The Tamil Nadu Indebted Agriculturists (Temporary Relief) Act, 1954

(1) This Act may be called the Tamil Nadu Indebted Agriculturists (Temporary Relief) Act, 1954. (2) It extends to the whole of the State of Tamil Nadu. (3) It shall come into force at once.

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,- (a) 'agriculturist' means a person who owns an interest in land, and who, by reason of such interest, is in possession of such land or is in receipt of the rents or profits thereof and shall include a lessee; but shall not include- (i) a firm registered under the Indian Partnership Act, 1932 (Central Act IX of 1932), or a company as defined in the Indian Companies Act, 1913 (Central Act VII of 1913), or a corporation formed in pursuance of an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom or of any special Indian law; or (ii) any person who was assessed to income-tax under the Indian Income-tax Act (Central Act XI of 1922) in any of the years 1951-52, 1952-53, 1953-54.

(3) In the case of suits or applications of the nature mentioned in section 3, instituted or made against an agriculturist, the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Tenants and Ryots Protection Act, 1949 (Tamil Nadu Act XXIV of 1949), or of section 5 of the Malabar Tenancy (Amendment) Act, 1951 (Tamil Nadu Act XXXIII of 1951) shall not have effect in so far as the said provisions are inconsistent with the provisions of sub-section (1).

(1) In computing the period of limitation or limit of time prescribed for a suit for the recovery of a debt or an application for the execution of a decree passed in such suit, the time during which the institution of the suit or the making of the application was barred by section 3 of the Ordinance or section 3 of this Act, or during which the plaintiff or his predecessor-in-title, believing in good faith that section 3 of the Ordinance or section 3 of this Act applied to such suit or such application, refrained from instituting the suit or making the application, shall be excluded. Explanation.- 'good faith' shall have the meaning assigned to it in section 3 (22) of the General Clauses Act, 1897 (Central Act X of 1897). (2) Where in a suit or an application in which the question of the exclusion of time under sub-section (1) arises, the defendant or the respondent, or one of the defendants or respondents, with respect to whom the question is raised, would have been an agriculturist but for the fact that in the year ending 1951-52, 1952-53, or 1953-54 he had been assessed to income-tax (Central Act XI of 1922), it shall be conclusively presumed that, in refraining from instituting the suit or making the application, the creditor believed in good faith that such defendant or respondent was an agriculturist.

The State Government may make rules to carry out the purposes of this Act.

Any transfer of immovable property made after the commencement of the Ordinance and before the 1st March 1955, shall, in any suit or other proceeding, be presumed, until the contrary is proved, to have been made with intent to defeat or delay the creditors of the transferor.