Madhya Pradesh Ceiling On Agricultural Holdings Act, 1960
[Act No. 20 of 1960]
[1st October, 1960]
Preamble
An Act to provide for the imposition of ceiling on agricultural holdings, acquisition and disposal of surplus land and matter ancillary thereto.
Be it enacted by the Madhya Pradesh Legislature in the Eleventh Year of the Republic of India as follows:
Chapter: I - Preliminary
Section 1 - Short title, extent and commencement
(1) This Act may be called the Madhya Pradesh Ceiling on Agricultural Holdings Act, 1960.
(2) It extends to the whole of Madhya Pradesh.
(3) It shall come into force on such date1 as the State Government may, by notification, appoint.
Footnote:
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Effective form 15.11.1961 vide Notification No. 3467-28-61 dt. 4-11-1961
Section 2 - Definitions
In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,--
(a) "agricultural labour" means a person who does not hold any land and whose principal means of livelihood is manual labour on land;
1[(b) "appointed day" means the date of commencement of the Madhya Pradesh Ceiling on Agricultural Holdings (Amendment) Act, 1972];
2[(bb) "assured irrigation" means irrigation from any source of irrigation belonging to the State Government on the appointed day;
3[(bbb) "assured private irrigation" means irrigation on or before the 15th August, 1972--
(i) from tube wells;
(ii) by lift irrigation from a perennial source of water operated by diesel or electrical energy.
Explanation -- For the purpose of item (ii) of this clause, "perennial source of water" means a source of water from which water flows throughout the year but does not include a well;]
4[(c) "better farming society" means a co-operative society registered or deemed to be registered as a better farming society under the Madhya Pradesh Co-operative Societies Act, 1960 (No. 17 of 1961);]
(d) "ceiling area" means the maximum area of land which a holder is entitled to hold under section 7;
(e) "competent authority" means --
5[(i) in respect of a holder whose entire land is situate within a Sub-Division, the Sub-Divisional Officer and/or such other Revenue Officer, not below the rank of a Deputy Collector as may be appointed by the State Government;
(ii) in respect of a holder whose entire land is situate in more than one Sub-Division of the same district, the Collector or the Additional Collector and where there is no Additional Collector for the district such Deputy Collector, as may be empowered by the State Government to exercise the powers of Collector under the Madhya Pradesh Land Revenue Code, 1959 (No. 20 of 1959) for the purpose; and]
(iii) in respect of a holder whose land is situate in more than one district such authority as may be appointed by the State Government;
6[(ee) "Co-operative society" means a society registered or deemed to be registered under the Madhya Pradesh Cooperative Societies Act, 1960 (No. 17 of 1961);]
7[(f) "dry land" means any land which neither receives water through assured irrigation nor assured private irrigation;]
(g) "exempted land" means land exempted from the provisions of this Act under section 3;
8[(gg) "family" means husband, wife and their minor children, if any;]
9[(h) "holder" means a tenure holder or an occupancy tenant or a Government lessee of land within the State and the expression "to hold land" or "holding land" shall be construed accordingly;
(i) "holding" means all land held by a holder in any one or all of the capacities specified in clause (h) within the State;]
10[(j) "joint farming society" means a co-operative society registered or deemed to be registered as a joint farming society under the Madhya Pradesh Co-operative Societies Act, 1960 (No. 17 of 1961), in which the ownership of all the land under its control vests, and which gets all such land cultivated jointly by its members;]
(k) "land" means land held for an agricultural purpose but does not include land diverted to or used for non-agricultural purpose;
11[(l) [XXX]
(m) [xxx]
(n) [xxx]]
(o) "surplus land" means land which is declared to be surplus land under the provisions of this Act;
(p) words and expressions used but not defined in this Act, and defined in the Madhya Pradesh Land Revenue Code, 1959 (20 of 1959), shall have the meaning respectively assigned to them in that Code.
Footnotes:
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Substituted vide M.P. Act No. 12 of 1974 (w.e.f. 7.3.1974)
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Inserted vide M.P. Act No. 13 of 1974 (w.e.f. 7.3.1974)
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Substituted vide M.P. Act No. 20 of 1974 (w.e.f. 7.3.1974)
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Substituted vide M.P. Act No.20 of 1974 (w.e.f. 7.3.1974)
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Substituted vide M.P. Act No. 37 of 1976 (w.e.f. 16.7.1976)
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Inserted vide M. P. Act No. 20 of 1974 (w.e.f. 7.3.1974)
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Substituted vide M.P. Act No. 13 of 1974 (w.e.f. 7.3.1974)
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Inserted vide M.P. Act No. 12 of 1974 (w.e.f. 7.3.1974)
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Substituted vide M.P. Act No. 12 of 1974 (w.e.f. 7.3.1974)
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Substituted vide M.P. Act No. 20 of 1974 (w.e.f. 7.3.1974)
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Omitted vide M.P. Act No. 13 of 1974 (w.e.f. 7.3.1974)
Chapter: II - Exemptions and restrictions on transfer of land
Section 3 - Exempted lands
1[The followings lands shall be exempted from the provisions of this Act, that is to say,--
(a) land held by a local authority or a University established by law within the State;
(b) land held by the Madhya Pradesh State Agro Industries Development Corporation Ltd., or any other Corporation, controlled or managed by the State Government or the Central Government, whether singly or jointly;
(c) land which is the property of a public trust or a wakf for a religious purpose:
Provided that --
(i) such public trust or wakf is registered on or before 2[the 1st January, 1971] under any enactment relating to public trust or wakf for the time being in force and the entire income of such land is appropriated for the purpose of such trust or wakf;
(ii) such land is property of the public trust or wakf on the appointed day;
(d) land held by a Bhoodan Yagna Board under the Madhya Pradesh Bhoodan Yagna Adhiniyam, 1968 (No. 28 of 1968);
3[(e) land held by a co-operative land development bank or, any other co-operative bank registered or deemed to be registered under the Madhya Pradesh Co-operative Societies Act, 1960 (No. 17 of 1961);]
(f) land held by a bank;
Explanation -- For the purpose of this clause "bank" means a banking company as defined in section 5 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 (No. 10 of 1949), and includes the State Bank of India constituted by the State Bank of India Act, 1955 (No. 23 of 1955), a subsidiary Bank as defined in the State Bank of India (Subsidiary Banks) Act, 1959 (No. 38 of 1959), a corresponding new bank as defined in the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970 (No. 5 of 1970), the Agricultural Re-finance Corporation established under the Agricultural Re-finance Corporation Act, 1963 (No. 10 of 1963), the Agricultural Finance Corporation Limited, a company incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956 (No. 1 of 1956) and any other financial institution as the State Government may, by notification specify in this behalf;]
4[(g) land held by such Co-operative Societies as hold land not exceeding the total area arrived at by aggregating the ceiling area in respect of each of its members on the register of members for the time being and approved by general or special order by the State Government in this behalf:
Provided that in the case of a Joint Farming Society no member shall hold land in excess of the ceiling area;]
(h) any piece of land which the State Government may, for a public purpose, by notification, exempt from the provisions of this Act.]
Footnotes:
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Substituted vide M.P. Act No. 13 of 1974 (w.e.f. 7.3.1974)
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Substituted vide M.P. Act No. 20 of 1974 (w.e.f. 7.3.1974)
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Substituted vide M.P. Act No. 20 of1974 (w.e.f. 7.3.1974)
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Substituted vide M.P. Act No. 2 of 1976.
Section 4 - Transfers or partitions made after the publication of the Bill but before the commencement of the Act
1[(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in any law for the time being in force, where after, 2[the 1st January, 1971] but before the appointed day, any holder has transferred any land held by him by way of sale, gift, exchange or otherwise or has effected a partition of his holding or part thereof or the holding held by the holder has been transferred in execution of a decree of any Court, the competent authority may, after notice to the holder and other persons affected by such transfer or partition and after such enquiry as it thinks fit to make, declare the transfer or partition to be void if it finds that the transfer or the partition, as the case may be, was made in anticipation of or to defeat the provisions of this Act.]
2[(2) Nothing in this section shall apply to a transfer made by a holder --
(a) who does not hold land in excess of the ceiling area as specified in Sub-section (1) of Section 7, as substituted by Section 8 of M.P. Ceiling on Agricultural Holdings (Amendment) Act, 1974 on the date of the transfer; or
(b) who is a member of a family and where all the members of the family together do not hold land in excess of the ceiling area; as specified in Sub-section (1) of section 7 as substituted by section 8 of the Madhya Pradesh Ceiling on Agricultural Holdings (Amendment) Act, 1974 on the date of the transfer.]
(3) Any person aggrieved by an order of the competent authority under this section may prefer an appeal against such order to the Board of Revenue. The decision of the Board and subject to the decision of the Board in appeal the decision of the competent authority shall be final.
3[(4) 4[In regard to every transfer to which this section applies] the burden of proving that the transfer was not benami or was not made in any other manner to defeat the provisions of this Act shall be on the transferor.
(5) Notwithstanding anything contained in any law for the time being in force,--
(i) no Court shall entertain any suit for the specific performance of any contract of sale of land on the basis of any agreement or...
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