The Tripura Land Revenue and Land Reforms Act, 1960

(1) This Act may be called the Tripura Land Revenueand 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 theOfficial Gazette, appoint; and different dates may be appointed for different areas and for differentprovisions of this Act.

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 gardenproduce, dairy farming, poultry farming, stock breeding, grazing and pisciculture; (c) "basic holding" means land used for agricultural purposes which is equal to two standardacres in area; (d) "Collector" means the Collector of the district and includes any officer appointed by theAdministrator to exercise and perform all or any of the powers and functions of a Collector under thisAct; (e) "commencement of this Act", in relation to any provision, means the date specified in respectof 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 theAdministrator 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 suchperson, his children, grandchildren, parents and brothers, and in the case of a Joint Hindu family, anymember of such family; (h) "family holding" means land used for agricultural purposes which is equal to 6.4 standardacres 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 ofthe 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, supplyand distribution of water for agricultural purposes or for the use of man and cattle employed inagriculture; (ii) the construction of works for the drainage of land or for the protection of land from floodsor 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 agriculturalpurposes; (vi) the erection on land or in the immediate vicinity thereof otherwise than on the villagesite, of a building or house for the occupation of the under-raiyat, his family and servants or of acattle shed, a store-house or other construction for agricultural purposes or of any buildingrequired 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 oradditions thereto as are not of the nature of ordinary repairs; (l) "minor" means a person who is deemed not to have attained majority under theIndian 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 fromher 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, meanscultivation 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 ofproduce, 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 aperson or a member of his family unless such person or member resides in the village in which theland is situated or in a nearby village situated within a distance to be prescribed, during the major partof the agricultural season; Explanation II.-- In the case of a person under disability, supervision by a paid employee onbehalf 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 farmingsocieties; (s) "raiyat" means a person who owns land for purposes of agriculture paying land revenue to theGovernment 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 partlyin kind, whether as a fixed quantity of produce or as a share of the produce, on account of the use oroccupation 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 theproduce and includes a person who cultivates or holds land of a raiyat under the system generallyknown as "bhag", "adhi" or "barga"; (w) "village" means any tract of land which, before the commencement of this Act, wasrecognised as or was declared to be a village under any law for the time being in force or which mayafter such commencement be recognised as a village at any settlement or which the Administratormay, 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 thecase of any specified area, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint.

(1) The Administrator may, withthe previous concurrence of the Government, by notification in the Official Gazette, divide the Unionterritory 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 shallcontinue respectively to be the districts, sub-divisions, circles and tehsils under this Act unless otherwiseprovided under sub-section (1).

The Government or such other officer as may be authorisedby the Government in this behalf may appoint the following classes of revenue officers, namely:-- (a) Collector, (b) director of settlement and land records, (c) sub-divisional officers, (d) survey and settlement officers, (e) assistant survey and settlement officers, (f) circle officers, (g) revenue inspectors, (h) tehsildars, (i) village accountants and such other village officers and servants as may be specified by rulesmade under this Act.

(1) Each district shall be placed under the chargeof a Collector who shall be in charge of the revenue administration of the district and exercise the powersand discharge the duties of the Collector under this Act or any other law for the time being in force andshall exercise so far as is consistent therewith such other powers of superintendence and control withinthe district and over the officers subordinate to him as may from time to time be prescribed. (2) Each sub-division shall be placed under the charge of a sub-divisional officer. (3) Each circle or tehsil shall be placed under the charge of a circle officer or a tehsildar, as the casemay be. (4) The duties and powers of the sub-divisional officers, the circle officers and other revenue officersshall be such as may be imposed or conferred on them by or under this Act or any other law in force forthe time being or any general or special order of the Administrator published in the Official Gazette.