Substitution of new section for section 83 of Assam Act I of 1929

For section 83 of the said Act the following section shall be substituted, namely:— “Abatement 83 . (1) If the entire land of a tenure or holding or a portion of such lands are lost by diluvion, the rent of the tenure or holding shall be abated by an amount which bears the same proportion to the rent of the whole tenancy, as the area lost bears to that of the whole tenancy. (2) (a) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act or in any other law or in any contract to the contrary, the right, title and interest of the tenant or his successors-in-interest shall subsist in such lands or portion thereof during the period of loss by diluvion not exceeding twenty years or till three years after their reappearance, whichever period is less. The tenant or his successors-in-interest shall claim immediate possession of the lands or portions thereof by serving on the landlord a notice in the prescribed form and manner within two years of the reappearance of such lands. The landlord shall have a right to the arrears of rent without interest in respect of the land which has reappeared for the period during which it was lost or for three years, whichever is less. (b) The rent of the lands which have reappeared shall, for the purposes of the payment both of the arrears of rent under this sub-section and of the rent due thereafter (until such rent is modified in accordance with the provisions of this Act), be calculated on the basis of the rent of the remainder of the tenancy existing when possession of the lost land is resumed, and shall bear the proportion to that rent which the area of the lands which have reappeared bears to that of the remainder of the tenancy : Provided that in cases where the entire tenure or holding has been lost by diluvion, the rent of the portion thereof which reappears shall be calculated in like manner on the basis of the rent existing when the entire tenancy was lost. (3) Nothing shall prevent the accrual of rights under the operation of any other enactment in any portion of the lands of a tenure or holding which have been lost by diluvion, if such lands thereafter reappear as an accretion thereto .”