(1)Except as provided in sub-sections (2) and (3), fair rent in the case of dry lands shall be three times the annual assessment payable in respect thereof or where the lands have not been assessed, three times the annual assessment payable in respect of similar lands of the same extent in the neighbourhood.(2)(a)In the case of any dry land on which pepper is cultivated as the principal crop, rent shall be payable only for the twelfth year after the planting of the crop and for every sixth year thereafter; and that rent (which shall be the fair rent) shall be the entire pepper produce of the land for the year for which it is payable:Provided that where the landlord has received rent for any such land for any year or years within a period of six years immediately preceding the commencement of the Malabar Tenancy (Amendment) Act, 1951, rent for such land shall be payable to him as aforesaid only in the sixth year following such year or the last of such years, as the case may be, and in every sixth year thereafter.(b)The landlord shall be entitled to harvest, and be responsible for harvesting, the produce in the years in which he has a right to it under clause (a).(c)The assessment and local cesses due in respect of the land for the year for which rent is payable under clause (a) shall be paid by the landlord, and the assessment and local cesses due in respect of the land for other years shall be paid by the tenant:Provided that nothing contained in this sub-section shall be deemed to affect any agreement in writing, registered between the landlord and the tenant to the effect that the tenant shall pay rent for any such land every year (commencing from the seventh year after the planting of the crop), but in every such case the rent payable after the commencement of the Malabar Tenancy (Amendment) Act, 1954 (Tamil Nadu Act XXXIII of 1951), shall not exceed one-sixth of the produce of the land for the year to which it relates:Provided further that in the case referred to in the foregoing proviso, the assessment and local cesses referred to in clause (c) shall be paid each year by the landlord and the tenant in the same proportion in which the produce of the land is shared between them.(3)In any year in which groundnut, or such other crop as may be notified as commercial crop for the purposes of this section in the [Fort St. George Gazette] [Now Tamil Nadu Government Gazette.] by the State Government, is cultivated on any land or part of any land, fair rent for the whole of that land for that year shall be one-eighth of the gross-produce of groundnut or other commercial crop raised on the land or part of the land, in that year, or an amount equal to three times the highest assessment payable in the district in respect of dry land of the same extent as such land, whichever is higher.
