Chapter XII CHAPTER XII

1. (1) In either of the following cases, namely:—
   • (a) when a headman or other landowner, or an assignee of land-revenue, to whom any sum other than rent is payable on account of a liability under this Act refuses to receive the sum from, or to grant a receipt therefor to, the person by whom it is payable,
   • (b) when the person by whom any such sum is payable is in doubt as to the headman or other landowner, or the assignee of land-revenue, entitled to receive it. that person may apply to a Revenue-officer for leave to deposit the sum in his office, and the Revenue-officer shall receive the deposit if, after examining the applicant, he is satisfied that there is sufficient ground for the application, and if the applicant pays the fee, if any, which may be chargeable on any notice to be issued of the receipt thereof.
2. (2) When a deposit has been so received, the liability of the depositor to the headman or other landowner, or the assignee of land–revenue, for the amount thereof shall be discharged.

If the deposit purports to be made on account of any payment due to the Government, it may be credited accordingly

1. (1) A Revenue-officer receiving a deposit purporting to be made on any other account shall give notice of the receipt thereof to every person who he has reason to believe claims or is entitled to the deposit, and may pay the amount thereof to any person appearing to him to be entitled to the same, or may, if he thinks fit, retain the deposit pending the decision of a Civil Court as to the person so entitled.
2. (2) No suit or other proceeding shall be instituted against the Secretary of State for India in Council, or against any officer of the Government, in respect of anything done by a Revenue-officer under this section, but nothing in this sub-section shall prevent any person entitled to receive the amount of any such deposit from recovering it from a person to whom it has been paid by a Revenue-officer.

Orders issued by any Civil or Criminal Court for the attachment, sale or delivery of any land or interest in land, or for the attachment or sale of the produce of any land, shall be addressed to the Collector or such Revenue-officer as the Collector may appoint in this behalf, and be executed by the Collector or that officer in accordance with the provisions of the law applicable to the Court issuing the orders and with any rules consistent there with made by the Financial Commissioner with the concurrence of the Chief Court and the previous sanction of the Local Government.

1. (1) Not withstanding anything in any other enactment for the time being in force, an order issued by any Court for the attachment of assigned land-revenue shall require the person by whom the revenue is payable to pay it to the Collector, and the Collector to hold it subject to the further orders of the court.
2. (2) A payment to the Collector under sub-section (1) shall be an effectual discharge to the person making it

1. (1) The attachment of the produce of any land in pursuance of an order of any Court or other authority shall not prevent the person to whom the produce belongs from reaping, gathering or storing it or doing any other act necessary for its preservation.
2. (2) The attaching officer shall do or cause to be done all acts necessary for the preservation of the produce if the person to whom it belongs fails to do so.
3. (3) When sale of produce follows on its attachment, the purchaser shall be entitled, by himself or by any person appointed by him in his behalf, to enter on the place where the produce is and do all that is necessary for the purpose of preserving and removing it.

In either of the following cases, namely: —

1. (a) where land-revenue is paid by division or appraisement of the produce,
2. (b) where a superior and an inferior landowner, or two or more shareholders in a holding or tenancy, are jointly interested in any produce, and either or any of the landowners or tenants, as the case may be, desires the assistance of a Revenue-officer for the purpose of dividing or appraising the produce, the provisions of the Punjab Tenancy Act, 1887 (XVI of 1887), with respect to the division or appraisement of produce shall apply so far as they can be made applicable.

1. (1) At any of the following times, namely:-
   • (a) when a record-of-rights is being made or specially revised for an estate,
   • (b) when the local area in which an estate is situate is being generally re-assessed and before the assessment has been confirmed,
   • (c) at any other time on an order made with respect to any estate by the Local Government with the previous sanction of the Governor General in Council, a Revenue-officer shall prepare a list of village-cesses, if any, levied in the estate which have been generally or specially approved by the Local Government, or the title to which has before the passing of this Act been judicially established.
2. (2) When a list has been prepared for an estate under sub-section (1), a village-cess not comprised therein shall not be recoverable by suit in any Court.
3. (3) The Local Government may impose on the collection of any village-cess comprised in the list such conditions as to police or other establishments connected with the village, market or fair in or on account of which the cess is levied, as it thinks fit.
4. (4) The Governor General in Council may, on a reference from the Local Government, declare weather any cess, contribution or due levied in an estate is or is not a village-cess.
5. (5) A declaration of the Governor General in Council under the last foregoing sub-section shall be conclusive, and shall not be liable to be questioned in any Court.

Where a superior landowner is entitled to receive in respect of any land from an inferior landowner dues in kind or in cash of fluctuating quantity or amount, the Collector may—

1. (a) on the application of both landowners, or
2. (b) with the previous sanction of the Local Government, on the application either of them, commute those dues into a fixed percentage of the land-revenue payable by the inferior landowner in respect of the land

1. (1) The Local Government may, with the previous sanction of the Governor General in Council, authorize the remission of land-revenue in whole or in part in consideration of the person liable therefor undertaking to render in lieu thereof such public service as may be specified in an agreement to be approved by the Local Government and executed by that person.
2. (2) The Local Government may, with the like sanction, cancel any remission authorized, and agreement made, under sub-section (1).
3. (3) If a landowner bound by an agreement under that sub-section to render public service in lieu of paying land-revenue fails, to render the service to the satisfaction of the collector, the collector may determine the portion of the land-revenue remitted which is represented by the service in respect of which the landowner is in default, and, with the previous sanction of the financial Commissioner, recover that portion as if it were an arrear of land-revenue due in respect of the land for the land-revenue whereof the service was substituted

1. (1) When land of which the landrevenue has been assigned in whole or in part is re-assessed, the assignee shall be liable to pay such a share of the cost of making the re-assessment as the Financial Commissioner may determine to be just.
2. (2) That share may be recovered by the Collector by the deduction of the amount thereof from the land-revenue due to the assignee.

If a person required by a summons, notice, order or proclamation proceeding from a Revenueofficer to attend at a certain time and place within the limits of the estate in which he ordinarily resides, or in which he holds or cultivates land, fails to comply with the requisition, he shall be liable at the discretion of the Revenue-officer to fine which may extend to fifty rupees.

1. (1) Where land which has been reserved for the common purposes of the co-sharers therein has been encroached on by any co-sharer, a Revenueofficer may, on the application of any other co-sharer, eject the encroaching co-sharer from the land and, by order proclaimed in manner mentioned in section 22, forbid repetition of the encroachment.
2. (2) The proceedings of the Revenue-officer under sub-section (1) shall be subject to any decree or order which may be subsequently passed by any Court of competent jurisdiction.

1. (1) Any record or paper which a village-officer is required by law, or by any rule under this Act, to prepare or keep shall be deemed to be the property of the Government.
2. (2) A village-officer shall, with respect to any such record or paper in his custody, be deemed for the purposes of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (I of 1872), to be a public officer having the custody of a public document which any person has a right to inspect.

1. (1) A Revenue-officer may give and apportion the costs of any proceeding under this Act in any manner he thinks fit.
2. (2) But if he orders that the cost of any such proceeding shall not follow the event, he shall record his reasons for the order.

In the computation of the period for an appeal from, or an application for the review of, an order under this Act the limitation therefor shall be governed by the Indian Limitation Act, 1877 (XV of 1877).

1. (1) A Revenue-officer, or a person employed in a revenue-office, shall not—
   • (a) purchase or bid for, either in person or by agent, in his own name or in that of another, or jointly or in shares with others, any property which any Revenue-officer or Revenue Court in the District in which he is employed has ordered to be sold, or,
   • (b) in contravention of any rules made by the Local Government in this behalf, engage in trade in that district.
2. (2) Nothing in sub-section (1) shall be deemed to preclude any person from becoming a member of a company incorporated under the Indian Companies Act, 1882, (VI of 1882) or other law.

1. (1) The Financial Commissioner may, in addition to other rules which may be made by him under this Act, make rules consistent with this Act, and any other enactment for the time being in force—
   • (a) fixing the number and amount of the installments, and the times and places and the manner, by, at and in which any sum other than rent or land-revenue which is payable under this Act or of which a record has been made there under is to be paid;
   • (b) fixing the dates on which profits are to be divisible by headman or other persons by whom they are realized on behalf of co-sharers;
   • (c) prescribing the fees to be charged for the service and execution of processes issued by Revenue-officers and Revenue Courts, the mode in which those fees are to be collected, the number of persons to be employed in the service and execution of those processes, and the remuneration and duties of those persons;
   • (d) regulating the procedure in the cases where persons are entitled to inspect records of Revenueofficers, or records or papers in the custody of village-officer, or to obtain copies of the same, and prescribing the fees payable for searches and copies;
   • (e) prescribing forms for such books, entries, statistics and accounts as the Financial Commissioner thinks necessary to be kept, made or compiled in revenue-offices or submitted to any authority;
   • (f) declaring what shall be the language of any of those offices, and determining in what cases persons practising in those offices shall be permitted to address the presiding officers thereof in English; and
   • (g) generally for carrying out the purposes of this Act.
2. (2) Until rules are made under clauses (a) and (b) of sub-section (1) the sums therein referred to shall be payable by the installments, at the times and places, and in the manner by, at and in which they are now payable.
3. (3) Rules made by the Financial Commissioner under this or any other section of this Act shall not take effect until they have been sanctioned by the Local Government, and rules under clause (c) of sub-section (1) shall not take effect until they have also been confirmed by the Governor General in Council.

The power to make any rules under this Act is subject to the control of the Governor General in Council, and to the condition of the rules being made after previous publication:

All powers conferred by this Act on The Financial Commissioner may be exercised from time to time as occasion requires.

Except as otherwise provided by this Act—

1. (1) a Civil Court shall not have jurisdiction in any matter which the Local Government or a Revenueofficer is empowered by this Act to dispose of, or take cognizance of the manner in which the Local Government or any Revenue-officer exercises any powers vested in it or him by or under this Act; and in particular—
2. (2) a Civil Court shall not exercise jurisdiction over any of the following matters, namely:—
   • (i) any question as to the limits of any land which has been defined by a Revenue-officer as land to which this Act does or does not apply;
   • (ii) any claim to compel the performance of any duties imposed by this Act or any other enactment for the time being in force on any Revenue-officer, as such;
   • (iii) any claim to the office of kanungo, zaildar, inamdar or village-officer, or in respect of any injury caused by exclusion from such office, or to compel the performance of the duties or a division of the emoluments thereof ;
   • (iv) any notification directing the making or revision of a record-of-rights;
   • (v) the framing of a record-of-rights or annual record, or the preparation, signing or attestation of any of the documents included in such a record;
   • (vi) the correction of any entry in a record-of-rights, annual record or register of mutations;
   • (vii) any notification of the undertaking of the general re-assessment of a district or tahsil having been sanctioned by the Governor General in Council;
   • (viii) the claim of any person to be liable for an assessment of land-revenue or of any other revenue assessed under this Act ;
   • (ix) the amount of land-revenue to be assessed on any estate or to be paid in respect of any holding under this Act;
   • (x) the amount of, or the liability of any person to pay, any other revenue to be assessed under this Act, or any cess, charge or rate to be assessed on an estate or holding under this Act or any other enactment for the time being in force;
   • (xi) any claim relating to the allowance to be received by a landowner who has given notice of his refusal to be liable for an assessment, or any claim connected with, or arising out of, any proceedings taken in consequence of the refusal of any person to be liable for an assessment under this Act; (xii) the formation of an estate out of waste land; (xiii) any claim to hold free of revenue any land, mills, fisheries or natural products of land or water; (xiv) any claim connected with, or arising out of, the collection by the Government, or the enforcement by the Government of any process for the recovery, of land-revenue or any sum recoverable as an arrear of land-revenue; (xv) any claim to set aside, on any ground other than fraud, a sale for the recovery of an arrear of landrevenue or any sum recoverable as an arrear of land-revenue; (xvi) the amount of, or the liability of any person to pay, any fees, fines, costs or other charges imposed under this Act;
   • (xvii) any claim for partition of an estate, holding or tenancy, or any question connected with, or arising out of, proceedings for partition, not being a question as to title in any of the property of which partition is sought; (xviii) any question as to the allotment of land on the partition of an estate, holding or tenancy, or as to the distribution of land subject by established custom to periodical re-distribution, or as to the distribution of land-revenue on the partition of an estate or holding or on a periodical re-distribution of land, or as to the distribution of rent on the partition of a tenancy;
   • (xix) any claim to set aside or disturb a division or appraisement of produce confirmed or verified by a Revenue-officer under this Act;
   • (xx) any question relating to the preparation of a list of village-cesses or the imposition by the Local Government of conditions on the collection of such cesses;
   • (xxi) any proceeding under this Act for the commutation of the dues of a superior land-owner;
   • (xxii) any claim arising out of the enforcement of an agreement to render public service in lieu of paying land-revenue; or (xxiii) any claim arising out of the liability of an assignee of land-revenue to pay a share of the cost of collecting or re-assessing such revenue, or arising out of the liability of an assignee to pay out of assigned land-revenue, or of a person who would be liable for land-revenue if it had not been released, compounded for or redeemed to pay on the land-revenue for which he would but for such release, composition or redemption be liable, such a percentage for the remuneration of a zaildar, inamdar or village-officer as may be prescribed by rules for the time being in force under this Act.