The Pondicherry Cultivating Tenants Protection Act of 1970

This act was brought into force on 10th April 1971 and the provisions of this act were made applicable only to Pondicherry, Karaikal and Yanam regions. Relevant rules were framed under the act and they were notified on 17th May 1971. The act provided protection to tenants from the eviction of landlords. This protection was not, however, available to those tenants who were in arrears of rent which occurred after 21st March 1970, to those who were guilty of any negligent or injurious act to the land or crop, to those who had diverted the land to non-agricultural use and to those who denied the title of landlord. Besides laying down the procedure for regulating surrenders and abandonment of tenancy the act also provided for the restoration, on application to the revenue court of the tenant who was actually in possession of land on 1st December 1969 but was not in possession of it at the commencement of this act. The act, nonetheless, protects the right of the landlord to resume to personal cultivation, land not exceeding one half of the land leased out to cultivating tenant, although he cannot do so, if the land he owns exceeds 5 1/3 hectares of wet lands, or when he is assessed to sales tax during 1967-68 or holds land as tenant of wet land exceeding two hectares.