Chapter V CHAPTER V

(1) A tenant having a right of occupancy under section 5 may transfer that right by sale, gift or mortgage, subject to the conditions mentioned in this section. (2) If he intends to transfer the right by sale, gift, mortgage by conditional sale or usufructuary mortgage, he shall cause notice of his intention to be served on his landlord through a Revenue-officer, and shall defer proceeding with the transfer for a period of one month from the date on which the notice is served. (3) Within that period of one month the landlord may claim to purchase the right at such value as a Revenue-officer may, on application made to him in this behalf, fix. (4) when the application to the Revenue-officer is to fix the value of a right of occupancy which is already mortgaged, he shall fix the value of the right as if it were not mortgaged. (5) The landlord shall be deemed to have purchased the right if he pays the value to the revenue-officer within such time as that officer appoints. (6) On the value being so paid, the right of occupancy shall be extinct, and the Revenue-officer shall, on the application of the landlord, put the landlord in possession of the tenancy. (7) If the right of occupancy was already mortgaged, the tenancy shall pass to the landlord, unencumbered by the mortgage, but the mortgage-debt shall be a charge on the purchase-money. (8) If there is no such charge as aforesaid, the Revenue-officer shall, subject to any directions which he may receive from any Court, pay the purchase-money to the tenant. (9) If there is such a charge, the Revenue-officer shall, subject as aforesaid, either apply in discharge of the purchase-money as the mortgage-debt so much of the purchase-money as is required for that purpose and pay the balance, if any, to the tenant, or retain the purchase-money pending the decision of a Civil Court as to the person or persons entitled thereto. (10) Where there are several landlords of a tenancy, any one of them pay be deemed to be the landlord for the purposes of this section. (11) No suit or other preceding 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 the two last foregoing sub-sections, but nothing in this sub-section shall prevent any person entitled to receive the whole or any part of the purchase-money from recovering it from a person to whom it has been paid by a Revenue-officer.

Where a mortgagee of a right of occupancy under section 5 proposes to foreclose his mortgage, or otherwise enforce his lien on the land subject to the right, the provisions of the last foregoing section shall, so far as they can be made applicable, apply as if the mortgagee were the tenant.

(1) A right of occupancy under section 5 may be sold in execution of a decree or order of a Court ; (2) But notice of an intended sale of any such right shall be given by the Court to the landlord, and if at any time before the close of the day on which the sale takes place the landlord pays to the Court or to the officer conducting the sale a deposit of twenty-five per centum on the highest bid made at the sale, he shall be declared to be the purchaser instead of the person who made that bid.

A right of occupancy under any other section than section 5 shall not be attached or sold in execution of a decree or order of any Court or, without the previous consent in writing of the landlord, be transferred by private contract.

When a right of occupancy has been transferred by sale, gift or usufructuary mortgage to a person other than the landlord, that person shall, in respect of the land in which the right subsists, have the same rights, and be subject to the same liabilities, as the tenant to whom before the transfer the right belonged had and was subject to.

(1) A tenant having a right of occupancy in land may, subject to the provisions of this Act and to the conditions of any written contract between him and his landlord, sublet the land or any part thereof for any term not exceeding seven years. (2) A person to whom land is sublet by a tenant having a right of occupancy therein shall, in respect of that land, and so far as regards the landlord, be, jointly with the tenant, subject to all the liabilities of the tenant under this Act.

(1) When a tenant having a right of occupancy in any land dies, the right shall devolve.— (a) on his male lineal descendants, if any, in the male line of descent, and, (b) failing such descendants, on his widow, if any until she dies or re-marries or abandons the land or is under the provisions of this Act ejected therefrom, and, (c) failing such descendants and widow, or, if the deceased tenant left a widow, then when her interest terminates under clause (b) of this sub-section, on his male collateral relatives in the male line of descent from the common ancestor of the deceased tenant and those relatives : Provided, with respect to clause (c) of this sub-section, that the common ancestor occupied the land. (2) As among descendants and collateral relatives claiming under sub-section (1), the right shall, subject to the provisions of that sub-section, devolve as if it were land left by the deceased in the village in which the land subject to the right is situate. (3) When the widow of a deceased tenant succeeds to a right of occupancy, she shall not transfer the right by sale, gift or mortgage, or by sub-lease for a term exceeding one year. (4) If the deceased tenant has left no such persons as are mentioned in sub-section (1) on whom his right of occupancy may devolve under that sub-section, the right shall be extinguished.

Any transfer made of a right of occupancy in contravention of the foregoing provisions of this Chapter shall be avoidable at the instance of the landlord.

(1) Without the previous permission of the Collector a landlord shall not make an improvement on the tenancy of a tenant having a right of occupancy. (2) If a landlord desires to make such an improvement he may apply to the Collector for permission to make it, and the Collector shall, before making an order on the application, hear the objection, if any, of the tenant. (3) In making an order on an application under sub-section (2) the Collector shall, be guided by such rules, if any, as the Local Government may, with the previous sanction of the Governor General in Council, make in this behalf.