RESTRICTIONS ON THE ALIENATION OF LANDS. 



element in. the village community. In modification, therefore, 

 of the proposals of the Punjab Committee on this all-important part 

 of the scheme under consideration, the Bill, as introduced last 

 September, provided that all permanent transfers must receive 

 the previous sanction of a Revenue-officer, but that sanction 

 should be given, as a matter of right, in cases in which the 

 Revenue-officer was satisfied that the intending transferor was 

 a person who was not a member of an agricultural tribe, or, in cases 

 where the intending transferor was a member of an agricultural tribe, 

 that the transfer was either to an agriculturist (as defined by the 

 Punjab Committee) holding land as a proprietor or occupancy-tenant 

 in the village in which the land sold or otherwise permanently 

 alienated was situated, or to another member of the same agricultural 

 tribe residing in the same district. 



O 9. 



Of these provisions we propose the following modifications. 



In the first place, in deference to a strong body of opinion, on 



this point, we think that the sanction of a Revenue-officer need 



not be obtained in cases where such sanction must be given as a 



matter of right. This was only intended as a precautionary 



measure, and we agree, on the whole, with those who think that the 



advantage to be gained in this respect would be outweighed by the 



inconvenience which would be caused to those with whose free right 



of permanent alienation there is no necessity for interfering. In 



one respect, however, we propose to restrict the free right of 



alienation by members of non-agricultural tribes, namely, when a 



member of such a tribe acquires land hereafter as an 'agriculturist' 



from a member of an agricultural tribe. We think it obA^ously 



necessary that a member of a non-agricultural tribe should not 



have the power to sell, or otherwise permanently alienate, without 



sanction, any land acquired under such conditions except to another 



agriculturist in the same village, or to a member of an agricultural 



tribe, and we propose to make provision accordingly. Then, as 



regards permanent alienations by members of agricultural tribes, we 



have been unable to accept a suggestion which has been put forward 



that no restriction should be placed on such transfers between 



members of any agricultural tribe, because we think that the 



widening of the market of free transfer to this extent would be open 



to the second objection which I have mentioned as applying to 



unrestricted transfer between agriculturists, namely, that the door 



