(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, where a tenancy is terminated by surrender under section 20, the landlord shall be entitled to retain so much only of such land as will prevent the total area which he cultivates personally, whether as tenure-holder or tenant, or both from exceeding three family holdings.
(2) The Tahsildar shall hold an inquiry and declare whether the whole, or what part (if any) of the land surrendered the landlord is entitled to retain under sub-section (1), and notwithstanding anything in that sub-section, he may adjust by reduction or increase the area of any such part to be retained, but only so as to ensure that such part is not a fragment. The Tahsildar shall declare any land surrendered, which the landlord is not entitled to retain under the provisions aforesaid, to be surplus land.
(3) In respect of a surrender made by a tenant any time during the period commencing from the first day of August 1957, and ending on the date of the commencement of this Act, the landlord who has obtained possession of the land as a result of such surrender shall within three months from the date of the commencement of this Act, intimate the fact of such surrender in the prescribed manner and in the prescribed form to the Tahsildar.
(4) On receipt of such intimation the Tahsildar shall, notwithstanding anything contained in section 10, hold an inquiry and decide whether the surrender has been made validly in accordance with the law then applicable to such surrender and where the surrender is found to have been made validly, the Tahsildar shall decide the extent of land which the landlord shall be allowed to retain in his possession in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (2) as if the surrender had taken place after the commencement of this Act and shall declare any land surrendered, which the landlord is not entitled to retain under the provisions aforesaid, to be surplus land.
(5) Where the landlord fails to give intimation as required under sub-section (3) or where the surrender is found to be invalid as a result of the inquiry held under sub-section (4), the Tahsildar shall order the restoration of the possession of the land and the tenancy thereof to the tenant.