Chapter I PRELIMINARY

(1) This Act may be called the Jammu and Kashmir Consolidation of Holdings Act, 1962.

(2) It extends to the whole of the Jammu and Kashmir State.

[ (3) This section shall come into force at once and the remainder of the Act shall come into force on such date as the Government may, by notification in the Government Gazette, appoint in this behalf and different dates may be appointed for different parts of the Jammu and Kashmir State.

[ (4) Notwithstanding anything contained in Sub-section (3) or in any other provision of this Act, where in respect of any area of the State a declaration under section 4 has been made before the enforcement of this Act in such area, the provisions of this Act shall be deemed to have come into force in that areas with effect from the date such declaration was made and anything done or any action or proceedings taken under this Act in respect of that area after or in pursuance of the said declaration shall be as good and valid as if a notification enforcing this Act in that area had been issued by the Government under Sub-section (3) of this section on the date of the said declaration.

(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-

(a) [Consolidation Naib-Tehsildar] means a person appointed as such by the Government to exercise the powers and perform the duties of a [Consolidation Naib-Tehsildar] under this Act or the rules made thereunder.

(b) ‘Chak’ means parcel of land allotted to a tenure-holder on consolidation;

(c) ‘Consolidation’ means re-arrangement of holdings in a unit amongst several tenure-holders in such a way as to make their respective holdings more compact;

Explanation.-For the purpose of this clause, holding shall not include the following:-

(i) land which was orchard in the agricultural year immediately preceding the year in which the notification under section 4 was issued,

(ii) land subject to fluvial action and intensive soil erosion,

(iii) such compact areas as are normally subject to prolonged water logging,

(iv) such other areas as the Director of Consolidatio9n may declare to be unsuitable for the purpose of consolidation;

(d) ‘consolidation area’ means the area in respect of which a notification under section 4 has been issued;

(e) ‘Consolidation committee’ means Committee constituted under section 49,

(f) [Consolidation Tehsildar] means a person appointed as such by the Government to exercise the powers to perform the duties of a [Consolidation Tehsildar] under this Act or the rules made thereunder;

(g) ‘Consolidation Patwari’ means a person appointed as such by the Government to perform the duties of a Consolidation Patwari under this Act or the rules made thereunder and shall, in areas under consolidation operations, include a Patwari appointed under the Jammu and Kashmir Land Revenue Act, Svt, 1996;

(h) [Consolidation Girdawar] means a person appointed as such by the Government, to exercise the powers and perform the duties of a [Consolidation Girdawar} under this Act or the rules made thereunder and shall, in areas under consolidation operations, include the Girdawar appointed under the Jammu and Kashmir Land Revenue Act, Svt. 1996;

(i) “Consolidation Scheme” means the scheme for consolidation in a unit;

(j) ‘Deputy Director of Consolidation’ means a person appointed as such by the Government to exercise such powers and perform such duties of the Director of Consolidation as may be delegated to him by the Government and shall include a District Deputy Director of Consolidation;

(k) ‘Director of Consolidation’ means the person appointed as such by the Government to exercise the powers and perform the duties of the Director of Consolidation under this Act or the rules made thereunder;

(kk) ‘Financial Commissioner’ means the person appointed as such under the Jammu and Kashmir Land Revenue Act, 1996.]

(l) ‘District Deputy Director of Consolidation’ means a person who is for the time being the Collector of the District;

(m) ‘holding’ means a parcel or parcels of land held under one tenure by a tenure-holder singly or jointly with other tenure-holders;

(n) ‘land’ means land which is not occupied as the site of any building in a town or village and is occupied or let for agricultural purposes or for purposes subservient to agriculture, or for pasture, and includes the site, being a part of the holding, of a house or other similar structure, belonging to the tenure-holding, of a house or other similar structure, belonging to the tenure-holder thereof, and trees, wells and other improvements existing on the plots forming the holding;

(o) ‘legal representative’ has the meaning as assigned to it in the Code of Civil Procedure, Svt. 1977;

(p) ‘plot’ means the survey or khasra number;

(q) ‘prescribed’ means prescribed by rules made under this Act;

(r) ‘publication in the unit’ or ‘publish in the unit’, with reference to any document means reading out of the document in the unit,

On a date of which prior notice shall be given by beat of drum and proclamation by6 beat of drum, or in any other customary mode in the unit of the fact that the document is open to public inspection at an appointed place and time:

Provided that where a Consolidation Committee has been constituted for the unit each member of the Committee shall also be informed in advance of the date of publication;

(s) ‘Section’ means a section of this Act,

(t) ‘Settlement Officer (Consolidation) ’ means a person appointed as such by the Government to exercise the powers and perform the duties of a settlement Officer (Consolidation) under this Act or the rules made thereunder and shall include an Additional Settlement Officer (Consolidation) and an Assistant Settlement Officer (Consolidation) ;

(u) ‘tenure-holder’ means a land-owner and includes an occupancy tenant, a protected tenant, a tenant under the State, [an allottee of land held by an evacuee as defined in the Jammu and Kashmir Evacuees (Administration of Property) Act, Svt. 2006] and an allottee of land under the State;

(v) ‘Unit’ means an estate or part thereof and, where the Director of Consolidation so notifies by publication in the Government Gazette, two or more estates or parts thereof, for which a single scheme of consolidation is to be framed.

(2) Unless there is something repugnant in the subject or context, the words and expressions used in this Act, but not defined shall have the meanings assigned to them in the Jammu and Kashmir Land Revenue Act, Svt. 1996, or the Jammu and Kashmir Tenancy Act, Svt. 1980 or any other law for the time being in force in the State.

The provisions of this Act and the rules made thereunder shall have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith contained in any other law for the time being in force or in any instrument having effect by virtue of any such law.