Power to make rules.

1. (1) 2[The Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, make rules] for the guidance of officers in all matters connected with the enforcement of this Act.
2. (2) The power to make rules under sub-section (1) shall be subject to the condition of the rules being made after previous publication. 3[(3) Every rule made under this section shall be laid, as soon as may be after it is made, before each House of Parliament, while it is in session, for a total period of thirty days which may be comprised in one session or in two or more successive sessions, and if, before the expiry of the session immediately following the session or the successive sessions aforesaid, both Houses agree in making any modification in the rule or both Houses agree that the rule should not be made, the rule shall thereafter have effect only in such modified form or be of no effect, as the case may be; so, however, that any such modification or annulment shall be without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under that rule.] _________ 1. See now the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (5 of 1908). STATEMENT OF OBJECTS AND REASONS THE object of the present Bill is to enable the Government to maintain, clear of buildings and obstructions, such zones of fire in the vicinity of works of defence as are essential to their defensive value under the conditions of modern warfare and in view, more especially, of the increasing range of firearms. The necessity for measures of this nature has long been recognized by the legislatures of most European countries; and in the United Kingdom very extensive powers have been vested in the Govrnment by the Works of Defence Act, 1860 (23 & 24 Vict, c. 112). In British India the absence of a similar enactment has, of late, been productive of serious difficulty, particularly where the land in the neighbourhood of bridge-heads and redoubts in or near cities has become valuable for building-sites. It has been found that the Government can- not effect complete or permanent arrangements for restraining the erection of buildings without recourse to out-and-out purchase under the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (1 of 1894), which, in view of the object contemplated, involves a disproportionate expenditure of public money and an excessive interference with private property. In these circumstances, it is proposed to provide, on the principle adopted in France, for the establishment, round works of defence, of concentric zones in which restrictions of varying stringency may be imposed; and for this purpose the English statute has been closely followed in regard to the procedure for the issue of notifications and the exercise of rights of demolition, subject, however to the important concession that the period within which all acts in pursuance of such rights must be completed has been reduced from three years to six months. In the matter of the award of compensation, the provisions of the land Acquisition Act, 1894, have been adapted on the principle that, as the sites of works of defence must ordinarily be acquired in conformity with that enactment, the imposition of restrictions upon adjoining property should be subject to equally stringent safeguards in the interests of landowners. The 29th August, 1902. E. R. ELLES

² Subs. by Act 50 of 1974, s. 4, for certain words.

³ Subs. by s. 4, ibid., for sub-section (3).