18. Presumption in favour of a Notified Sikh Gurdwara on proof of certain facts when a claim to property is made by an office-holder. -
(1)In any proceedings before a tribunal, if any past or present office-holder denies that a right, title, or interest recorded, in his name or in that of any person through whom claims, in a record of rights, or in an annual record, prepared in accordance with the provisions of the Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887 (17 of 1987), and claimed to belong to a Notified Sikh Gurdwara, does so belong, and claims such right, title or interest to belong to himself shall, notwithstanding anything contained in section 44 of the said Act, be a presumption that such right, title or interest belongs to the gurdwara upon proof of any of the following facts, namely -(a)an entry of the right, title or interest made before the first day of January, 1920 [or, in the case of the extended territories, before the 1st day of November, 1956, as the case may be,] [Inserted by Punjab Act No. 1 of 1959, Section 13(a)] in a record-of-rights, prepared at the time of a general assessment of the land revenue, in the name of the gurdwara or in the name of the holder of an office pertaining to the gurdwara as such, and not by name;(b)an assignment of the land revenue of, or of the proprietary right in, land at any time for the service or maintenance of the gurdwara notwithstanding that the assignment may be or may have been in the name of an office-holder, where the right claimed is an assignment of the land revenue of, or of the proprietary right in, the land, as the case may be;(c)the dismissal or removal of an office-holder before the first day of January, 1920 2[or, in the case of the extended territories, before the 1st day of November, 1956 as the case may be,] and the consequent transfer of the right, title or interest in question to his successor in office;(d)the expenditure of the whole or part of the income derived from the right, title or interest in question ordinarily on the service or maintenance of the gurdwara;(e)the acquisition of the right, title or interest in question from funds proved to have belonged to the gurdwara;(f)the submission by the office-holder or any of his predecessors-in-office of accounts relating to the income from the right, title or interest in question to the worshippers or to a managing body;(g)the devolution of the succession to the right, title or interest in question from an office-holder to the successor-in-office as such on two or more consecutive occasions;(h)any other fact which shows that the right, title or interest in question was at any time of the nature of a trust pertaining to the gurdwara or was purchased from funds of the nature of trust funds pertaining to the gurdwara.(2)The provisions of sub-section (1) shall also apply to a claim to a right, title or interest made by any person deriving title subsequent to the first day of January, 1920 [or, in the case of the extended territories, subsequent to the first day of November, 1956 as the case may be,] [Inserted by Punjab Act No. 1 of 1959, Section 13(b).] from a past or present office-holder.
