Chapter II RIGHT OF OCCUPANCY

(1) A tenant— (a) who at the commencement of this Act has for more than two generations in the male line of descent through a grandfather or grand-uncle and for a period of not less than twenty years been occupying land paying no rent thereof beyond the amount of the land-revenue thereof and the rates and cesses for the time being chargeable thereon, or (b) who having owned land, and having ceased to be landowner thereof otherwise than by forfeiture to the Government or than by any voluntary act, has, since he ceased to be landowner, continuously occupied the land, or (c) who, in a village or estate in which he settled along with, or was settled by, the founder thereof as a cultivator therein, occupied land on the twenty-first day of October, 1868, and has continuously occupied the land since that date, or (d) who, being jagirdar of the estate or any part of the estate in which the land occupied by him is situate, has continuously occupied the land for not less than twenty years, or , having been such jagirdar, occupied the land while he was jagirdar and has continuously occupied it for not less than twenty years, Has a right of occupancy in the land so occupied, unless, in the case of a tenant belonging to the class specified in clause (c), the landlord proves that the tenant was settled on land previously cleared and brought under cultivation by, or at the expense of, the founder. (2) If a tenant proves that he has continuously occupied land for thirty years and paid no rent there for beyond the amount of the land-revenue thereof and the rates and cesses for the time being chargeable thereon, it may be presumed that he has fulfilled the conditions of clause (a) of sub-section (1). (3) the words in that clause denoting natural relationship denote also relationship by adoption, including therein the customary appointment of an heir, and relationship by the usage of a religious community.

A tenant recorded in a record-of-rights sanctioned by the Local Government before the twenty first day of October, 1868, as a tenant having a right of occupancy in land which he has continuously occupied from the time of the preparation of that record, shall be deemed to have a right of occupancy in that land unless the contrary has been established by a decree of a competent Court in a suit instituted before the passing of this Act.

If the tenant has voluntarily exchanged the land, or any portion of the land, formerly occupied by him for other land belonging to the same landlord, the land taken in exchange shall be held to be subject to the same right of occupancy as that to which the land given in exchange would have been subject if the exchange had not taken place.

Nothing in the foregoing sections of this Chapter shall preclude any person from establishing a right of occupancy on any ground other than the grounds specified in those sections.

No tenant shall acquire a right of occupancy by mere lapse of time.

In the absence of a custom to the contrary no one of several joint owners of land shall acquire a right of occupancy under this Chapter in land jointly owned by them.

Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing sections of this Chapter, a tenant who immediately before the commencement of this Act has a right of occupancy in any land under an enactment specified in any line of the first column of the following table shall, when this Act comes into force, be held to have, for all the purposes of this Act, a right of occupancy in that land under the enactment specified in the same line of the second column of the table :— PUNJAB TENANCY ACT, 1868 (XXVIII 1868) THIS ACT. FIRST COLUMN SECOND COLUMN Section. Clause. Section. Sub-Section. Clause. 5 (1) 5 (1) (a) 5 (2) 5 (1) (b) 5 (3) 5 (1) (c) 5 (4) 5 (1) (d) 6 ... 6 ... ... 8 ... 8 ... ...