amendment) Act, 1973 is also proposed to be amended to make the intention clear. Hence the Bill. (Published in the Karnataka Gazette (Extraordinary), Part IV-2A, dated 26th August, 1974, as No. 2693, at p. 5.) XIII Amending Act No. 18 of 1976.—Section 48 which provides for the establishment of Tribunals does not enable establishment of additional tribunals even in taluks where the volume of work is very heavy. This section also makes it obligatory for a Legislator being a member of the Tribunal. To ensure quicker disposals of tenant‘s application establishment of additional Tribunals wherever necessary was considered expedient. It was also considered not practicable to have a Legislator as a member of additional Tribunal. It was therefore considered necessary to amend section 48 to provide for the establishment of additional Tribunals and to make it not obligatory to have a Legislator as a member. Since it was noticed that in some areas of the State all the tenants had not applied for registration for various reasons it was felt that time may be extended upto 30th June 1976 to enable such applications being filed and admitted if sufficient cause was shown for the delay and for this purpose section 48A may be amended. Compensation to widows and minor and disabled persons were also to be paid in lumpsum under section 51. It was considered that in their cases such compensation may be paid in one lumpsum. It was therefore proposed to amend section 51. As a consequence of payments to widows etc., in one lumpsum it was felt that the premium payable by the tenant to be registered as an occupant should also be made payable in one lumpsum 12 and that section 53 may be amended for this purpose. It is proposed to frame rules and empower the State Government to channel assistance from the State Development Bank or a credit agency to the tenant to make such payments. To safeguard against a person who had large extents of land in 1961 but who has disposed of all his lands before 1st March 1974 or has brought down his holdings to less than 10 acres of irrigated land or the equivalent thereof as on 1st March 1974, evading to file declaration under section 66, a new sub-section (4) is being inserted in section 66 making it mandatory on all persons who held on or after 18th November 1961, ten acres of irrigated land or 20 acres of rainfed wet land or 40 acres of dry to file their declarations indicating their holdings during the period from 18th November 1961 to 1st March 1974 and the transfers effected. The original time limit for declaration under the amended sub-section 4 of the section 66 of the Land Reforms Act expired on 9th December 1975 and has been extended by a further period of 90 days. This extension of time is felt necessary in view of certain difficulties expressed by holders of land in tracing all transactions subsequent to 18th November 1961. Having regard to the current rate of interest on Government borrowings the rate of interest payable to the owners of tenanted land and surplus land vesting in Government and that payable by allottees of surplus land on the instalments of occupancy price is being changed from four and a half per cent to five and a half per cent by amending sections 51, 73 and 78. Clause 8 of section 125 is being amended to enhance the punishment for failure to furnish a declaration under section 64 (4) or for furnishing false or incorrect declaration, to imprisonment of not less than six months but which may extend to one year or fine which may extend to five thousand rupees. Section 132 is amended to omit the word ―Court which is superfluous. The above amendments had to be brought into force through Ordinances in view of the urgency. This Bill seek to replace these Ordinances. (Published in the Karnataka Gazette (Extraordinary), Part IV-2A, dated 31st January, 1976, as No. 630, at p. 6.) XIV Amending Act No. 27 of 1976.—In the absence of specific provisions in the Land Reforms Act investing the Tribunals constituted under Section 48 with powers to issue interlocutory orders in the nature of temporary injunction or appointment of Receivers concerning the land in respect of which an application was made to the Tribunal under Section 48-A, the Civil Courts continued to exercise these powers and there was confusion due to orders issued by the Civil Courts not always taking into consideration the matters which were being agitated before the Tribunal. To remove this parallel jurisdiction, the Tribunals had to be vacated with the powers to issue interlocutory orders in the nature of temporary injunction or appointment of Receiver in respect of any land which is the subject matter of an application under Section 49-A by a tenant. It was considered necessary specifically to empower the Tribunal to decide whether the land in respect of which an application under Section 48-A is made, is agricultural land or not, as it was ruled that in the absence of specific power to the Tribunal to decide this matter, regular Civil Courts could entertain applications and decide whether any land is agricultural land, coming within the purview of Land Reforms Act. Consequential amendment to Section 133 to enable the Civil Courts to refer to the Tribunals all matters in respect of which powers are now vested in the Tribunals was also considered necessary. In view of the urgency of the matter, these amendments were effected by Ordinance No. 24 of