(1) With effect from the commencement of this Act, every cultivating tenant shall be bound to pay to the landowner and every landowner shall be entitled to collect from the cultivating tenant fair rent payable under this Act.
(2) Where the irrigation of any land is irregular, the landowner shall bear the excess water cess proportionate to his share of the produce.
(3) Notwithstanding any neglect or failure on the part of the cultivating tenant to raise any crop, the landowner shall be entitled to collect fair rent.
(4) Subject to the proviso to sub-section (2) of section 5, all the cultivation expenses inclusive of cost of seed, ploughing, manuring, harvesting and threshing shall be borne by the cultivating tenant.
1. Inserted by Act 8 of 1973, section 2, w.e.f 19-7-1973.
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(5) The landowner shall be responsible for the payment of all dues payable to the Government and local authorities in respect of the land subject to his right to recover from the cultivating tenant the public charges which are expressly made payable by the cultivating tenant by this Act.
(6) The landowner shall bear all capital expenditure necessary to maintain the land and wells in a state of proper repair.
(7) No landowner shall, after the commencement of this Act, claim or stipulate for:--
(i) payment of any amount by the cultivating tenant in excess of the fair rent or in excess of the public charges which are expressly made payable by the cultivating tenant by this Act;
(ii) the delivery by the cultivating tenant of any article or thing in addition to fair rent; or
(iii) any service by the cultivating tenant or the free use of his cattle.
Explanation I --- Nothing contained in this section shall affect the right of the landowner to claim from the cultivating tenant compensation for damages to the land or to anything that stood on the land at the time of lease.
Explanation II --- Where a cultivating tenant pays a contract rent lower than the fair rent payable under this Act, clause (iii) shall not apply.
(8) Any person, the rent receivable by whom from any cultivating tenant in respect of any land, suffers a reduction as a result of the provisions of this Act, shall, if he is himself a tenant in respect of that land under another person, be entitled to surrender the lease of that land as from a date specified by him by notice given to his landlord.
(9) A landowner may for better farming advance to his cultivating tenant who is not a member of any co-operative society such loan as may be necessary for manuring his land. The loan so advanced shall be a first charge on the share of the produce to which the cultivating tenant is entitled under this Act.
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(10) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-sections (4) and (9), the landowner may, with the consent of the cultivating tenant in the case of any wet land or garden land, attend to the manuring of the land by chemical manures and oil-cakes up to a sum equivalent to ten per cent of the average gross produce and recover the same from the cultivating tenant. The amount payable by the cultivating tenant under this sub-section shall be in addition to the fair rent payable under this Act.
What is fair rent?