Chapter C-III -Kanungos and Village Officers

The State Government may make rules to regulate the appointment, duties, emoluments, punishment, suspension and removal of kanungos and village officers. The principal Act as amended by this Act and all rules and orders made and all notifications, directions or instructions issued which are in force immediately before the commencement of this Act in the territory to which the said Act applies are hereby extended to and shall be in force in the territories added to Himachal Pradesh under section 5 of the Punjab Re-organisation Act, 1966.

(1) The State Government may, by notification, impose on all or any estates in the territories for the time being administered by it a cess, to be called the village officers’ cess, at such rate or rates not exceeding Rs. 0.05 per rupee of the annual value as it may think fit for remunerating Nambardars in those territories and for defraying other expenditure directly connected with the supervision of those officers or with the performance of their duties. (2) "Annual value" in sub-section (1) means:- (a) double the land-revenue for the time being assessed on any land, whether the assessment is leviable or not; or (b) whether the land revenue has been permanently assessed or has been wholly or in part compounded for or redeemed, double the amount which, but for such permanent assessment, composition or redemption, would have been leviable; or (c) where no land-revenue has been assessed, double the amount which would have been assessed, if the average village rate had been applied: Provided that, in any tract in which, under the settlement for the time being in force, the improvement of the land owing to kuhl or other artificial irrigation has been excluded from account in assessing the land-revenue, and a rate has been imposed in respect of such improvement, that rate shall be added to the land-revenue for the purpose of computing the annual value. (3) The Financial Commissioner may make rules for the collection, control and expenditure of the village officers’ cess. (4) All cesses now levied in any local area for the purposes mentioned in sub-section (1) shall be deemed to have been lawfully imposed and shall, until the village officers’ cess is imposed in that local area under that sub-section, be deemed to be lawfully leviable and, for the purposes of this section, to be that cess. Notwithstanding anything contained in sections 2 and 3 of the principal Act, the enactments added to the Schedule to the principal Act, under section 28 of this Act as applicable to the territories added to Himachal Pradesh under section 5 of the Punjab Re-organisation Act, 1966 and all rules and orders made and all notifications, directions or instructions issued thereunder, shall, upon the commencement of this Act, save as otherwise expressly provided in this Act, stand repealed: Provided that such repeal shall not effect- (a) the previous operation of the Acts so repealed or anything duly done or suffered thereunder, or (b) any right, privilege, obligation or liability acquired, accrued or incurred under the Acts so repealed, or (c) any penalty, forfeiture or punishment incurred in respect of any offence committed against the Acts so repealed, or (d) any investigation, legal proceeding or remedy in respect of any such right, privilege, obligation, liability, penalty, forfeiture or punishment as aforesaid, and any such investigation, legal proceeding or remedy may be instituted, continued or enforced and any such penalty, forfeiture or punishment may be imposed as if this Act had not been passed: Provided further that anything done or any action taken under the Acts so repealed shall be deemed to have been done or taken under the Act extended by section 29 and shall continue to be in force accordingly, unless and until superseded by anything done or any action taken under the Act so extended.

Restriction on attachment or assignment of remuneration of Kanungos and Village Officers. (1) The emoluments of a village officer shall not be liable to attachment in execution of a decree or order of any civil or revenue court. (2) An assignment of, or charge on, or agreement to assign or charge, any such emoluments shall be void unless it is authorised by rules made by the Financial Commissioner in this behalf. If any difficulty arises in giving effect to the provisions of the Act, rules, or orders or instructions or directions how extended by section 29 to the territory in which they were not in force before the commencement of this Act, the State Government may, by order notified in the Official Gazette, make such provisions or give such directions, as appear to it to be necessary or expedient for the removal of the difficulty.