(1) Notwithstanding any contract to the contrary, the landlord of any holding held by an ordinary tenant shall, at the request of the tenant and on the tender by the tenant to him of a sum equal to two and-a-half times the annual rent payable in respect of the holding, together with the cost of preparing any instrument required for this purpose, confer upon the tenant the rights of an occupancy-tenant in respect of the holding ; and, when those rights have so been conferred, the rent of the tenant shall be deemed to be fixed under this Act, within the meaning of section 51, at the rate at which rent was payable by the tenant at the date of the request and tender :
Provided that the tenant may, for the purposes of any such request and tender, and the landlord may, upon any such request and tender being made to him, apply to a Revenue-officer, or during the progress of settlement-operations to a Settlement-officer, to fix the rent of the holding for the purposes of this section; and, if it is proved to the satisfaction of the officer that the rate of rent payable in respect of the holding is greater or less than the rate usually paid by ordinary tenants of holdings situate in the village or vicinity for land of similar quality with like advantages, the officer may fix the rent at the latter rate, and the rent so fixed shall for the purposes of this section be deemed to be, and to have been at the date of the request and tender, the rent payable by the tenant :/
Provided, further, that, if the application is made otherwise than during the progress of settlementoperations, nothing in this section shall be construed to empower a Revenue-officer to alter a rent within seven years of its having been fixed under any of the provisions of this Act, except on the ground that some such change as is described in section 15 has since occurred so as to render the rent so fixed no longer a fair rent.
(2) If a landlord to whom a request and tender are made by a tenant under sub-section (1), refuses or neglects for a period of one month to confer the rights of an occupancy-tenant on the tenant, the tenant may deposit the sum aforesaid in the Court of a Revenue-officer, or, during the progress of settlementoperations, of a Settlement-officer, and apply to that officer to confer upon him the rights of an occupancy-tenant in respect of the holding.
(3) The officer so applied to, after giving notice of the application to the landlord and hearing him, if he appears, and after making such inquiry as he thinks necessary, may execute any instrument required for conferring the rights of an occupancy-tenant in respect of the holding upon the tenant, and the execution shall have the same effect as an execution by the landlord.
(4) Every person upon whom the rights of an occupancy-tenant are conferred under this section shall be deemed to be an occupancy-tenant for the purposes of this Act.
(5) Nothing in this section shall apply to a holding consisting entirely of sir-land.