Section 17 in The Punjab Security of Land Tenures Act, 1953
17. Right of certain tenants to pre-empt sale etc. of land.
- Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any law, usage or contract, and subject to the provisions of Section 18, a tenant of a landowner other than a small landowner, -(i)who has been in continuous occupation of the land comprised in his tenancy for a period exceeding four years on the date of the sale of the land or foreclosure of the right to redeem the land, or(ii)in case of a sale or foreclosure that has taken place or shall take place within a period of three years from the commencement of this Act and there is no tenant who has acquired a right under clause (i) -(a)who was ejected from tenancy after the 14th day of August, 1947, and before the commencement of this Act on grounds other than those mentioned in section 9 and was in continuous occupation of the land comprised in his tenancy for a period exceeding four years on the date of his ejectment, or(b)who has been restored to his tenancy under the provisions of this Act and whose period of continuous occupation of the land comprised in his tenancy immediately before ejectment and immediately after restoration of his tenancy together exceeds four years.shall, in preference to the rights of other pre-emptors as provided in the Punjab Pre-emption Act, 1913 (Act I of 1913), except the descendants of vendor's grand-father, be entitled to pre-empt the sale or foreclosure of the land other than the land comprised in the reserved area of the landowner in the manner prescribed in that Act within one year from the date of sale or foreclosure, as the case may be:Provided that no tenant referred to in this sub-section shall be entitled to exercise any such right in respect of the land or any portion thereof, if he had sublet the land or the portion, as the case may be, to any other person unless during that period the tenant was suffering from a legal disability or physical infirmity, or, if a woman, was a widow or was unmarried.[17A. Certain sales of tenancy land not pre-emptible. - Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in this Act or the Punjab Pre-emption Act, 1913, a sale of land comprising the tenancy of a tenant made to him by the landowner shall not be pre-emptible under the Punjab Pre-emption Act, 1913, and no decree of pre-emption passed after the commencement of this Act, in respect of any such sale of land shall be executed by any court :Provided that for the purpose of this sub-section the expression 'tenant' includes a joint tenant to whom whole or part of the land comprising the joint tenancy is sold by landowner.(2)Where, after the commencement of this Act, a tenant, to whom the land comprising his tenancy is sold by the landowner, has been dispossessed of such land by a pre-emptor in execution of a decree for pre-emption or otherwise, the tenant so dispossessed shall in the prescribed manner have the option either to purchase the land from the pre emptor on payment of the price paid to the tenant by the pre-emptor or to be restored to his tenancy under the pre-emptor on the same terms and conditions on which it was held by him immediately before the sale, on an application made by him to an Assistant Collector of the first grade having jurisdiction within a period of one year from the commencement of the Punjab Security of Land Tenures (Amendment) Ordinance, 1958.(3)An application received under sub-section (2) shall be disposed of by the Assistant Collector of the first grade in the manner laid down in sub-section (2) of section 10.
