4. Definitions.—
In this Act, unless there is something repugnant in the subject or context,—
(1) “Land” means land which is not occupied as the site of any building in a town or village and is
occupied or has been let for agricultural purposes or for purposes subservient to agriculture, or for
pasture, and includes the sites of buildings and other structures on such land;
(2) “pay”, with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions, includes, when used with reference
to rent, “deliver” and “render”, with their grammatical variations and cognate expressions:
(3) “rent” means whatever is payable to a land-lord in money, kind or service by a tenant on account
of the use or occupation of land held by him :
(4) “arrear of rent” means rent which remains unpaid after the date on which it becomes payable:
(5) “tenant” means a person who holds land under another person, and is, or put for a special contract
would be, liable to pay rent for that land to that other person ; but it does not include—
(a) an inferior landowner, or
(b) a mortgagee of the rights of landowner, or
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(c) a person to whom a holding has been transferred, or an estate or holding has been let in farm,
under the Punjab Land-revenue Act, 1887 (XVII of 1887), for the recovery of an arrear of land-
revenue or of a sum recoverable as such an arrear, or
(d) a person who takes from the Government a lease of unoccupied land for the purpose of
subletting it:
(6) “landlord” means a person under whom a tenant holds land, and to whom the tenant is, or but for a
special contract would be, liable to pay rent for that land:
(7) “tenant” and “landlord” include the predecessors and successors in interest of a tenant and landlord
respectively:
(8) “tenancy” means a parcel of land held by a tenant of a landlord under one lease or one set of
conditions:
(9) “estate”. “landowner” and “holding” have the meanings respectively assigned to those words in the
Punjab Land-revenue Act, 1887 (XVII of 1887):
(10) “land-revenue” means land-revenue assessed under any law for the time being in force or
assessable under the Punjab Land-revenue Act, 1887, and includes.—
(a) any rate imposed in respect of the increased value of land due to irrigation, and
(b) any sum payable in respect of land, by way of quit-rent or of commutation for service, to the
Government or to a person to whom the Government has assigned the right to receive the payment:
(11) “ rates and cesses” means rates and cesses which are primarily payable by landowners, and
includes—
(a) the local rate, if any, payable under the Punjab Local Rates Act, 1878 (v of 1878);
(b) the local rate, if any, payable under the Punjab District Boards Act, 1883 (XX of 1883), and any
fee leviable under section 33 of that Act from landowners for the use of or benefits derived from such
works as are referred to in section 20, clauses
(i) and
(j), of that Act;
(c) any annual rate chargeable on owners of lands under section 59 of the Northern India Canal and
Drainage Act, 1873 (VIII of 1873);
(d) the zaildari and village-officers’ cesses; and
(e) sums payable on account of village-expenses:
(12) “village-cess” includes any cess, contribution or due which is customarily leviable within an
estate and is neither a payment for the use of private property or for personal service nor imposed by or
under any enactment for the time being in force:
(13) “village-officer” means a chief -headman, headman or patwari:
(14) “Revenue-officer” or “Revenue Court”, in any provision of this Act, means a Revenue-officer or
Revenue Court having authority under this Act to discharge the functions of a Revenue-officer or
Revenue Court, as the case may be, under that provision:
(15) “jagirdar” includes any person, other than a village-servant, to whom the land-revenue of any land
has been assigned in whole or in part by the Government or by an officer of the Government:
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(16) “legal practitioner” means any legal practitioner within the meaning of the Legal Practitioners Act
1879 (XVIII of 1879) except a mukhtar:
(17) “agricultural year” means the year commencing on the sixteenth day of June, or on such other
date as the Local Government may by notification appoint for any local area;
(18) “notification” means a notification published by authority of the Local Government in the official
Gazette : and
(19) “improvement” means, with reference to a tenancy, any work which is suitable to the tenancy and
consistent with the conditions on which it is held, by which it is held, by which the value of the tenancy
has been and continues to be increased, and which, if not executed on the tenancy, is either executed
directly for its benefit, or is, after execution, made directly beneficial to it;
Explanation I.— It includes, among other things,
(a) The construction of wells and other works for the storage or supply of water for agricultural
purposes;
(b) the construction of works for drainage and for protection against floods ;
(c) the planting of trees, the reclaiming, enclosing, levelling and terracing of land for agricultural
purposes and other works of a like nature;
(d) the erection of buildings required for the more convenient or profitable cultivation of a
tenancy; and
(e) the renewal or re-construction of any of the foregoing works, or such alterations therein, or
additions thereto, as are not of the nature of mere repairs and as durably increase their value;
But it does not include such clearances, embankments, levellings, enclosures, temporary wells and
water-channels as are made by tenants in the ordinary course of cultivation and without any special
expenditure, or any other benefit accruing to land from the ordinary operations of husbandry;
Explanation II.—A work which benefits several tenancies may be deemed to be. with respect to each
of them, an improvement;
Explanation III.—A work executed by a tenant is not an improvement if it substantially diminishes the
value of any other part of his landlord’s property.
CHAPTER II.
RIGHT OF OCCUPANCY.
