Chapter 1 PRELIMINARY

(1) This Act may be called the Mizoram (Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement) Act, 2016. (2) It extends to the whole State of Mizoram. (3) It shall come into force from the date of its publication in the official Gazette.

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, - (a) “Administrator” means an officer appointed for the purpose of rehabilitation and resettlement of affected families under sub-section (1) of Section 41; (b) “affected area” means such area as may be notified by the Government for the purposes of land acquisition; (c) “affected family” includes – (i) a family whose land or other immovable property has been acquired; (ii) a member of the family who has been assigned land by the State Government under any of its schemes and such land is under acquisition; (iii) a family residing without any illegality on any land in the concerned areas for preceding three years or more prior to the acquisition of the land or whose primary source of livelihood for three years prior to the acquisition of the land is to a reasonable extent, directly and substantially affected by the acquisition of such land; (d) “agricultural land” means land used for the purpose of – (i) agriculture or horticulture; (ii) dairy farming, poultry farming, pisciculture, sericulture, seed farming, breeding of livestock or nursery growing medicinal herbs; (iii) raising of crops, trees, grass or garden produce. (e) “Authority” means the Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Authority established under Section 47; (f) “Collector” means the Collector of a revenue district, and includes a Deputy Commissioner and any officer specially designated by the Government to perform the functions of a Collector under this Act; (g) “Commissioner” means the Commissioner for Rehabilitation and Resettlement appointed under sub - section (1) of Section 42; (h) “cost of acquisition” includes – (i) amount of compensation which includes solatium, any enhanced compensation ordered by the Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Authority or the Court and interest payable thereon and any other amount determined as payable to the affected families by such authority or Court according to the nature of the acquisition; (ii) amount to be paid for damages caused to the land and standing crops in the process of acquisition; (iii) cost of acquisition of land and building for settlement of displaced or adversely affected families; (iv) cost of development of infrastructure and amenities at the resettlement areas; (v) cost of rehabilitation and resettlement as determined in accordance with the provisions of this Act; (vi) administrative cost – (A) for acquisition of land including both in the project site and out of project area of lands, not exceeding such percentage of the cost of compensation as may be prescribed by the Government; (B) for rehabilitation and resettlement of the owners of the land and other affected families whose land has been acquired or proposed to be acquired or other families affected by such acquisition according to the nature of such acquisition; (vii) cost of undertaking ‘Social Impact Assessment study’; (i) “company” means – (i) a company as defined in Section 3 of the Companies Act, 2013, other than a Government company; (ii) a society registered under the Mizoram Societies registration Act, 2005 (13 of 2005) or under any corresponding law for the time being in force in the State; (j) “Deputy Collector” means an officer not below the rank of Sub-Divisional Officer (Civil); (k) “displaced family” means any family, who does not possess any other suitable land for settlement on account of acquisition of land and who has to be relocated and resettled from the affected area to the resettlement area; (l) “entitled to act”, in relation to a person, shall be deemed to include the following persons, namely :- (i) trustees for other persons beneficially interested with reference to any such case, and that to the same extent as the person beneficially interested could have acted if free from disability; (ii) the guardians of minors and the committees or managers of lunatics to the same extent as the minors, lunatics or other persons of unsound mind themselves, if free from disability could have acted; Provided that the provisions of Order XXXII of the First Schedule to the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (5 of 1908) shall, mutatis mutandis, apply in the case of persons interested appearing before a Collector or Authority by a next friend, or by a guardian for the case, in proceedings under this Act; (m) “family” includes a person, his or her spouse, minor children, minor brothers and minor sisters dependent on him or her ; Provided that widows, divorcees and women deserted by families shall be considered separate families; Explanation – An adult of either gender with or without spouse or children or dependents shall be considered as a separate family for the purposes of this Act. (n) “Government’ or ‘State Government’ means the State Government of Mizoram. (o) “holding of land” means the total land held by a person as an owner, occupant or otherwise; (p) “infrastructure project” shall include any one or more of the items specified in clause (b) of sub - section (1) of Section 3; (q) “land” includes benefits to arise out of land, and things attached to the earth or permanently fastened to anything attached to the earth; (r) “landless” means such persons or class of persons who may be,- (i) considered or specified as such under any state law for the time being in force; or (ii) in a case of landless not being specified under sub - clause (i), as may be specified by the Government; (s) “land owner” includes any person, - (i) whose name is recorded as the owner of the land or building or part thereof, in the records of the authority concerned; or (ii) who is granted rights on the land under any law of the State including assigned lands; or (iii) any person who has been declared as such by an order of the court or Authority; (t) “local authority” includes a town planning authority (by whatever name called) set up under any law for the time being in force, a Village Council or Local Council, or Municipality as defined in Article 243P, of the Constitution of India; (u) “market value” means the value of land determined in accordance with Section 26; (v) “notification” means a notification published in the Gazette of Mizoram; (w) “person interested” means – (i) all persons listed at (a) & (b) below claiming an interest in compensation to be made on account of acquisition of land under this Act :- (a) who are in possession of landed property under valid LSCs, House Pass, Shop Pass, Stall Pass, Periodic Patta and Land Lease issued by the Government under the Mizoram (Land Revenue) Acts, 2013 and the Rules made thereunder; (b) who are in possession of house passes issued by the Village Council within the perimeter of the village which is not notified as ‘town’ or ‘sub-town’ or ‘station area’; Explanation: For the purpose of sub-clause (b), the perimeter of a village shall mean the area of human habitation surrounded by the safety reserve or by boundaries notified by the Government as the perimeter of that village, and only the House Pass issued within such village perimeter and its genuineness confirmed from the original records of the Village Council concerned shall be entertained. Provided that any persons who does not utilize the allotted lands for the purpose for which it was allotted for a period of 10 (ten) years shall not be treated as person interested. Provided further that in case of any doubt as to the validity of any claim, the decision of the Government shall be final. (ii) a person interested in an easement affecting the land; (iii) any person whose primary source of livelihood is likely to be adversely affected; (x) “prescribed” means prescribed by rules made under this Act; (y) “project” means a project for which land is being acquired, irrespective of the number of persons affected; (z) “public purpose” means the activities specified under sub-section (1) of Section 3; (za) “Requiring Body” means a company, a body corporate, an institution, or any other organisation or person for whom land is to be acquired by the Government, if the acquisition of land is for such Government either for its own use or for subsequent transfer of such land for public purpose to a company, body corporate, an institution, or any other organization, as the case may be, under lease, licence or through any other mode of transfer of land; (zb) “Resettlement Area” means an area where the affected families who have been displaced as a result of land acquisition are resettled by the Government.

(1) The provisions of this Act relating to land acquisition, compensation, rehabilitation and resettlement, shall apply, when the State Government acquires land for its own use, hold and control, including for Public Sector undertakings and for public purpose, and shall include the following purposes, namely :- (a) for strategic purposes relating to military, air force, and armed forces of the Union, including central paramilitary forces or any work vital to national security or defence of India or State police, safety of the people; or (b) for infrastructure projects, which includes the following, namely :- (i) projects involving agro-processing, supply of inputs to agriculture, warehousing, cold storage facilities, marketing infrastructure for agriculture and allied activities such as dairy, fisheries, and meat processing, set up or owned by the Government or partly owned by the Government or by a farmers’ co-operative or by an institution set up under a statute;