RESTRICTIONS ON THE ALIENATION OP LANDS. 239 



(iv) the enforcement of the provisions of the Act regarding tem- 

 porary alienations; 



(v) the completion of the existing provisions regarding the con- 

 version of conditional sales into temporary alienations. 



(W) the relation of the civil courts towards the executive in the 

 administration of the Act. 



I will now deal with each of these heads in the order given. 



(*') First as regards the question of occupancy rights. It was the 

 intention of the framers of the Act that the provisions of the Act 

 should not apply to occupancy rights, probably because it was thought 

 that the Punjab Tenancy Act did all that was required in the direction 

 of restricting the alienation of such rights. In 1904, however, the 

 Chief Court ruled that the definition of land in the Act did include 

 such rights, and that decision has been since acted on. It has now 

 been decided to remove all further room for doubt and to confirm 

 the present practice by expressly including occupancy rights in the 

 definition of land which the Act contains. 



An obvious device for evading the provisions of the Act was for 

 a member of the agricultural class to confer rights of occupancy on a 

 person in whose favour he could not effect an alienation of proprietary 

 rights. It has, therefore, been thought advisable to include the grant 

 of occupancy rights in the definition of permanent alienation given 

 in section 2 (4) of the Act, so that under section 3 such grants may, 

 if necessary, be prevented where the alienee is not a member of an 

 agricultural tribe. I should explain, however, that there is no in- 

 tention to prevent the Deputy Commissioner sanctioning such aliena- 

 tions where the object is to promote agricultural development by 

 giving favourable terms to new settlers and the like. 



Another point in connection with occupancy rights is that under 

 sections 53 and 54 of the Punjab Tenancy Act a landlord can claim 

 pre-emption in the case of a sale of, or foreclosure of a mortgage on, 

 a right of occupancy. These sections afford a possible means of 

 evading the provisions of the Land Alienation Act; and, while it is not 

 intended to place restrictions on the bond fide exercise of the right of 

 pre-emption by landlords who do not belong to the agricultural clasi, 

 ^ % is considered advisable that such transfers should be subjected to 

 the review of the Deputy Commissioner. While, therefore, on the 



