INTRODUCTION
There is a liability of the Landowners for the payment of the Land revenue. If the land revenue is not paid by the Landowners then such amount is considered as the arrear of the Land revenue. The person who does not pay the land revenue is known as the defaulter.
RELEVANT PROVISION
Sections 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 88, and 90 of the Land Revenue Act, of 1967 deal with the procedure for the recovery of the arrear of the Land Revenue.
DEFINITION OF DEFAULTER
The defaulter means a person liable for an arrear of the Land Revenue and includes a person who is responsible as surety for the payment of the arrear of Land revenue.
DEFINITION OF ARREAR
Arrear of rent means rent that remains unpaid after the date on which it becomes payable.
LIABILITY FOR THE PAYMENT OF LAND REVENUE
In the case of any holding, the holding and its Land owner shall be liable for the payment of Land revenue thereon, and if there be joint Landowners of a holding, the holding and all the land owners jointly and severally shall be liable for the payment of the Land revenue.
PROCEDURE FOR THE RECOVERY OF THE ARREAR
Arrear of Land revenue may be recovered by any one or more of the following processes namely
(I) SERVICE OF NOTICE OF DEMAND
A notice of demand may be issued by the revenue officer on or after the day following that on which an arrear of Land revenue accrues.
(II) ARREST AND DETENTION
1. Issuance of Warrant against Defaulter:
If after the lapse of twenty days of the service of the notice of demand under section 81 on a defaulter, arrears of land revenue due from him or any part thereof remain unpaid, a revenue officer may issue a warrant directing an officer named therein to arrest the defaulter or the person who furnished security under clause (b) of subsection 8 and bring him before the revenue officer.
2. Defaulter under Personal Restraint of Revenue Officer:
When the defaulter is brought before the revenue officer, the revenue officer may cause him to be taken before the collector or may keep him under personal restraint for a period not exceeding ten days, and then if the arrear is still unpaid cause him to be taken before the collector.
3. Report of Personal Restraint to Collector:
When the revenue officer keeping a defaulter under personal restraint is an assistant collector of the second grade, he shall without delay report his action to the collector if the period of such restraint exceeds twenty-four hours.
4. Confinement of Defaulter:
When the defaulter is brought before the collector, the collector may issue an order to the officer in charge of the Civil Jail of the District, directing him to confine the defaulter in jail for such period not exceeding one month from the date of the order as the collector thinks fit.
5. Persons against Whom the Process of Arrest is not to be Taken:
The process of arrest and detention shall not be executed against a defaulter who is a female, a minor a lunatic.
6. When arresting not to be Executed:
A warrant of arrest issued against a defaulter under Sub Section (1) shall not be executed if the arrears due from him are paid or the defaulter furnished security in the manner provided in clause (b) of subsection (8).
(III) DISTRESS & SALE OF MOVABLE PROPERTY & CROPS
1. Distress & Sale of Uncut Crops:
At any time after an arrear of Land revenue has accrued the movable property and uncut or ungathered crops of the defaulter may be distrained and sold by order of a revenue officer time being.
2. Exemption:
In addition to the particulars exempted by any law for the in force from liability to sale, so much of the produce of the land of the defaulter as the collector thinks necessary for seed grain and for the subsistence, until the harvest next following, of the defaulter and his family and of any cattle exempted by that law, shall be exempted from sale under this section.
(IV) TRANSFER OF THE HOLDING
1. Transfer of Holding to Land Owner of the Estate:
At any time after an arrear of land revenue has accrued on a holding, the collector may transfer the holding to any person being a land owner of the estate in which such holding is situated and not being a defaulter in respect of his own holding, on condition of his paying the arrear before being put in possession of the holding and on such further conditions as the collector may deem fit to impose.
2. Term of Transfer:
The transfer may, as the collector thinks fit, be either till the end of the agricultural year in which the defaulter pays to the transferee, the amount of the arrear which the transferee paid before being put in possession of the holding or for a term not exceeding fifteen years from the commencement of the agricultural year next following the date of the transfer.
3. Report to the Commissioner:
The collector shall report to the commissioner any transfer made by him under this section and the commissioner may set aside the transfer or alter the conditions thereof or pass such other order as he thinks fit.
4. Position of the Person to whom the holding is Transferred:
The person to whom the holding is transferred shall, subject to the conditions of the transfer, stand in the same position as that in which the defaulter would have stood if the holding had not been transferred.
5. Restoration of Holding to the Defaulter:
When the transfer is for a term, the holding shall, on the expiration of the term be restored by the collector to the defaulter.
(V) ATTACHMENT OF THE HOLDING
1. Attachment of Holding & Management:
The collector may, instead of transferring under section 84 a holding in respect of which an arrear of land revenue has accrued, cause such holding to be attached and taken under his own management or that of an agent appointed by him for that purpose.
2. Collector Entitled to Manage Land:
The collector shall be entitled to manage the land and to receive all rents and profits accruing there from the exclusion of the defaulter until the arrear has been satisfied or until the collector restores the land to the defaulter.
3. Duration of Attachment of Land:
The land shall not be attached for The same arrear for a longer term than five years from the commencement of the agricultural year next following the date of the attachment but if the arrear is sooner discharged, the land shall be released, and the surplus receipts, if any. made over to the landowners.
(VI) ANNULMENT OF ASSESSMENT OF THE HOLDING
When an arrear of land revenue has been due for a longer period than one year and the foregoing processes are not deemed sufficient for the recovery thereof the Board of Pavenue may, in addition to or instead of all or any of those processes, order the existing assessment of the holding in respect of which the arrear is due to be annulled.
(VII) SALE OF HOLDING
When an arrear of land revenue has accrued and the foregoing processes are not deemed sufficient for the recovery thereof, the collector, with the previous sanction of the Board of Revenue may, in addition to, or instead of all or any of those processes, and subject to the provisions hereinafter contained, sell the holding in respect of which the arrear is due.
Exceptions:
The land shall not be sold for the recovery of
- Any arrear which has accrued while the land was under the charge of the court of wards or was so circumstanced that the court of wards might, under the law for the time being in force, have exercised jurisdiction over it.
- Any arrear which has accrued while the land was under attachment under section 85.
- Any arrear which has accrued while the land was held under direct management by the collector or in the farm by any other person under section 86, after either an annulment of assessment or a refusal to be liable therefore.
(VIII) PROCEEDING AGAINST OTHER IMMOVABLE PROPERTY
If the arrear can not be recovered by any of the processes herein before provided, the collector may, where the defaulter owns any other holding or any other immovable properties proceed under the provisions of this Act against that property as if it were the land in respect of which the arrear is due Exceptions: No interest save those of the defaulter alone shall be so proceeded against and no encumbrances created grants made or contracts entered into by him in good faith shall be rendered invalid by reason only of his interests being proceeded against.
PLACE OF MAKING DEPOSIT
Arrears of land revenue have to be deposited at the same Tehsil headquarters in whose jurisdiction the estate is situated arid where the Tehsil Treasury has been incorporated with the district treasury, then any such deposit can be made into the district treasury.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded that in the case of the arrear of Land revenue, it is recovered before the payment of the rent, profits, and other charges and the amount may be recovered by sale, attachment, annulment, and of holding and by the arrest and the detention of the defaulter. All the land owners are responsible for the payment of land revenue of their holding under the Land Revenue Act.
FAQs
Enumerate in order various processes recovery of arrears of land revenue. Discuss the law relating to prescribed for the transfer of holding and attachment of holding as a process for the recovery of arrears of land revenue.
(2019-A)
Enumerate various processes prescribed for the recovery of arrears of land revenue. Discuss the law relating to the arrest and detention of the defaulter as a process for the recovery of arrears of land revenue.
(2018-A, 2015-S, 2014-S, 2011-S)
Enumerate various sums which may be recovered as arrears of land revenue. Discuss the law relating to the arrest and detention of a person who has not paid such a sum.
(2017-S)
What procedure is to be adopted for the sale of moveable property of the defaulter for the recovery of arrears?
(2017-S)
Enumerate various methods for the recovery of an amount to be recovered as arrears of land revenue. Discuss in detail the procedure for the sale of immovable property of the defaulter for the recovery of such an amount.
(2016-S)
Enumerate various processes prescribed for the recovery of an amount to be recovered as arrears of land revenue and explain the process of arrest and detention of the defaulter for the recovery of such arrears.
(2016-A)
Discuss in detail the law relating to the sale/auction of the immovable property of the defaulter of the recovery of the arrears of land revenue.
(2015-A)
