ACCRUAL OF OCCUPANCY RIGHTS 73 



accrual. There were three processes to which they 

 had recourse to gain this end. (1) They prevented 

 the actual accrual of occupancy rights by granting 

 short term leases, which under the law were then a 

 bar to the acquisition of such rights ; this method was, 

 however, but sparingly employed, as the landlords of 

 the Province have a marked aversion to granting 

 leases. The usual tenure on which land is held by 

 tenants-at-will is a year-to-year tenancy. (2) The 

 second method employed was to alter the tenant's 

 holding from year to year so as to preclude proof of 

 continuous occupancy of the same plot for twelve 

 years. (3) But by far the commonest practice was to 

 eject the tenant before the twelve years had expired, 

 and so to bring about a technical termination of his 

 tenure. When legal evidence of this had been estab- 

 lished, the landlord would generally readmit the man 

 whom he had evicted as a new tenant, at the same or 

 an enhanced rent. The extent to which this method 

 was practised is shown by the remarks made by the 

 Board of Revenue on the subject of ejectments in suc- 

 cessive years. 



Extract from the Revenue Administration Report 

 for 1891-92, p. 33 : 



' Applications for ejectment of tenants-at-will under 

 section 36, rose from 57,875 to 64,353, an increase of 

 6,478. . . . The main object of landholders in issuing 

 these notices doubtless is to prevent the accrual of 

 rights of occupancy before the twelve years period of 

 occupation has been completed, more especially where, 

 and at times when, enhancement of the rent is possible. 

 It seems reasonable, therefore, to connect the increase 

 in notices of ejectment in the western and central dis- 

 tricts with the state of the harvests, and to conclude, 

 as several officers have done, that these notices tend 

 to become more numerous when the seasons are pros- 

 perous. Among others, the Commissioner of Agra, 

 who has given careful attention to the working of the 



