State Act

The Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966

5[36A. Restrictions on transfer of occupancies by Tribals.— (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1) of section 36, no occupancy of a Tribal shall, after the commencement of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code and Tenancy Laws (Amendment) Act, 1974 (Mah. XXXV of 1974), be transferred in favour of any non-Tribal by way of sale (including sales in execution of a decree of a Civil Court or an award or order of any Tribunal or authority), gift, exchange, mortgage, lease or otherwise, except on the application of such non-Tribal and except with the previous sanction— (a) in the case of a lease or mortgage for a period not exceeding 5 years, of the Collector ; and (b) in all other cases, of the Collector with the previous approval of the State Government : Provided that, no such sanction shall be accorded by the Collector unless he is satisfied that no Tribal residing in the village in which the occupancy is situate or within five kilometres thereof is prepared to take the occupancy from the owner on lease, mortgage or by sale or otherwise. 6[Provided further that, in villages in Scheduled Areas of the State of Maharashtra, no such sanction allowing transfer of occupancy from tribal person to non-tribal person shall be accorded by the Collector unless the previous sanction of the Gram Sabha under the jurisdiction of which the tribal transferor resides has been obtained.] 7[Provided also that, in villages in Scheduled Areas of the State of Maharashtra, no sanction for purchase of land by mutual agreement, shall be necessary, if,— (i) such land is required in respect of implementation of the vital Government projects; and (ii) the amount of compensation to be paid for such purchase is arrived at in a fair and transparent manner. Explanation.— For the purposes of the second proviso, the expression “vital Government project” means project undertaken by the Central or State Government relating to national or state highways, railways or other multimodal transport projects, electricity transmission lines, Roads, Gas or Water Supply pipelines canals or of similar nature, in respect of which the State Government has, by notification in the Official Gazette, declared its intention or the intension of the Central Government, to undertake such project either on its own behalf or through any statutory authority, an agency owned and controlled by the Central Government or State Government, or a Government company incorporated under the provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 (18 of 2013) or any other law relating to companies for the time being in force.] (2) The previous sanction of the Collector may be given in such circumstances and subject to such conditions as may be prescribed. (3) On the expiry of the period of the lease or, as the case may be, of the mortgage, the Collector may, notwithstanding anything contained in any law for the time being in force; or any decree or order of any court or award or order of any tribunal, or authority, either suo motu or on application made by the tribal in that behalf, restore possession of the occupancy to the Tribal. (4) Where, on or after the commencement of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code and Tenancy Laws (Amendment) Act, 1974 (Mah. XXXV of 1974), it is noticed that any occupancy has been transferred in contravention of sub-section (1) 1[the Collector shall, notwithstanding anything contained in any law for the time being in force, either suo motu or on the application made by any person interested in such occupancy,] 2[or on a resolution of the Gram Sabha in Scheduled Areas] 3[within thirty years form the 6th July 2004] hold an inquiry in the prescribed manner and decide the matter. (5) Where the Collector decides that any transfer of occupancy has been made in contravention of sub-section (1), he shall declare the transfer to be invalid, and thereupon, the occupancy together with the standing crops thereon, if any, shall vest in the State Government free of all encumberances and shall be disposed of in such manner as the State Government may, from time to time direct. (6) Where an occupancy vested in the State Government under sub-section (5) is to be disposed of, the Collector shall give notice in writing to the Tribal-transferor requiring him to state within 90 days from the date of receipt of such notice whether or not he is willing to purchase the land. If such Tribal-transferor agrees to purchase the occupancy, then the occupancy may be granted to him if he pays the prescribed purchase price and undertakes to cultivate the land personally ; so however that the total land held by such Tribal-transferor, whether as owner or tenant, does not as far as possible exceed an economic holding. Explanation.— For the purpose of this section, the expression “economic holding” means 6.48 hectares (16 acres) of jirayat land, or 3.24 hectares (8 acres) of seasonally irrigated land, or paddy or rice land, or 1.62 hectares (4 acres) of perennially irrigated land, and where the land held by any person consists of two or more kinds of land, the economic holding shall be determined on the basis of one hectare of perennially irrigated land being equal to 2 hectares of seasonally irrigated land or paddy or rice land or 4 hectares of jirayat land.