Private transfer of right of occupancy under section 5 by tenant

Section 53 of the Punjab Tenancy Act, 1887 deals with private transfer of right of occupancy under section 5 by tenant. A tenant having a right of occupancy under section 5 may transfer that right by sale, gift or mortgage, subject to the conditions mentioned in this section. The Act was enacted on 23 Sep 1887.

(1) A tenant having a right of occupancy under section 5 may transfer that right by sale, gift or mortgage, subject to the conditions mentioned in this section.

(2) If he intends to transfer the right by sale, gift, mortgage by conditional sale or usufructuary mortgage, he shall cause notice of his intention to be served on his landlord through a Revenue-officer, and shall defer proceeding with the transfer for a period of one month from the date on which the notice is served.

(3) Within that period of one month the landlord may claim to purchase the right at such value as a Revenue-officer may, on application made to him in this behalf, fix.

(4) when the application to the Revenue-officer is to fix the value of a right of occupancy which is already mortgaged, he shall fix the value of the right as if it were not mortgaged.

(5) The landlord shall be deemed to have purchased the right if he pays the value to the revenue-officer within such time as that officer appoints.

(6) On the value being so paid, the right of occupancy shall be extinct, and the Revenue-officer shall, on the application of the landlord, put the landlord in possession of the tenancy.

(7) If the right of occupancy was already mortgaged, the tenancy shall pass to the landlord, unencumbered by the mortgage, but the mortgage-debt shall be a charge on the purchase-money.

(8) If there is no such charge as aforesaid, the Revenue-officer shall, subject to any directions which he may receive from any Court, pay the purchase-money to the tenant.

(9) If there is such a charge, the Revenue-officer shall, subject as aforesaid, either apply in discharge of the purchase-money as the mortgage-debt so much of the purchase-money as is required for that purpose and pay the balance, if any, to the tenant, or retain the purchase-money pending the decision of a Civil Court as to the person or persons entitled thereto.

(10) Where there are several landlords of a tenancy, any one of them pay be deemed to be the landlord for the purposes of this section.

(11) No suit or other preceding shall be instituted against the Secretary of State for India in Council, or against any officer of the Government, in respect of anything done by a Revenue-officer under the two last foregoing sub-sections, but nothing in this sub-section shall prevent any person entitled to receive the whole or any part of the purchase-money from recovering it from a person to whom it has been paid by a Revenue-officer.

Section 53, The Punjab Tenancy Act, 1887 (Act 16 of 1887).