Exclusion of certain lands, from liability to fair rent

Exclusion of certain lands, from liability to fair rent. (34) “michavaram” means the money or produce or both specified as michavaram in the document evidencing the transfer by a person of an interest in specific immovable property to another person, and includes the balance of money or produce or both payable periodically under the document evidencing such transfer after deducting from the money or produce or both due to the transferor, the interest due on the amount advanced to the transferor, but does not include customary dues;

(34A) “minor” means a person who has not attained the age of eighteen years;

(35) “net income” means income derived from any property after deducting thereform the cultivation expenses or charges for maintaining fruit trees, timber trees or other useful trees and plants, and taxes and cesses due to the Government or any local authority.

(36) “nilam” means land adapted for the cultivation of paddy;

(36A) “normal produce” in respect of any land means the produce which would be raised on that land if the rainfall and the seasons were of a normal character:

Provided that the normal produce in respect of any nilam irrigated with water for the first time after the commencement of the tenancy in respect of that nilam from an irrigation work constructed, repaired or maintained wholly at the cost of the Government or the local authority or a co-operative society within the meaning of the Puducherry Co-operative Societies Act, 1972, or by the tenant shall be determined as if the nilam had not been so irrigated:

Provided further that in determining the normal produce in the case of any double-crop nilam, account shall be taken as though only a single paddy crop which shall be the principal crop has been raised on the land if it had been converted from single-crop into double-crop nilam at the tenant’s expense and as though two paddy crops have been raised on the land in other cases.

Explanation. – In ascertaining the normal produce, the yield of the second crop shall be deemed to be half of that of the principal crop which shall be deemed to be the first crop:

(36B) “Ottikuzhikanam” means a transfer for consideration by a person to another of any land other than nilam for the enjoyment of that land and for the purpose of making improvements thereon, but shall not include a mortgage within the meaning of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 (Central Act 4 of 1882);

(37) “palliyal land” means land which is used ordinarily for raising seedlings of paddy and includes land so used and known as pallimanayal, myal, potta nijal, njattadi or banabettu;

(38) “pay” with its grammatical variations includes deliver:

(39) “person” shall include a company, family, joint family, association or other body of individuals, whether incorporated or not, and any institution capable of holding property;

(40) “possession” in relation to land includes occupation of land by a person deemed to be a tenant under section 4, section 4A, section 4B, section 5, section 6 or section 6A;

(41) “prescribed” means prescribed by rules made under this Act;

(42) “rent” means whatever is lawfully payable in money or in kind or in both by a person permitted to have the use and occupation of any land to the person so permitting, and includes michavaram, but does not include customary dues;

(43) “resumption” means the recovery of possession of land from a tenant;

(44) “Scheduled Castes” means the Scheduled Castes in relation to the Union territory of Puducherry as specified in the Constitution (Puducherry) Schedule Castes Order, 1964;

(45) “seaman” means every person (including a master, pilot or apprentice) employed or engaged as a member of the crew of a ship or a sailing vessel to which the Merchant Shipping Act, 1958 (Central Act 44 of 1958) applies;

(46) “small holder” means a landlord who does not have interest in land exceeding eight standard acres or ten acres in extent, whichever is less, as owner, intermediary, or cultivating tenant, or in two or more of the above capacities, so, however, that the extent of non-resumable land in his possession as owner, or as cultivating tenant, or partly as owned and partly as cultivating tenant, does not exceed -- (i) two and a half standard acres; or (ii) four acres in extent, whichever is greater.

Explanation. – For the purposes of this clause, a person who was in possession of, or had interest in, land exceeding the limits specified in this clause immediately before the 28th April, 1962, but such extent of land was reduced to the said limits or below by partition or transfer effected after the date mentioned above, shall not be deemed to be a small holder; nor shall such partition or transfer entitle the allottee or transferee to exercise the rights of a small holder in respect of the land allotted or transferred to him;

(47) “standard acre” means, in relation to any class of land specified in Schedule I, the extent of land specified against it in that Schedule;

(48) “tenant” means any person who has paid or has agreed to pay rent or other consideration for his being allowed to possess and to enjoy any land by a person entitled to lease that land, and includes -- (a) the heir, assignee or legal representative of, or any person deriving rights through, any such person who has paid or has agreed to pay rent or other consideration, (b) an intermediary, (c) a kanamdar, (d) a kanam-kuzhikanamdar, (e) a kuzhikanamdar, (f) an ottikuzhikanamdar, (g) a varamdar, (h) a verumpattamdar, (i) the holder of a kudiyiruppu, (j) a person holding lands under a kuzhichuvaipum kudiyiruppum, (k) the holder of a karaima, and (l) a person who is deemed to be a tenant under section 4, section 4A, section 4B, section 5, section 6, section 6A or section 6B;

(49) “timber trees” means trees, the yield or income from which has not to be taken into account for the determination of fair rent;

(50) “to hold land” means to be in possession of land as owner or as tenant or partly as owner and partly as tenant or, in respect of any land owned by the Government, to be in occupation either as lessee or otherwise;

(51) “Union territory” means the Union territory of Puducherry;

(52) “usufructuary mortgage” means a transaction wherein the mortgagor delivers possession or expressly or by implication binds himself to deliver possession of the mortgaged property to the mortgagee, and authorizes him to retain such possession until payment of the mortgage-money, and to receive the rents and profits accruing from the property or any part of such rents and profits and to appropriate the same in lieu of interest, or in payment of the mortgage-money, or partly in lieu of interest or partly in payment of the mortgage-money;

(53) “varam” means an arrangement for the cultivation of nilam with paddy and sharing the produce, made between the owner or other person in lawful possession of the nilam and the person who undertakes cultivation under such arrangement, and includes the arrangements known as pathivaram, pankuvaram and pankupattam; and “varamdar” means the person who undertakes cultivation under a varam arrangement;

(54) “verumpattamdar” means a lessee or sub-lessee of immovable property, whether called verumpattamdar, or venpattamdar, who has expressly or impliedly contracted to hold the same under a lease with or without security for rent, but does not include a kanamdar, kanam-kuzhikanamdar, or kuzhikanamdar.

(55) “village officer or karnam” means the person appointed as a village officer in respect of a village;

(56) “wakf” means the permanent dedication by a person professing Islam of any movable or immovable property for any purpose recognised by the Muslim Law or any other law in force as pious, religious or charitable, and includes a wakf by user, but does not include a wakf such as is described in section 3 of the Musalman Wakf Validating Act, 1913 (Central Act 6 of 1913) under which any benefit is for the time being claimable for himself by the person by whom the wakf was created or by any member of his family or descendants. Notwithstanding anything contained in section 33, where any land included in a holding is set apart for communal purposes, and is used for such purposes, the extent of the land so set apart shall not be taken into account when determining the fair rent of the holding in accordance with that section.