In force · As amended up to 2026-08
CHAPTER II.
RIGHT OF OCCUPANCY.
5. Tenants having right of occupancy .—(1) A tenant—
(a) who at the commencement of this Act has for more than two generations in the male line of descent through a grandfather or grand-uncle and for a period of not less than twenty years been occupying land paying no rent thereof beyond the amount of the land-revenue thereof and the rates and cesses for the time being chargeable thereon, or
(b) who having owned land, and having ceased to be landowner thereof otherwise than by forfeiture to the Government or than by any voluntary act, has, since he ceased to be landowner, continuously occupied the land, or
(c) who, in a village or estate in which he settled along with, or was settled by, the founder thereof as a cultivator therein, occupied land on the twenty-first day of October, 1868, and has continuously occupied the land since that date, or
(d) who, being jagirdar of the estate or any part of the estate in which the land occupied by him is situate, has continuously occupied the land for not less than twenty years, or , having been such jagirdar, occupied the land while he was jagirdar and has continuously occupied it for not less than twenty years,
Has a right of occupancy in the land so occupied, unless, in the case of a tenant belonging to the class specified in clause (c), the landlord proves that the tenant was settled on land previously cleared and brought under cultivation by, or at the expense of, the founder.
(2) If a tenant proves that he has continuously occupied land for thirty years and paid no rent there for beyond the amount of the land-revenue thereof and the rates and cesses for the time being chargeable thereon, it may be presumed that he has fulfilled the conditions of clause (a) of sub-section (1).
(3) the words in that clause denoting natural relationship denote also relationship by adoption, including therein the customary appointment of an heir, and relationship by the usage of a religious community.
6. Right of occupancy of other tenants recorded as having the right before passing of Punjab Tenancy Act, 1868. —A tenant recorded in a record-of-rights sanctioned by the Local Government before the twenty first day of October, 1868, as a tenant having a right of occupancy in land which he has continuously occupied from the time of the preparation of that record, shall be deemed to have a right of occupancy in that land unless the contrary has been established by a decree of a competent Court in a suit instituted before the passing of this Act.
7 . Right of occupancy in land taken in exchange .— If the tenant has voluntarily exchanged the land, or any portion of the land, formerly occupied by him for other land belonging to the same landlord, the land taken in exchange shall be held to be subject to the same right of occupancy as that to which the land given in exchange would have been subject if the exchange had not taken place.
Source: India Code