Chapter I PRELIMINARY

1. (1) This Act may be called the Punjab Land-revenue Act, 1887.
2. (2) It extends to the territories for the time being administered by the Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, including the pargana of Spiti, but not so as to affect, otherwise than as expressly provided by this Act, any Regulation in force under the provisions of the Statute 33 Victoria, chapter 3, section 1, in any portion of those territories; and
3. (3) It shall come into force on such day as the Local Government, with the previous sanction of the Governor General in Council, may by notification appoint in this behalf.
4. (4) Any power conferred by this Act on the Financial Commissioner to make rules, and on the Local Government to sanction them, may be exercised at any time after the passing of this Ad, but a rule so made shall not take effect till the commencement of this Act.

1. (1) The enactments mentioned in the schedule are repealed to the extent specified in the third column thereof.
2. (2) But all rules, appointments, assessments and transfers made, notifications and proclamations issued, authorities and powers conferred, farms and leases granted, records-of-rights and other records framed, revised or confirmed, rights acquired, liabilities incurred, times and places appointed and other things done under any of the repealed enactments shall, so far as may be, be deemed to have been respectively made, issued, conferred, granted, framed, revised, confirmed, acquired, incurred, appointed and done under this Act.
3. (3) Any enactment or document referring to any enactment hereby repealed shall be construed as referring to this Act.

In this Act, unless there is something repugnant in the subject or context,- (1) "estate" means any area-

1. (a) for which a separate record-of-right has been made; or
2. (b) which has been separately assessed to land-revenue, or would have been so assessed if the land-revenue had not been released, compounded for or redeemed; or
3. (c) which the Local Government may, by general rule or special order, declare to be an estate: (2) "landowner" does not include a tenant or an assignee of land-revenue, but does include a person to whom a holding has been transferred, or an estate or holding has been let in farm, under this Act for the recovery of an arrear of land-revenue or of a sum recoverable as such an arrear, under every other person not here in before in this clause mentioned who is in possession of an estate or any share or portion thereof, or in the enjoyment of any part of the profits of an estate:

1. (3) "holding" means a share or portion of an estate held by one landowner or jointly by two or more landowners :
2. (4) "rent", "tenant", "landlord" and "tenancy" have the meanings respectively assigned to those words in the Punjab tenancy Act, 1887 (XVI of 1877) :
3. (5) "pay", with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions, includes, when used with reference to rent, "deliver and render" , with their grammatical variations and cognate expressions:
4. (6) "land-revenue" includes assigned land-revenue and any sum payable in respect of land, by way of quit-rent or of commutation for service, to the Government or to a person to whom the Government has assigned the right to receive the payment:
5. (7) "arrear of land-revenue" means land-revenue which remains unpaid after the date on which it becomes payable:
6. (8) "defaulter" means a person liable for an arrear of land-revenue, and includes a person who is responsible as surety for the payment of the arrear:
7. (9) "rates and cesses" means rates and cesses which are primarily payable by landowners, and includes-
   • (a) the local rate, if any, payable under the Punjab Local Rates Act, 1878 (V of 1878);
   • (b) the local rate, if any, payable under the Punjab District Boards Act, 1883 (XX of 1883), and any fee leviable under section 33 of that Act from landowners for the use of or benefits derived from such works as are referred to in section 20, clauses (i) and (j), of that Act;
   • (c) any annual rate chargeable on owners of lands under section 59 of the Northern India Canal and Drainage Act, 1873 (VIII of 1873);
   • (d) the zaildari and village-officers' cesses; and
   • (e) sums payable on account of village-expenses:
8. (10) "village-cess" includes any cess, contribution or due which is customarily leviable within an estate and is neither a payment for the use of private property or for personal service nor imposed by or under any enactment for the time being in force:
9. (11) "village-officer" means a chief-headman, headman or patwari:
10. (12) "Revenue-officer", in any provision of this Act, means a Revenue, officer having authority under this Act to discharge the functions of a Revenue-officer under that provision:
11. (13) "legal practitioner" means any legal practitioner with in the meaning of the Legal Practitioners Act, 1879 (XVIII of 1879), except a mukhtar:
12. (14) "agricultural year" means the year commencing on the sixteenth day of June, or on such other date as the Local Government may by notification appoint for any local area:
13. (15) "notification" means a notification published by authority of the Local Government in the official Gazette:
14. (16) "incumbrance" means a charge upon or claim against land arising out of a private grant or contract: and
15. (17) "survey-mark" includes boundary-mark

1. (1) Except so far as may be necessary for the record, recovery and administration of viIlage-cesses, nothing in this Act applies to land which is occupied as the site of a town or village and is not assessed to land-revenue.
2. (2) A Revenue-officer may define for the purposes of this Act the limits of any such land.

The local Government may by notification vary the limits of the tahsils, districts and divisions into which the territories administered by it are divided, and may by notification alter the number of those tahsils and, with the previous sanction of the Governor General in Council, the number of those districts and divisions.