Land Acquisition Act

(CHAPTER 152)

(Original Enactment: Act 41 of 1966)

REVISED EDITION 1985

(30th March 1987)

An Act to provide for the acquisition of land for public and certain other specified purposes, the assessment of compensation to be made on account of such acquisition and for purposes connected therewith.

[17th June 1967]

PART I

PRELIMINARY

Short title

1. This Act may be cited as the Land Acquisition Act.

Interpretation

2.—(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —

“assessor” means a member of the panel of assessors appointed under section 26(2);

“Board” means an Appeals Board constituted under section 19(1);

“Collector” means any officer appointed by the President to be a Collector of Land Revenue or a Deputy Collector of Land Revenue;

“Commissioner” means a Commissioner of Appeals or a Deputy Commissioner of Appeals, appointed under section 19(2), and includes an acting Commissioner of Appeals or acting Deputy Commissioner of Appeals;

“land” includes benefits to arise out of land and things attached to the earth or permanently fastened to anything attached to the earth;

“person interested” includes every person claiming an interest in compensation to be made on account of the acquisition of land under this Act, but does not include a tenant by the month or at will or a statutory tenant under the Control of Rent Act [Cap. 58].

[66/73]

(2) For the purposes of this Act, the following persons shall be deemed persons “entitled to act” as and to the extent hereinafter provided:

(a)	trustees for other persons beneficially interested shall be deemed the persons entitled to act with reference to any such case, and that to the same extent as the persons beneficially interested could have acted if free from disability;
(b)	a married woman shall be deemed the person so entitled to act and, whether of full age or not, to the same extent as if she were unmarried and of full age; and
(c)	the guardians of minors and the committees of mentally disordered persons shall be deemed respectively the persons so entitled to act, to the same extent as the minors or mentally disordered persons themselves could have acted if free from disability:

Provided that —

(i)	no person shall be deemed “entitled to act” whose interest in the subject matter is shown to the satisfaction of the Collector, the Board or the Court of Appeal to be adverse to the interest of the person interested for whom he would otherwise be entitled to act;
(ii)	in every such case the person interested may appear by a next friend, or, in default of his appearance by a next friend, the Collector, the Board or the Court of Appeal, as the case may be, shall appoint a guardian for the case to act on his behalf in the conduct thereof;
(iii)	the provisions of the Rules of Court for the time being in force shall, mutatis mutandis, apply in the case of persons interested appearing before the Collector, the Board or the Court of Appeal by a next friend, or by a guardian for the case, in proceedings under this Act; and
(iv)	no person “entitled to act” shall be competent to receive the compensation money payable to the person for whom he is entitled to act, unless he would have been competent to alienate the land and receive and give a good discharge for the purchase money on a voluntary sale.

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