55. Procedure for settlement of rents for whole villages or larger areas.
- When rents are settled before final publication, for whole villages or for larger areas the Revenue-officer shall adopt the following procedure :-(a)He shall first serve a notice on the village in which settlement of rents is about to be made. The notice shall be in the form contained in Schedule VI, and shall set forth that on a date named and at a place named the Revenue-officer will settle fair rents in respect of all estates, tenures or holdings and for unsettled lands included in such village. Such notice shall be served at least one week previous to the date fixed for settlement of fair rents. When such notice has been served, it shall be held that all persons have been sufficiently warned of the date fixed:Provided that when in the course of proceedings, a Revenue-Officer proposes to alter an existing rent, and the parties have not attended in compliance with the general notice, the Revenue-Officer shall serve each person interested with a special notice, and the fair rent shall not be settled in the absence of such person until after due service of such special notice has been proved.(b)On the date fixed in the notice under clause (a), or any subsequent date to which the proceeding may be adjourned, the Revenue-officer shall proceed to settle rents in the manner prescribed in Rules 62(a) and 64.(c)The settlement of rent for any number of tenants occupying land under the same landlord, whose interest is recorded in the same khewat entry in the same village, may, upon the application of the parties or at the discretion of the Revenue-Officer, be disposed of in one proceeding provided that if at any time it appears to the Revenue-Officer that the question between any two of the parties of whom one is so joined with others, cannot conveniently be so jointly tried, he may order a separate trial to be held of that question, or he may pass order for the joint or separate disposal of the application as he may think fit.(d)When a fair rent has been settled under these rules, it shall be entered in the khatian as the rent payable in respect of the holding from the date prescribed by Section 97 of the Chota Nagpur Tenancy Act, 1908.(e)It shall not be necessary for a Revenue-Officer to draw up a separate decree with regard to the fair rent settled but the entry made in his decision or in the schedule attached thereto with regard to the fair rent settled shall be held to be a decree.VIII. Final Publication of the Record-of-Rights
