State Act

The Chota Nagpur Tenancy Act,1908

[51A. Presumptions as to fixity of rent. - (1) Where a tenure-holder, village-headman or Raiyat and his predecessors-in-interest have held at a rent or rate of rent which has not been changed from the time of the permanent settlement, the rent or rate of rent shall not be liable to be increased except on ground of an alteration in the area of the tenancy. (2) If it is proved in any suit, application or proceeding under this Act that either a tenure-holder, village-headman or Raiyat and his predecessors-in-interest have held at a rent or rate of rent which has not been changed during the twenty years immediately before the institution of the suit, application or proceeding, it shall be presumed, until the contrary is shown that they have held at that rent or rate of rent from the time of the permanent settlement: Provided that if it is required by or under any enactment that in any local area tenancies, or any classes of tenancies, at fixed rents or rates of rent shall be registered as such on, or before a date specified by or under the enactment, the foregoing presumption shall not after that date apply to any tenancy or, as the case may be, to any tenancy of that class in that local area unless the tenancy has been so registered. (3) The operation of this Section, so far as it relates to land held by a Raiyat, shall not be affected by the fact of the land having been separated from other land which formed with it a single holding, or amalgamated with other land into one holding. (4) Nothing in this Section shall apply to tenure held for a term of years or determinable at the will of the landlord. (5) When the particulars mentioned in Section 81, clauses (b) and (k) have been recorded in respect of any tenancy under Chapter XII or, prior to the commencement of this Act, under the provisions of the Bengal Tenancy Act, 1885 (8 of 1885) [as for the time being in force in the area in which the tenancy is situate, the presumption under this Section shall not thereafter apply to that tenancy],