Vesting of landlord's rights in tenants

(1) At any time after the expiry of the period allowed under clause (i) of section 18 for applying for resumption of land, or, where any appeal has been preferred from the orders of the Land Tribunal under section 22, after the disposal of the appeal, the Government may, by notification in the Gazette, declare that the right, title and interest of the landowners and intermediaries in respect of holdings, which have not been purchased by cultivating tenants, shall vest in the cultivating tenants free from all encumbrances; and different notifications may be issued for different areas in the State: Provided that no declaration under this sub-section shall apply to a holding where the landowner or an intermediary is a small holder and the cultivating tenant was entitled to fixity of tenure immediately before the 21st January, 1961, under any law then in force. (2) Upon the issue of a notification under sub-section (1), the right, title and interest of the landowners and intermediaries in respect of holdings to which the declaration applies shall vest in the cultivating tenants of such holdings free from all encumbrances, and the provisions of sections 55 to 64 shall, as far as may be, apply in regard to the purchase price payable by the cultivating tenants, the distribution of the purchase price among the landowners and the intermediaries, the payment or recovery of purchase price and the discharge of encumbrances, as if the cultivating tenants had applied for the purchase of the right, title and interest of the landowners and intermediaries: Provided that where in respect of a holding the landowner or intermediary is a religious, charitable or educational institution of a public nature and such institution had, before the issue of such notification, expressed its choice for annuity instead of purchase price, the Government shall pay to such institution the annuity that would have been payable to the institution under section 67 if its right, title and interest had vested in the Government, and the Government shall be entitled to the purchase price that would have been payable to the institution.