Land Acquisition Bill

Bill No. 19/1966

Read the first time on 21st April 1966.

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, and to repeal the Land Acquisition Ordinance (Chapter 248 of the Revised Edition) and the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Ordinance, 1964 (No. 1 of 1964).

Be it enacted by the President with the advice and consent of the Parliament of Singapore, as follows: —

PART I

PRELIMINARY

Short title and commencement

1. This Act may be cited as the Land Acquisition Act, 1966, and shall come into operation on such date as the Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, appoint.

Interpretation

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

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

“Board” means an Appeals Board constituted under the provisions of subsection (1) of section 19 of this Act;

“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 the provisions of subsection (2) of section 19 of this Act, and includes an acting Commissioner of Appeals or acting Deputy Commissioner of Appeals;

“court” means the High Court;

“land” includes benefits to arise out of land and things attached to the earth or permanently fastened to anything attached to the earth;
And 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 shall be shown to the satisfaction of the Collector, the Board or the court 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, 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 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;

“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.

Search within Legislation