Tamil Nadu Land Reforms (Fixation of Ceiling on Land) Amendment Act, 1974

What the amendment does

The Tamil Nadu Land Reforms (Fixation of Ceiling on Land) Amendment Act, 1974 inserts sections 18-B to 18-E into the Tamil Nadu Land Reforms (Fixation of Ceiling on Land) Act, 1961. The amendment addresses what happens when a notification concerning surplus land must be changed because of a corrected final statement, a decision in a proceeding or a direction under section 18-A.

The Act received the President's assent on 7 April 1974 and was first published in the Tamil Nadu Government Gazette Extraordinary on 11 April 1974.

Changes to surplus land notifications

The Tamil Nadu Land Reforms (Fixation of Ceiling on Land) Amendment Act, 1974 gives the Government the following powers:

• If an authorised officer corrects a final statement published under section 12 or 14, the Government may make consequential or incidental changes to the related notification under section 18(1).
• If an appeal, revision, other proceeding or direction under section 18-A requires a notification to be changed, the Government may cancel or modify it.
• Cancellation or modification does not prevent the Government from issuing a fresh notification under section 13 in accordance with the principal Act.
• If land is newly included through a modification, it is treated as having vested in the Government as though it had originally been included in a notification under section 18(1).

When land is removed or a notification is cancelled

Section 18-D applies when land is omitted from a notification through a modification, or when a notification is cancelled. Its main effects are:

• The affected land is treated as never having vested in the Government.
• The authorised officer must make corresponding changes to the compensation assessment roll.
• Compensation already paid for that land may be recovered by the Government as an arrear of land revenue.
• The land reverts to the person lawfully entitled to it from the publication date of the modification or cancellation.
• Any earlier government assignment of that land is treated as cancelled.
• No claim can be enforced against the Government, or a person deriving rights from it, for the period between government vesting and reversion.

Who may be affected

The Tamil Nadu Land Reforms (Fixation of Ceiling on Land) Amendment Act, 1974 may affect landowners whose land was identified as surplus, people entitled to land removed from a notification, recipients of compensation, and people who received assignments of affected land from the Government. Buyers and professionals should check whether the relevant surplus land notification was later modified or cancelled.