Chapter 1 Chapter 1

Preliminary

1. (1) This Act may be called the Estates Partition Act, 1897;
2. (2) It extends to the States of West Bengal and Bihar and that part of the State of Orissa which on the eighth day of December, 1897, was under the administration of the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal; and
3. (3) It shall come into force on the day on which it is first published in the Official Gazette after having received the assent of the Governor-General.

Repeal and savings.

1. (2) Any enactment or document referring to the said Estates Partition Act, 1876, or to any enactment repealed thereby, shall, so far as may be, and subject to sub-section
2. (1) of this section, be construed to refer to this Act or to the corresponding portion thereof.

In this Act, unless there be something repugnant in the subject or context,—

1. (i) "Board" means the Board of revenue for the State;
2. (ii) "Collector" means the Collector of the district on the revenue-roll of which an estate which is under partition, or which it is proposed to bring under partition is borne, and includes—

1. (a) any officer whom the Board generally vests (as it is hereby empowered to do) with the powers of a Collector under this Act, and to whom the Collector has, with the sanction of the Commissioner, delegated (as he is hereby empowered to do) any of his functions in respect of the partition of an estate, and
2. (b) any officer whom the Board specially vests (as it is hereby empowered to do) with the powers of a Collector for the purposes of any partition under this Act;
   • (iii) "Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Revenue to whom the Collector engaged in making a partition is subordinate;
   • (iv) "Deputy Collector" includes any Assistant Collector, Deputy Collector or Sub-Deputy Collector whom the Collector may appoint (as he is hereby empowered to do) to effect a partition under this Act, or to conduct any of the proceedings connected with such partition;
   • (v) "proprietor" includes every person who is in possession of any estate under partition or any portion of such an estate, or of any interest in any such estate or in any part of such an estate, as owner thereof, whether or not such person is a recorded proprietor of the estate;
   • (vi) "recorded proprietor" means a person whose name is registered on the Collector's General Register of revenue-paying land as proprietor of an estate, or of any share or interest therein;
   • (vii) the words "tenure", "permanent tenure", "holding" and "tenant" have the meanings attached to them in the Bengal Tenancy Act, 1885;
   • (viii) "applicant" means any person who has applied to the Collector under the provisions of this Act for the separation from a parent estate of land representing the interest of such person in such estate, and for the assignment to him of such land as a separate estate liable for it demand of land-revenue distinct from that for which the parent estate is liable;
   • (ix) "estate" means all lands which are borne on the revenue-roll of a Collector as liable for the payment of one and the same demand of land-revenue;
   • (x) "joint undivided estate" means an estate of which two or more persons are proprietors;
   • (xi) "parent estate" means an estate for the partition of which proceedings are in progress under this Act, or of which the partition has been effected under this Act;
   • (xii) "separate estate" means any distinct estate which is formed by the partition of a parent estate under this Act, or for the formation of which, by such partition, proceedings are in progress under this Act;
   • (xiii) "land" does not include houses or other buildings standing thereon;
   • (xiv) "rent" means whatever is lawfully payable or deliverable in money or kind by a tenant to his landlord on account of the use or occupation of the land held by the tenant; and "rent payable in kind" means, in money, the amount which would be determined as the rent if a commutation were made under section 40, sub-section (4), of the Bengal Tenancy Act, 1885;
   • (xv) "assets", when used with reference to land, means—
3. (a) in the case of land held by cultivating raiyats—the rent payable by them;
4. (b) in the case of land which is occupied by a proprietor—the rent which might reasonably be expected to be payable by cultivating raiyats if the land were occupied by them;
5. (c) in the case of land held on a permanent tenure which was created by all the proprietors of the estate and which by any law for the time being in force is protected against the purchaser at a sale for arrears of land-revenue—the rent payable by the holder of such tenure;
6. (d) in the case of land held on a tenure which, although not protected as aforesaid, is admitted by all the recorded proprietors of the estate to be permanent tenure subject only to the payment of an amount of rent fixed in perpetuity, and is of such nature that the rent thereof is not liable to be enhanced under any circumstances by the proprietors of the same or any person deriving his title from such proprietors,—the rent payable by the holder of such tenure whether he be known as talukdar, patnidar or mukarraridar or by any other designation;
7. (e) in the case of unoccupied land and land forming portion of a village site—such amount, if any, as the Deputy Collector may determine with reference to all the circumstances of the case, and includes—
8. (f) all profits derived out of land by proprietors from trees, rights of pasturage, forest-rights, Fisheries and all other legal sources;
   • (xvi) "assets", when used with reference to an estate, means the assets of all land included in the estate;
   • (xvii) "Chapter" means a chapter of this Act; and (xviii) "section" means a section of this Act.