The Bengal Tenancy Act Act VIII of 1885 with the Law in Force in Behar

There are cogent reasons in support of the view that the right of the sulgect in the ownership of land was fmirersally recognised by ancient Hindu Kings and that the sovereign Ownership of land " was ent tied to a share of the usufruct of the nut in the sovereign. [...] The account of the rights and obligations of the different classes of landlords and tenants thus obtained showed the necessity of legislation in exercise of the power reserved in the Permanent Settlement Replatim for the protection and welfare of the dependent talugdars and raiyats and other cultivators of the scil." Mt XII of 184r which wr.s replaced by Act I of 1845 which again was repealed [...] at the time of its introduction in Council to have been merely "to re-enact in a concise form the pa-ovisions of the present law relating to the rights of the raiyats with respect to the delivery of paltas the adjustment of rates of rent and the occupancy of land and to the prevention of illegal exaction and extortion in connection with demands for rent." The following are the main lines of th [...] A good example of the first will be found in the clause which throws upon the landlord the onus of disproving the raiyat's claim to a right of occupancy ; the second is illustrated by the section relating to price-lists which relieves the zemindar of the trouble of showing that the value of the produce has increased ; the third pervades the whole of the Act and is especially conspicuous in the v [...] It is this limitation of the legal occupancy right to a single individual among the numerous persons who may be interested in the land that is at the root of most of the difficulties experienced in the administration and interpretation of the Act in Bengal We consider that the best solution of the difficulty will be to give to all pesons holding land under the person who enjoys the legal stat