(b) direct that the whole or any part of the surplus accruing in

any district under section eighteen of that Act shall be placed to the credit of such local fund or funds as may be formed for any local area or local areas comprised in that district; and may, from time to time, in like manner, cancel any order made under this section.

"local authority" means any body of persons for the time being invested by law with the control and administration of any matters within a specified local area; and

"local fund" means any fund under the control or management of a local authority.

Act No. XIX. of 1883.

RECEIVED THE ASSENT OF THE GOVERNOR GENERAL ON THE
12TH OCTOBER, 1883.

An Act to consolidate and amend the law relating to loans of money by the Government for agricultural improvements.

WHEREAS it is expedient to consolidate and amend the law relating to loans of money by the Government for agricultural improvements; It is hereby enacted as follows:

Short title.

1. (1) This Act may be called the Land Improvement Loans Act, 1883.

(2) It extends to the whole of British India, but shall not come into force in any part of British India until such date as the Local Government, with the previous sanction of the Governor General

Local extent.

Commencement.

in Council, may, by notification in the local official Gazette, appoint in this behalf.

Acts XXVI. of 1871 and XXI. of 1876 repealed.

2. (1) The Land Improvement Act, 1871, and Act XXI. of 1876 (An Act to amend the Land Improvement Act, 1871), shall, except as regards the recovery of advances made before this Act comes into force and costs incurred by the Government in respect of such advances, be repealed.

(2) When in any Act, Regulation or Notification, passed or issued before this Act comes into force, reference is made to either of those Acts, the reference shall, so far as may be practicable, be read as applying to this Act or the corresponding part of this Act.

S. 1.-The Act is put in force from the 1st April 1886 in the whole of the Presidency of Bombay except Aden and Perim. G. G. 1886, p. 200.

It is declared in force in the Akalkot State. G. G. 1886, p. 811.

"Collector" defined.

3. In this Act, "Collector" means the Collector of land-revenue of a district, or the Deputy Commissioner, or any officer empowered by the Local Government by name or by virtue of his office to discharge the functions of a Collector under this Act.

Purposes for which loans may be granted under this Act.

4. (1) Subject to such rules as may be made under section ten, loans may be granted under this Act, by such officer as may, from time to time, be empowered in this behalf by the Local Government, for the purpose of making any improvement, to any person having a right to make that improvement, or, with the consent of that person, to any other person.

(2) "Improvement" means any work which adds to the letting value of land, and includes the following, namely

:

(a) the construction of welis, tanks and other works for the
storage, supply or distribution of water for the purposes of
agriculture, or for the use of men and cattle employed in
agriculture;

(b) the preparation of land for irrigation;

(c) the drainage, reclamation from rivers or other waters, or
protection from floods or from erosion or other damage by
water, of land used for agricultural purposes or waste-land
which is culturable;

(d) the reclamation, clearance, enclosure or permanent improve-
ment of land for agricultural purposes;

(e) the renewal or reconstruction of any of the foregoing works
or alterations therein or additions thereto, and

(f) such other works as the Local Government, with the previous
sanction of the Governor General in Council, may, from time
to time, by notification in the local offical Gazette, declare to
be improvements for the purposes of this Act.

5. (1) When an application for a loan is made under this Act, the
Mode of dealing with applica-
officer to whom the application is made may,
tions for loans.
if it is, in his opinion, expedient that pub-
lic notice be given of the application, publish a notice, in such manner as
the Local Government may, from time to time, direct (a), calling upon all
persons objecting to the loan to appear before him at a time and place fixed
therein and submit their objections.

S. 5.-Instruments executed by persons taking advances under this Act, or by their sureties, as security for the repayment of such advances, are exempted from stamp duty. See Act I. of 1879, Sch. II., Art. 12. The fees payable on applications for loans are remitted. G. G. 1885, p. 716.

S. 5(a).-See G. G. 1886, p. 204.

1Cfx/97531.

(2) The officer shall consider every objction submitted under sub-sec tion (1), and make an order in writing either admitting or overruling it:

Provided that, when the question raised by an objection is, in the opinion of the officer, one of such a nature that it cannot be satisfactorily decided except by a Civil Court, he shall postpone his proceedings on the application until the question has been so decided.

6. (1) Every loan granted under this Act shall be made repayable by instalments (in the form of an annuity or Period for repayment of loans. otherwise), within such period from the date of

the actual advance of the loan, or, when the loan is advanced in instalments,
from the date of the actual advance of the last instalment
actitally band

XVI/99 $2. time to time, be fixed by the rules made under this Act.

with 4feet.

as may, from (2) The period fixed as aforesaid shall not ordinarily exceed thirtyfive years.

(3) The Local Government and Governor General in Council, in making and sanctioning the rules fixing the period, shall, in considering whether the period should extend to thirty-five years, or whether it should extend beyond thirty-five years, have regard to the durability of the work for the purpose of which the loan is granted, and to the expediency of the cost of the work being paid by the generation of persons who will immediately benefit by the work.

Recovery of loans.

7. (1) Subject to such rules as may be made under section ten, all loans granted under this Act, all interest (if any) chargeable thereon, and costs (if any) incurred in making the same, shall, when they become due, be recoverable by the Collector in all or any of the following modes, namely:

(a) from the borrower-as if they were arrears of land-revenue due by him;

(b) from his surety (if any)-as if they were arrears of landrevenue due by him;

(c) out of the land for the benefit of which the loan has been granted as if they were arrears of land-revenue due in res

pect of that land;

(d) out of the property comprised in the collateral security (if any)-according to the procedure for the realization of landrevenue by the sale of immoveable property other than the land on which that revenue is due:

Provided that no proceeding in respect of any land under clause (c) shall affect any interest in that land which existed before the date of the order granting the loan, other than the interest of the borrower, and of mortgagees of, or persons having charges on, that interest, and where the loan is granted under

section four with the consent of another person, the interest
of that person, and of mortgagees of, or persons having

charges on, that interest.

(2) When any sum due on account of any such loan, interest or costs is paid to the Collector by a surety or an owner of property comprised in any collateral security, or is recovered under sub-section (1) by the Collector from a surety or out of any such property, the Collector shall, on the application of the surety or the owner of that property (as the case may be), recover that sum on his behalf from the borrower, or out of the land for the benefit of which the loan has been granted, in manner provided by sub-section (1).

(3) It shall be in the discretion of a Collector acting under this section to determine the order in which he will resort to the various modes of recovery permitted by it.

8. A written order Order granting loan conclusive on certain points.

under the hand of an officer empowered to make loans under this Act granting a loan to, or with the consent of, a person mentioned therein, for the purpose of carrying out a work described therein, for the benefit of land specified therein, shall, for the purposes of this Act, be conclusive evidence

9.

(a) that the work described is an improvement within the mean-
ing of this Act;

(b) that the person mentioned had at the date of the order a right
to make such an improvement; and

(c) that the improvement is one benefiting the land specified.
When a loan is made under this Act to the members of a village-

Liability of joint borrowers as among themselves.

community or to any other persons on such terms that all of them are jointly and severally bound to the Government for the payment of the whole amount payable in respect thereof, and a statement showing the portion of that amount which as among themselves each is bound to contribute is entered upon the order granting the loan and is signed by each of them and by the officer making the order, that statement shall be conclusive evidence of the portion of that amount which as among themselves each of those persons is bound to contribute.

10. The Local Government, with the previous sanction of the
Governor General in Council, may, from time
Power to make rules.
to time, by notification in the local official
Gazette, make rules consistent with this Act to provide for the following
matters, namely:-

(a) the manner of making applications for loans;
(b) the officers by whom loans may be granted;

8. 10.-See G. G. 1886, p. 200.

(c) the manner of conducting inquiries relative to applications for loans, and the powers to be exercised by officers conducting those inquiries;

(d) the nature of the security to be taken for the due application
and repayment of the money, the rate of interest at which,
and the conditions under which, loans may be granted, and
the manner and time of granting loans;

(e) the inspection of works for which loans have been granted;
(f) the instalments by which, and the mode in which, loans, the
interest to be charged on them and the costs incurred in
the making thereof, shall be paid;

(g) the manner of keeping and auditing the accounts of the
expenditure of loans and of the payments made in respect
of the same; and

(h) all other matters pertaining to the working of the Act.

11. When land is improved with the aid of a loan granted under this Act, the increase in value derived from the Exemption of improvements improvement shall not be taken into account in revising the assessment of land-revenue on

from assessment to land-revenue.

the land:

Provided as follows:

(1) Where the improvement consists of the reclamation of wasteland, or of the irrigation of land assessed at unirrigated rates, the increase may be so taken into account after the expiration of such period as may be fixed by rules to be framed by the Local Government with the approval of the Governor General in Council.

(2) Nothing in this section shall entitle any person to call in question any assessment of land-revenue otherwise than as it might have been called ́ in question if this Act had not been passed.

12. (1) In the Indian Registration Act, 1877, section 17, clause (1), for the word "certificates" the words "orders granting loans" shall be substituted.

Act III. of 1877 amended.

RX42) (2) In the same Act section 58, for the words "a certificate" the

S1 words "an order" shall be substituted.

(3) In the same Act, section 89, first clause,

(a) for the words "a certificate" the words "a loan," and

(b) for the words "such certificate" the words "his order," shall be substituted.

S. 12.-See S. 3 of Act VII, of 1886.