15Grant of permission to plant tea in special circumstance

(1) Where any land which was on the 31st day of March 1933, planted with tea (including land planted with tea on the 31st day of March 1931, from which the original bushes had been uprooted and which had not been replanted with tea on the said 31st day of March 1933), or where any land planted with tea after the 31st day of March, 1933--

(a) has since become wholly incapable of carrying tea through circumstances due to war, or through subsidence, flood, erosion, earthquake or other irresistible superhuman cause, or

(b) has since been compulsorily acquired under the provisions of the land Acquisition Act, 1894 (1 of 1994), or of any other law for the time being in force and no longer carries tea, or

(c) has since been transferred to the Central or a State Government or to a local authority and no longer carries tea, or

(d) has since been resumed by the lessor under the terms of any lease and no longer carries tea, wherever of the tea estate in which such land is situated may apply to the Board for permission to plant tea on land not planted with tea.

Explanation.--Land taken for purposes connected with the prosecution of war on which tea bushes have been allowed to remain for protective purposes though no longer cultivated shall be deemed for the purposes of this section to be incapable of carrying or no longer to carry tea.

(2) Upon such application being made and upon proof to the satisfaction of the Board that the application is entitled to the benefit of sub-section (1) the Board may by order grant permission to plant tea on land not planted with tea:

Provided that the area of land in respect of which such permission is granted shall be within the same or an adjacent district and shall belong to the same or an adjacent tea estate and shall not exceed in extent the area of the land incapable of carrying tea or compulsorily acquired, transferred or resumed, as the case may be.

(3) All areas of land in respect of which permission to plant tea is granted under this section shall be excluded when computing for the purpose of section 13 the total area of land in respect of which the permission referred to in section 12 may be granted.

(4) If any land falling within the Explanation to sub-section (1) is subsequently restored to the tea estate from which it was substracted, the owner of the estate shall either uproot the tea planted thereon, or uproot any tea planted by him in pursuance of a permission granted under sub-section (2).