Land Act, 1950
Exercise of powers by the Minister, etc. |
12.—(1) The following matters shall be excepted matters for the purposes of this section:— | |
(a) the determination of the persons from whom land is to be acquired or resumed; | ||
(b) the determination of the actual lands to be acquired or resumed; | ||
(c) the determination of the price to be paid for land so acquired or resumed; | ||
(d) the determination (other than any determination arising in or being part of a re-arrangement scheme) of the persons to be selected as allottees of any land; | ||
(e) the determination (other than any determination arising in or being part of a re-arrangement scheme) of the price at which land is to be sold to any such allottee; | ||
(f) the determination whether a tenant or proprietor would be or would not be entitled to require the Land Commission to resume or acquire the whole of his lands and provide him with a new holding and the determination of the new holding to be provided for a tenant or proprietor whose land is resumed or acquired by the Land Commission; | ||
(g) the determination whether or not a holding has been used by the tenant or proprietor thereof as an ordinary farm in accordance with proper methods of husbandry; | ||
(h) the determination of the amount of any standard purchase annuity; | ||
(i) the determination whether any particular holding of tenanted land or parcel of untenanted land shall vest in the Land Commission on the appointed day; | ||
(j) the determination of the sporting rights, fishing rights and fisheries to be vested in the Land Commission, the prices to be paid for them, the persons to whom the fishing rights and fisheries are to be resold and the prices to be charged for them; | ||
(k) the determination of the easements and rights to be conferred, defined, extended or extinguished and any questions of compensation relating thereto; | ||
(l) the determination of the bogs for which turbary regulations are to be made and the making of the regulations; | ||
(m) the determination of the highest offer to be made by the Land Commission in the case of a proposed purchase under section 27 of this Act; | ||
(n) the determination whether or not a gratuity is to be paid under section 29 of this Act and, if it is to be paid, the amount thereof. | ||
In this sub-section, the expression “re-arrangement scheme” means a scheme for the re-arrangement of lands held in rundale or intermixed plots whether with or without the distribution of other lands to facilitate the said re-arrangement, such other lands being either adjoining any of the lands held in rundale or intermixed plots or not more distant than three miles from any of such rundale lands or such intermixed plots. | ||
(2) Any power or duty for the time being vested by law (including this Act) in the Land Commission or the Lay Commissioners may, save in relation to excepted matters, be exercised or performed by— | ||
(a) the Minister, or | ||
(b) any officer of the Minister or the Land Commission for the time being authorised, whether specifically or by reference to a class of such officers, in that behalf by the Minister. | ||
(3) The Land Commission, in the exercise and performance by the Land Commission of the powers and duties for the time being vested in it by law (including this Act), and the Lay Commissioners, in the exercise and performance by the Lay Commissioners of the powers and duties for the time being specifically vested in them by law (including this Act), shall, save in relation to excepted matters, act under and in accordance with the directions, whether general or particular, of the Minister, and the Minister shall have and may exercise, if and so far as he shall think proper, full and unrestricted power of regulating and controlling every and any exercise or performance by the Land Commission or the Lay Commissioners (as the case may be) of any such power or duty not relating to an excepted matter and also power of reserving to himself rights of approval and disapproval or of reconsideration, revision and confirmation of every or any act done by the Land Commission or the Lay Commissioners not relating to an excepted matter or done by any officer in the exercise or performance by virtue of sub-section (2) of this section of any power or duty. | ||
(4) All powers and duties for the time being vested by law (including this Act) in the Land Commission or the Lay Commissioners in relation to an excepted matter shall be exercised and performed in all respects as if this section and section 6 of the Land Act, 1933 , had not been enacted, save that— | ||
(a) any appeal which may lie by law from the determination of an excepted matter shall lie to the Appeal Tribunal, and | ||
(b) the Minister may, whenever and so far as he thinks proper, arrange by reference to the class or classes of case or the county or counties in which the land concerned is situate the distribution amongst the Lay Commissioners of their work in relation to the excepted matters, but not so as to allocate any particular case or land to any particular Lay Commissioners. | ||
(5) Where the Minister or an officer exercises or performs by virtue of sub-section (2) of this section any power or duty, he may exercise or perform the power or duty— | ||
(a) in his own name, or | ||
(b) in the name of the Land Commission or the Lay Commissioners. | ||
(6) Where a power or duty is exercised or performed by virtue of sub-section (2) of this section by the Minister or an officer, the exercise or performance of the power or duty, and any thing done in such exercise or performance, shall be as valid and effectual as if the exercise or performance of the power or duty or the doing of the thing were by (as may be appropriate) the Land Commission, the Lay Commissioners or, where the power or duty may be exercised or performed or the thing may be done by a particular number of Lay Commissioners (including one Lay Commissioner acting alone), by that number of Lay Commissioners, and, in particular, shall not be open to challenge or question by objection, appeal or otherwise on the ground of absence of concurrence in, consent to or cognisance of the exercise or performance of the power or duty, or the doing of the thing, whether on the part of the Land Commission, the Lay Commissioners or any of them, or of any other person. | ||
(7) A certificate, sealed with the seal of the Minister, certifying that a power or duty for the time being vested by law (including this Act) in the Land Commission or the Lay Commissioners was exercised or performed by the Minister or by an officer authorised pursuant to this section by the Minister, or that a thing was done in such exercise or performance, shall be prima facie evidence of the matters certified thereby. | ||
(8) The following provisions shall have effect in relation to schemes for the re-arrangement of lands held in rundale or intermixed plots whether with or without the distribution of other lands to facilitate the said re-arrangement:— | ||
(a) no such scheme shall be approved by virtue of sub-section (2) of this section save by an officer; | ||
(b) the Minister shall not authorise pursuant to that sub-section an officer to approve any such scheme unless the officer is an officer of the Land Commission and not below the rank of Senior Inspector. | ||
(9) Where— | ||
(a) a power or duty is exercised or performed by virtue of sub-section (2) of this section by the Minister or an officer, and | ||
(b) in exercising or performing the power or duty, it becomes requisite that any document should be sealed with the common seal of the Land Commission, | ||
the Minister or such officer (as the case may be) may cause the document to be sealed as aforesaid. | ||
(10) Without prejudice to paragraph (a) of sub-section (4) of this section, nothing in the foregoing sub-sections of this section shall apply to the Judicial Commissioner or to the Appeal Tribunal or give the Minister any power or control of any kind over or in relation to the exercise of the functions of the Judicial Commissioner or of the Appeal Tribunal. | ||
(11) Section 6 of the Land Act, 1933 , is hereby repealed. |