61. Application of this Chapter to lands in non-urban areas,—

The provisions of this Chapter shall apply in respect of lands in non-urban areas.

62. Appointment of Settlement Commissioner.—

The State Government may appoint a Settlement Commissioner who shall, subject to the control of the State Government, control the operation of the revenue survey and/or settlement.

63. Appointment of Additional Settlement Commissioners and their powers and duties. —

(1) The State Government may appoint one or more Additional Settlement Commissioners.

(2) An Additional Settlement Commissioner shall exercise such powers and discharge such duties, conferred and imposed on a Settlement Commissioner by this Code or by any other enactment for the time being in force or by any rule made under this Code or any such other enactment, in such cases or classes of cases, as the State Government or Settlement Commissioner may direct and while exercising such powers and discharging such duties, the Additional Settlement Commissioner shall be deemed to have been appointed as a Settlement Commissioner for the purposes of this Code or any other enactment or any rule made under this Code or such other enactment.

64. Appointment of Settlement, Deputy Settlement and Assistant Settlement Officers.—

(1) The State Government may appoint an officer hereinafter called the Settlement Officer to be in charge of a revenue survey, and/or settlement and as many Deputy Settlement Officers and Assistant Settlement Officers as it thinks fit.

(2) All Settlement, Deputy Settlement and Assistant Settlement Officers shall be subordinate to the Settlement Commissioner and all Deputy Settlement and Assistant Settlement Officers in a local area shall be subordinate to the Settlement Officers.

65. Powers of Settlement, Deputy Settlement and Assistant Settlement Officers. —

(1) The State Government may invest any Settlement Officer or Deputy Settlement Officer or Assistant Settlement Officer with all or any of the powers of a Collector under this Code, to be exercised by him in such cases or classes of cases as the State Government may direct.

(2) The State Government may invest any Deputy Settlement Officer or Assistant Settlement Officer with all or any of the powers of a Settlement Officer under this Code or any other enactment for the time being in force.

B-Revenue Survey

66. Definition of Revenue Survey.—

The operations carried out in accordance with the provisions of this part, that is to say —

(1) All or any of the operations pertaining to the division of land into survey numbers and grouping them into villages, recognition of existing survey numbers, reconstitution thereof or forming new survey numbers and operations incidental thereto; 

(2) Soil classification;

(3) Preparation or, as the case may be, revision or correction of field map;

(4) Preparation of record of rights, in order to bring the land records up to date in any local, over area; are called a revenue survey.

67. Notification of proposed revenue survey.-

(1) Whenever the State Government decides that a revenue survey should be made of any local area, it shall publish a notification to that effect, and such local area shall be held to be under such survey from the date of such notification until the issue of a notification declaring the operation to be closed.

(2) Such notification may extend to all lands generally in the local area or to such lands only as the State Government may direct.

68. Formation of survey numbers and villages. —

Subject to rules made under this Code, the Settlement Officer, may —

(a) Take measurements of the land to which the revenue survey extends and construct such number of survey marks thereon as may be necessary;

(b) Divide such lands into survey numbers and group the survey numbers into villages; and

(c) Recognize existing survey numbers, reconstitute survey numbers or form new survey numbers

Provided that except as hereinafter provided, no survey numbers, comprising land used for agricultural purposes shall henceforth be made of less extent than a minimum to be prescribed for the various classes of land

Provided further that the limit prescribed under the aforesaid proviso shall not apply in the case of survey numbers, already existing immediately before the date of the notification under sub-section (1) of Section 67.

69. Separate demarcation of land diverted or specially assigned. —

Notwithstanding the provisions of Section 68 when any portion of agricultural land is diverted under the provisions of Section 172 to any non-agricultural purpose, or when any portion of land is specially assigned under Section 237, or when any assessment is altered on any portion of land under sub-section (2) of Section 59, the Settlement Officer may make such portion into a separate survey number or sub-division of a survey number.

70. Power to re-number or sub-divide survey numbers.—

(1) The Settlement Officer may either re-number or sub-divide survey numbers into as many sub-divisions as may be required in view of the acquisition of rights in land or for any other reason.

(2) The division of survey numbers into sub-divisions and the apportion- ment of the assessment of the survey number amongst the sub-divisions shall be carried out in accordance with rules made under this Code and such rules may provide limits either of area or of land revenue or both, below which no sub division shall be recognised : Provided that the total amount of assessment of any survey number shall not be enhanced during the term of a settlement unless such assessment is liable to alteration under the provisions of this Code.

(3) Where a holding consists of several khasra numbers the Settlement Officer shall assess the land revenue payable for each khasra number and record them as separate survey numbers.

(4) Whenever the survey numbers are re-numbered, the Settlement Officer shall correct the entries in all records prepared or maintained under Chapter IX.

71. Entry of survey numbers and sub-divisions in records.—

The area and assessment of survey numbers and sub-divisions of survey numbers shall be entered in such records as may be prescribed.

72. Determination of abadi of village.—

The Settlement Officer shall, in the case of every inhabited village, ascertain and determine, with due regard to rights in lands, the area to be reserved for the residence of the inhabitants or for purposes ancillary thereto, and such area shall be deemed to be the abadi of the village.

73. Power of Settlement Officer to divide or unite villages or exclude area there from.—

The Settlement Officer may divide a village to constitute two or more villages or may amalgamate two or more villages and constitute one village or may alter the limits of a village by including therein any area of a village in the vicinity thereof or by excluding any area comprised therein, in accordance with the rules made under this Code.

74. Grouping of villages.—

The villages of each district or tahsil or part of a district or tahsil comprised in the area under revenue survey shall be formed into groups, and in forming such group regard shall be had to physical features, agricultural and economic conditions and trade facilities and communications.

C-Settlement of rent

75. Definition of Settlement-, —

The result of the operations carried out in accordance with this part in continuation of revenue survey in order to determine or revise the land revenue payable on lands in any local area called “settlement” and the period during which the revised land revenue be in force is called the term of settlement.

76. Notification of proposed settlement.-

On issue of a notification declaring the operations of revenue survey to be closed under sub-section (1) of section 67, the State Government, if it decides that settlement operations should be undertaken in the local area in which revenue survey is closed, shall publish a notification to that effect and such area shall be held to be under settlement from the date of such notification until the announcement of settlement under section 82 is respect of a land in the local area is complete :

Provided that if the notification is issued after expiration of a period of five years from the date of issue of notification declaring, the operations of revenue survey to be closed under sub-section (1) of section 67, record of rights shall be prepared under section 108 before the Settlement operations are undertaken in accordance with the provisions contained in this part.

77. Fixation of assessment rates.-

On completing the necessary inquiries, as may be prescribed, the settlement officer shall forward to the state Government his proposals for assessment rates for different classes of land in such from and along with such other particulars as may be prescribed.

(2) The State Government may approve the assessment rates with such modifications as it may deem fit.

[78. Omitted]

79. Fixation of fair assessment.-

The settlement officer shall fix the assessment on each holding in accordance with the assessment rates approved under section 77 and the provisions of the section 81 such assessment shall be the fair assessment of such holding.

80. All lands liable to assessment.-

The settlement officer shall have the power to make fair assessment on all lands what-so-ever to which the settlement extends, whether such lands are liable to the payment of land revenue or not.

81. Principles of assessment.-

(1) The fair settlement of all lands shall be calculated in accordance with the principles and restrictions set forth in the section.

(2) No regard shall be had to any claim to hold land on privileged terms.

(3) Regard shall be had in the case of agriculture land to the profits of agriculture, to the consideration paid for leases, to the sale prices of land and to the principal moneys on mortgages, and in the case of non-agricultural land, to the value of the land for the purpose for which it is held.

(4) The Fair assessment on land used for non-agricultural purpose shall be fixed in accordance with the rules made under section59.

(5) Where an improvement has been effected at any time in any holding held for the purpose of agriculture by or at the expense of the holder thereof, the fair assessment of such holding shall be fixed as if the improvement had not been made.

(6) Omitted.

82. Announcement of settlement.-

(1) When the assessment of any land has been fixed in accordance with section 79, notice thereof shall be given in accordance with rules made under this Code, and such notice shall be called the announcement of the settlement.

(2) The assessment of any land, as announced under this section, shall be the land revenue payable annually on such land during the term of the settlement unless it is modified in accordance with the provisions of this Code, or any other law.

83. Introduction of Settlement. –

The term of a settlement shall commence from the beginning of the revenue year next following the date of announcement or from the expiry of the previous term of settlement, whichever is later.

84. Remission of enhancement of bhumiswami who relinquishes –

During the first year of the term of settlement any bhumiswami who is dissatisfied with the new assessment shall, on relinquishing his rights in his holding in the manner prescribed by Section 173 may, one month before the commencement of the agricultural year, receive a remission of any increase imposed thereby;

Provided that the relinquishment of only part of a holding or of a holding, which, or any part of which, is subject to an encumbrance or a charge shall not be permitted.

85. Term of settlement.—

(1) The term of settlement shall be fixed by the State Government and shall not be less than thirty years Provided that if, at any time during the currency of the settlement, the State Government finds that having regard to changes in general conditions subsequent to the settlement, it is desirable that the assessment should be reduced, it may reduce such assessment for such period as it may deem fit.

(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1) in any area where there is ample scope for extension of cultivation or for agricultural development or where the pitch of rents is unduly low or where there has been a rapid development of resources owing to the construction of roads, railways or canals since the last settlement, the State Government may, for reasons to be recorded, fix a term which may be less than thirty years but which shall in no case be less than twenty years.

(3) Notwithstanding that the term of settlement fixed under sub-section (1) or sub-section (2) for any local area has expired, the term shall be deemed to have been extended till the commencement of the term of the subsequent settlement in that area.

86. Power of Collector to complete •unfinished proceedings.—

Where the settlement operations are closed all applications and proceedings then pending before the Settlement Officer shall be transferred to the Collector who shall have the powers of a Settlement Officer for their disposal.

D-General

87. Inquiry into profits of agriculture and value of land.—

(1) With effect from the coming in force of this Code the State Government may take steps to institute and may cause to be constantly maintained, in accordance with rules made under this Code, an inquiry into the profits of agriculture and into the value of land used for agricultural and non-agricultural purposes.

(2) For the purpose of determining the profits of agriculture, the following elements shall be taken into account in estimating the cost of cultivation, namely : —

(a) the depreciation of stock and buildings;

(b) the money equivalent to the cultivator's and his family's labour and supervision;

(c) all other expenses usually incurred in cultivation on the land which is under inquiry; and

(d) interest on the cost of buildings and stock and on expenditure for seed and manure, and on cost of agricultural operations paid for in cash.

(3) The Settlement Officer shall take in consideration the information collected in the course of this inquiry, when framing his proposals for assessment rates.

88. Power to transfer, duty of maintaining maps and records to Settlement Officer. —

When a local area is under revenue survey, the duty of maintaining the maps and records may, under the orders of the State Government, be transferred from Collector to the Settlement Officer, who shall thereupon exercise all the powers conferred on the Collector in any of the provisions in Chapters IX and XVIII.

89. Power of Sub-Divisional Officer to correct errors.—

The Sub Divisional Officer may, at any time after the closure of the revenue surveys and during the term - of settlement, correct any error in the area or assessment of any survey number of holding due to mistake of survey or arithmetical miscalculation

Provided that no arrears of land revenue shall become payable by reason of such correction.

90. Power of Collector during term of Settlement etc.—

After the closure of the revenue survey and during the term of a settlement, the Collector, shall, 55 when so directed by the State Government, exercise the powers of a Settlement Officer under Sections 68, 69, 70, 72 and 73.

91. Power to grant power of Settlement Officer during term of Settlement. —

The State Government may, after the closure of the revenue survey and during the term of settlement, invest any Revenue Officer with all or any of the power of the Settlement Officer under this Chapter, within such area and subject to such restrictions and for such period as it may think fit.

91-A. Power to make rules.—

The State Government may make rules for regulating generally the conduct of a revenue survey or settlement under this Chapter.