20Acquisition of exproprietary rights

(1) If the whole of the interest of a sole proprietor of a village or of a specific area thereof is transferred, either by foreclosure or sale in execution of a decree or order of a civil or revenue court, or by voluntary alienation, otherwise than (a) by gift or (b) by exchange of specific areas between co-sharers of the village, he shall become an exproprietary tenant of the whole of his khudkasht in such village or area which he has cultivated continuously for three years or more at the date of such transfer, and shall be entitled to hold the same at a rate payable by an exproprietary tenant under sections 63 and 64.

(2) If a part only of the interest of a sole proprietor of a village or of a specific area thereof is so transferred, or where there are two or more co-sharers in the proprietary interest of a village or of specific area thereof, and such transfer relates to the whole or part of the proprietary interest of some of them, exproprietary rights shall accrue in so much of khudkasht so cultivated as appertains or corresponds to the part of the interest so transferred and, unless by mutual agreement the transferor and the transferee have demarcated the area in which exproprietary rights have accrued, and fixed the rent, not higher than the rent specified in sections 63 and 64, the sub-divisional officer shall, in the course of mutation proceedings or, if more convenient, in a separate proceeding, started on his own motion, or on the application of the exproprietary tenant or the landlord, or on the report of the patwari, demarcate such area and declare the rent in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (1).

(3) A mortgage shall be deemed to be a voluntary alienation within the meaning of sub-section (1), if it has the effect of transferring proprietary possession of the land mortgaged from the mortgagor to the mortgagee but not otherwise.

(4) Notwithstanding anything in sub-section (1), (2) or (3), exproprietary rights shall not accrue in grove-land, or in land transferred for any purpose inconsistent with the existence of a right of cultivation therein.

(5) After disposing of the case for demarcation of the exproprietary area and declaration of rent thereon under sub-section (2), the sub-divisional officer shall submit the record of the case for confirmation of the order passed by him to the collector.