- The money-rent of an occupancy raiyat may be enhanced by contract, subject to the following conditions:(a)the contract must be in writing and registered;(b)the rent must not be enhanced so as to exceed by more than two annas in the rupee the rent previously payable by the raiyat;(c)the rent fixed by the contract shall not be liable to enhancement during a term of fifteen years from the date of the contract :Provided as follows :(i)Nothing in Clause (a) shall prevent a landlord from recovering rent at the rate at which it has been actually paid for a continuous period of not less than three years immediately preceding the period for which the rent is claimed :(ii)nothing in Clause (b) shall apply to a contract by which a raiyat binds himself to pay an enhanced rent in consideration of an improvement, which has been or is to be effected in respect of the holding by, or at the expense of, his landlord, and to the benefit or which the raiyat is not otherwise entitled; but an enhanced rent fixed by such a contract shall be payable only when the improvement has been effected and, except when the raiyat is chargeable with default in respect of the improvement, only so long as the improvement exists and substantially produces its estimated effect in respect of the holding;(iii)when a raiyat has held his land at a specially low rate of rent in consideration of cultivating a particular crop for the convenience of the landlord, nothing in Clause (b) shall prevent the raiyat from agreeing, in consideration of his being released from the obligation of cultivating that crop, to pay such rent as he may deem fair and equitable.
