The Punjab Tenancy Act, 1887.

(1) This Act may be called the PunjabTenancy Act, 1887. (2) It extent to the whole of the territories (including the pargana of Spiti) for the time beingadministered by the Lieutenant – Governor of the Punjab, expect the Hazara district; and (3) It shall come into force on such day as the Local Government, with the previous sanction of theGovernor General in Council, may by notification appointment in this behalf.

Any power conferred by this Act onthe Financial Commissioner to make rules, and on the Local Government to sanction them, may beexercised at any time after the passing of this Act, but a rule so made shall not take effect till thecommencement of this Act.

The enactments mentioned in the schedule are repealed to the extent specified in the thirdcolumn thereof.

In this Act, unless there is 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 isoccupied or has been let for agricultural purposes or for purposes subservient to agriculture, or forpasture, 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 referenceto rent, “deliver” and “render”, with their grammatical variations and cognate expressions: (3) “rent” means whatever is payable to a land-lord in money, kind or service by a tenant on accountof 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 put for a special contractwould 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 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 (XVII of 1887), for the recovery of an arrear of landrevenue 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 ofsubletting it: (6) “landlord” means a person under whom a tenant holds land, and to whom the tenant is, or but for aspecial 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 landlordrespectively: (8) “tenancy” means a parcel of land held by a tenant of a landlord under one lease or one set ofconditions: (9) “estate”. “landowner” and “holding” have the meanings respectively assigned to those words in thePunjab Land-revenue Act, 1887 (XVII of 1887): (10) “land-revenue” means land-revenue assessed under any law for the time being in force orassessable 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 theGovernment 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, andincludes (a) the local rate, if any, payable under the Punjab Local Rates Act, 1878 (v of 1878); (b) the local rate, if any, payable under the Punjab District Boards Act, 1883 (XX of 1883), and anyfee leviable under section 33 of that Act from landowners for the use of or benefits derived from suchworks as are referred to in section 20, clauses (i) and (j), of that Act; (c) any annual rate chargeable on owners of lands under section 59 of the Northern India Canal andDrainage Act, 1873 (VIII of 1873); (d) the zaildari and village-officers’ cesses; and (e) sums payable on account of village-expenses: (12) “village-cess” includes any cess, contribution or due which is customarily leviable within anestate and is neither a payment for the use of private property or for personal service nor imposed by orunder 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 provision of this Act, means a Revenue-officer orRevenue Court having authority under this Act to discharge the functions of a Revenue-officer orRevenue Court, as the case may be, under that provision: (15) “jagirdar” includes any person, other than a village-servant, to whom the land-revenue of any landhas 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 the meaning of the Legal Practitioners Act1879 (XVIII of 1879) except a mukhtar: (17) “agricultural year” means the year commencing on the sixteenth day of June, or on such otherdate as the Local Government may by notification appoint for any local area; (18) “notification” means a notification published by authority of the Local Government in the officialGazette : and (19) “improvement” means, with reference to a tenancy, any work which is suitable to the tenancy andconsistent with the conditions on which it is held, by which it is held, by which the value of the tenancyhas been and continues to be increased, and which, if not executed on the tenancy, is either executeddirectly 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 works for the storage or supply of water for agriculturalpurposes; (b) the construction of works for drainage and for protection against floods ; (c) the planting of trees, the reclaiming, enclosing, levelling and terracing of land for agriculturalpurposes and other works of a like nature; (d) the erection of buildings required for the more convenient or profitable cultivation of atenancy; and (e) the renewal or re-construction of any of the foregoing works, or such alterations therein, oradditions thereto, as are not of the nature of mere repairs and as durably increase their value; But it does not include such clearances, embankments, levellings, enclosures, temporary wells andwater-channels as are made by tenants in the ordinary course of cultivation and without any specialexpenditure, 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 eachof them, an improvement; Explanation III.A work executed by a tenant is not an improvement if it substantially diminishes thevalue of any other part of his landlord’s property.

(1) A tenant- (a) who at the commencement of this Act has for more than two generations in the male line ofdescent through a grandfather or grand-uncle and for a period of not less than twenty years beenoccupying land paying no rent thereof beyond the amount of the land-revenue thereof and the ratesand cesses for the time being chargeable thereon, or (b) who having owned land, and having ceased to be landowner thereof otherwise than byforfeiture to the Government or than by any voluntary act, has, since he ceased to be landowner,continuously occupied the land, or (c) who, in a village or estate in which he settled along with, or was settled by, the founder thereofas a cultivator therein, occupied land on the twenty-first day of October, 1868, and has continuouslyoccupied the land since that date, or (d) who, being jagirdar of the estate or any part of the estate in which the land occupied by him issituate, has continuously occupied the land for not less than twenty years, or , having been suchjagirdar, occupied the land while he was jagirdar and has continuously occupied it for not less thantwenty years, Has a right of occupancy in the land so occupied, unless, in the case of a tenant belonging to theclass specified in clause (c), the landlord proves that the tenant was settled on land previously clearedand brought under cultivation by, or at the expense of, the founder. (2) If a tenant proves that he has continuously occupied land for thirty years and paid no rent there forbeyond the amount of the land-revenue thereof and the rates and cesses for the time being chargeablethereon, it may be presumed that he has fulfilled the conditions of clause (a) of sub-section (1). (3) the words in that clause denoting natural relationship denote also relationship by adoption,including therein the customary appointment of an heir, and relationship by the usage of a religiouscommunity.