RESTRICTIONS ON THE ALIENATION OP LANDS. 



in which the land sold or otherwise permanently alienated is situated, 

 or to another member of the same agricultural tribe residing in the 

 same district. Our scheme is thus based in this respect on the fee-ling 

 in favour of the prior rights of the village community and on the 

 recognition of the principle of tribal organization which are well 

 known powerful factors in the social economy of the agricultural 

 classes of the Punjab. To prevent difficulties or inequalities in the 

 application of this portion of our scheme, power is being given to the 

 Local Government to specify bj r notification what are the agricultural 

 tribes in each district, and to extend the definition of ' district' 

 in any particular case beyond the ordinary limits of the revenue 

 district. 



Next, as regards temporary alienations, while we accept the conclu- 

 sions of the Punjab Committee that only the two forms of mortgage 

 proposed shall in future be allowed, that existing mortgages by way of 

 conditional sale shall be void, and that leases shall be limited to a fixed 

 term, we have reduced the maximum period of temporary alienation 

 from 20 years as proposed by the Punjab Committee to 15 years. We 

 are providing that any person who has made a permissible mortgage 

 or lease shall be debarred from making any further alienation of his 

 land during the currency of such mortgage or lease, but, after careful 

 consideration, we have decided not to impose any further restrictions 

 on temporary transfers, whether by prescribing an interval between 

 two successive mortgages or leases, or by making the alienor retain a 

 right of cultivation in the alienated land, his rent being fixed by 

 authority, or by prohibiting the mortgage or lease of more than a 

 certain portion of a holding. We are also providing that any per- 

 manent alienation made without the required sanction shall take effect 

 as a usufructuary mortgage on the conditions prescribed for such mort- 

 gages, and that existing conditional sales and future unauthorized 

 mortgages shall be treated in like manner. 



We have accepted the proposal of the Punjab Committee in regard 

 to prohibiting hypothecations of produce. 



We are supplementing our proposed restrictions on voluntary 

 alienations by abolishing the sale of all agricultural or pastoral land 

 in execution of any decree or order. Under the present practice, sale 

 of such land in the Punjab in execution of a decree requires, in the 

 case of ancestral land, the sanction of the Financial Commissioner, 



