[7
of 2023] [10th
April 2023] An Act to amend the West
Bengal Land Reforms Act, 1955. WHEREAS it is expedient to
amend the West Bengal Land Reforms Act, 1955, for the purpose of incorporation
of the word "township" in the second proviso to section 14Y and also
for improving ease of doing business and hassle free transfer/mortgage of land
and for inviting more investment and also for providing an option for the
conversion of leasehold land to freehold land and/or for settlement of
Government non-agricultural land and leased out land and to provide necessary
measures to hold such freehold ceiling surplus land in the manner hereinafter
appearing; It is hereby enacted in the
Seventy-fourth Year of the Republic of India, by the Legislature of West
Bengal, as follows:- (1)
This Act may be called the West Bengal Land
Reforms (Amendment) Act, 2023. (2)
It shall come into force on such date as the
State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint. "Provided further that
such person having been permitted by the State Government to establish an
industrial park or industrial hub or industrial estate or financial hub or
logistic hub or a bio-tech park or a food park or township, shall utilize such
land and lease out or transfer on freehold basis on payment of prescribed fees
to the Land and Land Reforms and Refugee Relief and Rehabilitation Department
the whole or any part of it with the previous permission of the appropriate
Department of the State Government under intimation to the Land and Land
Reforms and Refugee Relief and Rehabilitation Department, for the purpose for
which he has been so permitted to acquire and hold such land to such a person
who will set up an unit thereon as per objects of the respective projects as
approved:". (1)
in sub-section (2), the following provisos
shall be inserted:- "Provided that an
existing lessee of such land of non-agricultural purposes or a person, a body
of individuals, a society, an institution, a corporation, a company, a firm, a
trust or a co-operative society intending to take lease of any such land for
non-agricultural purposes, may apply before the State Government for holding
such demised land on freehold basis as a raiyat, which may be permitted by the
State Government on payment of such premium and for such specific classes of
land as may be prescribed, if such permission in the opinion of the State
Government is so required for that particular purposes only: Provided further that State
Government having regard to all the circumstances of the case of an existing
lessee of such land of non-agricultural purposes or a person, a body of
individuals, a society, an institution, a corporation, a company, a firm, a
trust or a co-operative society intending to take lease, may allow to hold such
freehold land as raiyat for the purpose for which it is settled or intended to
be settled, with permission in writing, on such terms and conditions as may be
prescribed, even if the total quantum of land including such freehold land held
by such raiyat exceeds the ceiling area as prescribed under section 14M of this
Act."; (2)
in sub-section (3), for the words "If
the State Government is of the opinion that different sets of rules are
necessary for the management of different classes or description of lands or
lands of different areas,", the words, figure and brackets "If the
State Government is of the opinion that different sets of rules are necessary
for the management of different classes or description of lands or lands of
different areas, as well as for the purposes mentioned under the provisos to
sub-section (2)," shall be substituted.West
Bengal Land Reforms (Amendment) Act, 2023
In section 14L of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act, 1955 (hereinafter referred
to as the principal Act), for the words, letters, figures and brackets
"Subject to the provisions of sub-section (3) of section 14Q, section 14Y
and sub-section (2) of section 14Z", the words, letters, figures and
brackets "Subject to the provisions of sub-section (3) of section 14Q,
section 14Y, sub-section (2) of section 14Z and second proviso to sub-section
(2) of section 52" shall be substituted.
In section 14Y of the principal Act, for the second proviso the following
proviso shall be substituted:-
In sub-section (4) of section 51A of the principal Act, for the words, figure
and brackets "on application within one year, or on his own motion within
thirty five years from the date of publication of the record of rights under
sub-section (2),", the words "on information or on his own
motion," shall be substituted.
In section 52 of the principal Act,-