Prohibition on holding land in excess of ceiling area; and area in excess of ceiling to be surplus land.

1[CHAPTER II LOWERING OF CEILING ON HOLDINGS 3. Prohibition on holding land in excess of ceiling area; and area in excess of ceiling to be surplus lands.- (1) Subject to the provisions of this Chapter and Chapter III, no person or family unit shall, after the commencement date, hold land in excess of the ceiling area, as determined in the manner hereinafter provided. Explanation.- A person or family unit may hold exempted land to any extent.

1. (2) All land held by a person, or as the case may be, a family unit whether in this State or any other part of India in excess of the ceiling area, shall, notwithstanding anything contained in any law for the time being in force or usage, be deemed to be surplus land, and shall be dealt with in the manner hereinafter provided for surplus land. In determining surplus land from the holding of a person, or as the case may be, of a family unit, the fact that the person or any member of the family unit has died (on or after commencement date or any date subsequent to the date on which the holding exceeds the ceiling area, but before the declaration of surplus land is made in respect of that holding) shall be ignored; and accordingly, the surplus land shall be determined as if that person, or as the case may be, the member of a family unit had not died. Explanation.- In calculating the ceiling area to be held in this State, and determining the surplus land, the area of land in any other part of India (being land which a person or family unit is entitled to hold in such other part of India under any law relating to ceiling on land) shall be taken into consideration. Only land held in this State may be declared as surplus.
2. (3) Where any land-
   • (a) is held by a family of which a person is a member,
   • (b) is held in or operated by a co-operative society of which a person is a member,
   • (c) is held by a person jointly with others,
   • (d) is held by a person as a partner in a firm, and the holding of such person or of a family unit of which such person is a member including the extent of share of such person, if any, in the land answering to any of the descriptions in clauses (a), (b), (c) or (d) above exceeds the ceiling area on or before the commencement date or on any date thereafter (hereinafter referred to as the relevant date), then for the purpose of determining the ceiling area and the surplus land in respect of that holding, the share of such person in the land aforesaid shall be calculated in the following manner :-
     • (i) in the land held by a family of which the person is a member, the share of each member of the family shall be determined so that each member who is entitled to a share on partition, shall be taken to be holding separately land to the extent of his share, as if the land had been so divided and separately held on the relevant date ;
     • (ii) in the land held in or operated by a co-operative society or held jointly with others or held by a firm, the share of the person shall be taken to be the extent of land such person would hold in proportion of his share in the co-operative society, or his share in the joint holding or his share as partner in the firm, as if the land had been so divided and separately held on the relevant date.
3. (4) No land shall be taken into consideration more than once in calculating the ceiling area for the holding of any person, or as the case may be, of family unit.