5: Tenants having right of occupancy

Tenants having 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 therefore 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 land-owner thereof otherwise than by forfeiture to the Government or than by any voluntary act, has, since he ceased to be land-owner, continuously occupied the land, or (c) who, in a village or estate in which he settled alongwith, 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 land-lord 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 therefor 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.

Effective date: 1887-11-01

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