Tamil Nadu Cultivating Tenants Protection Act, 1955

No: 25 Dated: Sep, 27 1955

THE TAMIL NADU CULTIVATING TENANTS PROCECTION ACT, 1955

(Tamil Nadu Act 25 of 1955)

    An Act for the protection from eviction of cultivating tenants in certain areas in the State of Tamil Nadu.

    Whereas it is necessary to protect cultivating tenants in certain areas in the State of Tamil Nadu from unjust eviction;

    Be it enacted in the Sixth Year of the Republic of India as follows: -

1. Short title and extent. - (1) This Act may be called the Tamil Nadu Cultivating Tenants Protection Act, 1955.

(2) It extends to the whole of the State of Tamil Nadu, other than the areas to which the Malabar Tenancy Act, 1929 (Tamil Nadu Act XIV of 1930), extends.

2. Definitions. - In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-

(a) "added territories" means the territories specified in the Second Schedule to the Andhra Pradesh and Madras (Alteration of Boundaries) Act, 1959 (Central Act LVI of 1959);

(aa) "cultivating tenant" -

(i) means a person who contributes his own physical labour or that of any member of his family in the cultivation of any land belonging to another, under a tenancy agreement, express or implied; and

(ii) includes-

(a) any such person who continues in possession of lire land after the determination of the tenancy agreement;

(b) the heir of such person, if the heir contributes his own physical labour or that of any member of his family in the cultivation of such land;

(c) a sub-tenant if he contributes his own physical labour or that of any member of his family in the cultivation of such land; or

(d) any such sub-tenant who continues in possession of the land riot withstanding that the person who sublet the land to such sub-tenant ceases to have the right to possession of such land; but

(iii) does not include a mere intermediary or his heir;

Explanation. - A sub-tenant shall be deemed to be a cultivating tenant of the holding under the landlord if the lessor of such sub-tenant has ceased to be the tenant of such landlord;

(b) "cultivation" means the use of lands for the purpose of agriculture or horticulture;

(bb) "garden land" means any dry land irrigated by lifting water from wells or other sources;

(c) "holding" means a parcel or parcels of a land held by a cultivating tenant;

(d) "land" means land used for the purpose of agriculture or horticulture and includes any building, or any waste, vacant or forest land, appurtenant thereto, and any house-site belonging to the landlord and let to the cultivating tenant under the same agreement of tenancy;

(e) "landlord", in relation to a holding or part thereof means the person entitled to evict the cultivating tenant from such holding or part;

(ee) a person is said to carry on personal cultivation on a land when he contributes his own physical labour or that of the members of his family in the cultivation of that land;

(f) "Revenue Divisional Officer" means the Revenue Divisional Officer in whose jurisdiction the holding in question or part thereof is situate or an officer of the Revenue Department not lower in rank than the Revenue Divisional Officer, empowered by the State Government in this behalf;

(g) one acre of wet land shall be deemed to be equivalent to one and a half acres of garden land or three acres of dry land and any reference to acres of we I land shall be deemed to include a reference to dry or garden land reduced to their equivalent extent of wet land.