The Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966

An Act to unify and amend the law relating to land and land revenue in the
State of Maharashtra. WHEREAS, it is expedient to unify and amend the law
relating to land and land revenue in the State of Maharashtra and to provide
for matters connected therewith; It is hereby enacted in the Sixteenth Year of
the Republic of India as follows: –
1. (1) This Act may be called the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966.
(2) This Code extends to the whole of the State of Maharashtra; but the
provisions of Chapters III (except the provisions relating to encroachment
on land), IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII (except section 242) and XVI
(except sections 327, 329, 330, 1 [(330A)], 335, 336 and 333, shall not
apply to the City of Bombay.
(3) It shall come into force in the whole of the State of Maharashtra on
such date as the State Government may by notification in the Official
Gazette, appoint and different dates may be appointed for different
provisions.
2. Definitions
. In this Code, unless the context otherwise requires—
Various expressions defined in Section 2 of the Maharashtra land
Revenue Code ,1966 are as follows

S.2(1) “agricultural year” means the year commencing on such date as

the State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette,
appoint;

S. 2(2) “alienated” means transferred in so far as the rights of the State

Government to payment of rent or land revenue are concerned, wholly
or partially, to the ownership of any person;

S. 2(3) “boundary mark” means any erection, whether of earth, stone or

other material, and also any hedge (a fence formed by a row of closely
planted shrubs or bushes), unploughed rige, or strip of ground, or other
object whether natural or artificial set up, employed, or specified by a
survey officer or revenue officer having authority in that behalf, in order
to designate the boundary of any division of land;
S. 22(4) “building” means any structure, not being a farm building;

S.2(5) “building site” means a portion of land held for building purposes,
whether any building be actually erected thereupon or not, and includes
the open ground of courtyard enclosed by, or appurtenant (constituting
a legal accompaniment or something that belongs to, or goes with
something else). to, any building erected thereupon

S. 2(6) “certified copy” or “certified extract” means a copy of extract, as

the case may be, certified in the manner prescribed by section 76 of the
Indian Evidence Act, 1872;

S. 2(7) “Chavadi” means the place ordinarily used by a village officer for
the transaction of village business;

S. 2(8) “estate” means any interest in lands and the aggregate of such
interests vested in a person or aggregate of persons capable of holding
the same;
(Section 19 of the Transfer of property Act,1882 states about Vested
interest It is an interest which is created in favour of a person where
time is not specified certain event The person having the vested interest
does not get the possession of that property but has the expectancy to
receive it upon happening of a specified certain event
For example: A promises to transfer his property to B on him attaining
the age of 22 B will have vested interest in A’s property till the time he
does not get the possession of it)

S.2(9) “farm building” means a structure erected on land assessed or

held for the purpose of agriculture for all or any of the following
purposes connected with such land or any other land belonging to or
cultivated by the holder thereof, namely: —
(a) for the storage of agricultural implements, manures or fodder;
(b) for the storge of agricultural produce;
(c) for sheltering cattle;
(d) for residence of members of the family, servants or tenants of the
holder; or
(e) for any other purpose which is an integral part of his cultivating
arrangement;

S.2(10) “Gaothan” or “village site” means the land included within the
site of a village, town or city as determined by section 122;

S.2(11) “Government lessee” means a person holding land from

Government under a lease as provided by section 38;

S. (12) “to hold land” or “to be a land holder or holder of land” means
to be lawfully in possession of land, whether such possession is actual or
not;

S. (13) “holding” means a portion of land held by a holder;

S. (14) “improvement” in relation to a holding, means any work which

adds materially to the value of the holding which is suitable thereto and
consistent; with the purpose for which it is held and which, if not
executed directly for its benefit or is, after execution, made directly
beneficial to it; and, subject to the foregoing provisions, includes—

(a) the construction of tanks, wells, water channels, embankments and

other works for storage, supply or distribution of water for
agricultural purposes;

(b) the construction of works for the drainage of land or for the
protection of land from floods, or from erosion or other damage from
water;

(c)the planting of trees and the reclaiming, clearing, enclosing, levelling

or terracing of land;

(d)the erection of buildings on or in the vicinity of the holding, elsewhere

than in the gaothan required for the convenient or profitable use or
occupation of the holdings; and
(e) the renewal or reconstruction of any of the foregoing works, or
alterations therein or additions thereto; but does not include—

(i)temporary wells and such water-channels, embankments (a wall or

bank of earth or stone built to prevent a river flooding an area), levelling,
enclosures or other works, or petty alterations in or repairs to such
works, as are commonly made by cultivators of the locality in the
ordinary course of agriculture; or

(ii) any work which substantially diminishes the value of any land
wherever situated, in the occupation of any other person, whether as
occupant or tenant; Explanation—A work which benefits several holdings
may be deemed to be an improvement with respect to each of such
holdings;

S.2(15) “joint holders” or “joint occupants” means holders or occupants

who hold land as co-sharers, whether as co-shares in any family
undivided according to Hindu law or otherwise, and whose shares are
not divided by metes and bounds(Legal description of a parcel of land
based on landmarks and boundaries); and where land is held by joint
holders or joint occupants, “holder” or “occupant”, as the case may be,
means all the joint holders or joint occupants;

S.2(16) “land” includes benefits to arise out of the land, and things
attached to the earth, or permanently fastened to anything attached to
the earth, and also shares in or charges on, the revenue or rent of
villages, or other defined portions of territory;

S.2(17) “landlord” means a lessor;

S.2(18) “land records” means records maintained under the provisions

of, or for the purposes of, this Code and includes a copy of maps and
plans or a final town planning scheme, improvement scheme or a
scheme of consolidation of holdings which has come into force in any
area under any law in force in the State and forwarded to any revenue or
survey officer under such law or otherwise;
S.2(19) “land revenue” means all sums and payments, in money
received or legally claimable by or on behalf of the State Government
from any person on account of any land or interest in or right exercisable
over land held by or vested in him, under whatever designation such
sum may be payable and any cess or rate authorised by the State
Government under the provisions of any law for the time being in force;
and includes premium, rent, lease money, quit, rent, judi payalbe by a
inamdar or any other payment provided under any Act, rule, contract or
deed on account of any land;
(Section 2(1)(l) in Andhra Pradesh (Telangana Area) Abolition of Inams
Act, 1955.
"Judi" or "quit-rent" means the amount fixed by and payable to
Government by the Inamdar out of the land revenue assessed, on inam
land)

S.2(20) “legal practitioner” has the meaning assigned to it in the

Advocates Act, 1961;
Legal practitioner: Section 2(1)(i) of the Act covers the term ‘legal
practitioner,’ encompassing individuals who are advocates or vakils in
any High Court, as well as pleaders, mukhtars, or tax agents.

S.2(21) “non-agricultural assessment” means the assessment fixed on

any land under the provisions of this Code or rules thereunder with
reference to the use of the land for a non-agricultural purpose;

S.2(22) “occupancy” means a portion of land held by an occupant;

S.2(23) “occupant” means a holder in actual possession of unalienated

land, other than a tenant or Government lessee; provided that, where a
holder in actual possession is a tenant, the land holder or the superior
landlord, as the case may be, shall be deemed to be the occupant;

S.2(24) “occupation” means possession

S.2(25) “to occupy land” means to possess or to take possession of land;

S.2(26) “pardi land” means a cultivated land appertaining to house
within a village site;
(appertain--belong or be connected as a rightful part or attribute)

S.2(27) “population” in relation to any area means population as

ascertained at the last preceding census of which the relevant figures
have been published;

S.2(28) “prescribed” means prescribed by rules made by the State

Government under this Code;

S.2(29) “recognised agent” means a person authorised in writing by any

party to a proceeding under this Code to make appearances and
applications and to do other acts on his behalf in such proceedings;

S.2(30) “relevant tenancy law” means—

(a) in the Bombay area of the State of Maharashtra, the Bombay Tenancy
and Agricultural Lands Act, 1948;
(b) in the Hyderabad area of the State of Maharashtra, the Hyderabad
Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act, 1950; and
(c) in the Vidarbha Region of the State of Maharashtra, the Bombay
Tenancy and Agricultural Lands (Vidarbha Region) Act, 1958.

S.2(31) “revenue officer” means officer of any rank what soever

appointed under any of the provisions of this Code, and employed in or
about the business of the land revenue or of the surveys, assessment,
accounts, or records connected therewith;

S.2(32) “revenue year” means the year commencing on such date as the
State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint;

S.2(33) “saza” means a group of villages in a taluka which is constituted a

saza under section 4 ;
(33A) “storage device” means an Electronic Device for retention of data
in computer and shall include both hardware and software;
S.2(34) “Sub-Divisional Officer” means an Assistant or Deputy Collector
who is placed in charge of one or more sub-divisions of a district

S.2(35) “sub-division of a survey number” means a portion of a survey

number of which the area and assessment are separately entered in the
land records under an indicative number subordinate to that of the
survey number of which it is a portion;

S.2(36) “survey mark” means, for the purposes of this Code, a mark
erected for purposes of cadastral survey of land;
(Cadastral means showing or recording property boundaries, subdivision
lines, buildings, and related details)

S.2(37) “survey number” means a portion of land of which the area and
assessment are separately entered, under an indicative number in the
land records and includes––
(i) plots reconstituted under a final town planning scheme, improvement
scheme or a scheme of consolidation of holding which has come into
force in any area under any law; and

(ii) in the districts of Nagpur, Wardha, Chanda and Bhandara any portion
of land entered in the land records under any indicative number known
as the khasra number;

S.2(38) “superior holder” except in Chapter XIV means a land-holder

entitled to receive rent or land revenue from other land-holders (called
“inferior holders”) whether he is accountable or not for such rent or land
revenue, or any part thereof, to the State Government:

Provided that, where land has been granted free of rent or land revenue,
subject to the right of resumption in certain specified contingencies by a
holder of alienated land whose name is authorised entered as such in
the land record, such holder shall, with reference to the grantee, be
deemed to be superior holder of land so granted by him, and the grantee
shall, with reference to the grantor, be deemed to be the inferior holder
of such land, and for the purposes of sections 147, 151 and 152 of the
Maharashtra Zilla Parishads and Panchayat Samitis Act, 1961, shall
 notwithstanding anything hereinafter contained in the definition of the
word “tenant”, be deemed to be the tenant of such grantor;

S.2(39) “survey officer” means an officer appointed under, or in the

manner provided by, section 8;

S.2(40) “tenant” means a lessee, whether holding under an instrument

or under an oral agreement and includes a mortgagee of a tenant’s rights
with possession; but does not include a lessee holding directly under the
State Government;

S.2(41) “unoccupied land” means the land in a village other than the
land held by an occupant, a tenant or a government lessee;

S.2(42) “Urban area” means an area included within the limits of any
municipal corporation or municipal council, constituted under the
relevant law for the time being in force and the expression “non-urban
area” shall be construed accordingly;]

S.2(43) “village” includes a town or city and all the land belonging to a
village, town or city;

s.2(44) “wada land” means an open land in village site used for tethering
cattle or storing crops or fodder, manure or other similar things.

For the purpose of this Code,

the State shall be divided into divisions which shall consist of one or more
districts 1 [(including the City of Bombay)], and each district may consist of one
or more sub-divisions and each sub-division may consist of one or more
talukas, and each taluka may conisist of certain villages.