THE ASSAM BOARD OF REVENUE ACT, 1962

75 ASSAM ACT No.XXI OF 1962 THE ASSAM BOARD OF REVENUE ACT, 1962 (As passed by the Assembly) (Received the assent of the Governor on the 4th September 1962) [Published in the Assam Gazette, Extraordinary, dated the 5th September 1962] An Act to provide for the constitution of a Boa:rd of Revenue for the State of Assam Preamble Whereas it is expedient to provide for the constitution of a Board of Revenue for the State of As~am for the purpose and in the manner hereinafter appearing: It is hereby enacted in the Thirteenth Year of the Republic of India as follows:- CHAPTER I Preliniinary Short title, I. ( 1) This Act may be called the Assam Board of extent and Revenue Act, 1962. comm en- (2) It extends to the whole of the State of cement. Assam. (3) It shall come into force on such date as the State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint. Oeiinition 2. In this Act, u nless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context-- (1) "Board" means the Assam Board of Revenue. constituted under Section 3. (2) "Prescribed" means prescribed by tulcs made under thls Act. (3) "Schedule" means schedule to this Act. CHAPTER II Constitution, Powers and Functions of the Assam Board of Revenue Constitution 3. ll) The State Government shall constitute for ol the Board, the State of Assam a Board to be known as the Assam Board of Revenue. Membership (2) The Board ~ hall consist of three memeers of the Board. to be appointed bv the Stateo> Government. 76 Quali fica• (3) A member of the Board shall either be a 1Jef­ tion of tbe son whu, in the opinion of th;! Stule Ge vernment , is, m ember. Ly reason ol lm wide adm inistrative o. judicial. experience, fitted to serve on the Board or a person who is qualified to be appointed as a Judge of a Higli Court. Chairman of ( 4) The Stale Government shall appoint one of the the Board. members or the Board to Act as the Chairman thereof. Constitution (5) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub­ of Benches. section (2), the Chair man of the Board shall be com­ petent to constitute or reconstitute Benches comisting ' of one or two members of the Board to dispose Lf any case or class of cases and the decisions of suc:i Benches shall be deemed to be the decisions of the ·Board. Deci sion (6) If there be any diff~rence of opm10n between where a p- the members constituting a two-member Bench in peal heard, disposing of a case, the matter shall be placed before lJy. h .two the Chairman who may, in his discre tion, either refer uierr, e t 8 ' the matter tc the third member or refer it to the foll Ag; limit Salary Hoard for hearing and finally disposing of the matter. (7) No person shall be retained as a member of the Board after he has attained the age of sixty years. (8) The salary and allowances of the members of · the Board shall be such as may be prescribed. Power.s i:ind 4. The Board shall have the power and jurisdiction J~nsdicti~n - to entertain appeals and petitions and revise decisions Boaid. t e in revenue cases arising under the provisions of the enactments specified in Schedule 'A' and sha'. l also have such power and jurisdiction vs may be cor.ferred on it by any other law for the t ime being in force. Powe,r of . 5. Without prejudice to anything cont<.ined in G Statt · Section 4, the State Government m ay, by notification, overnrnent . h B d h h d · d fi ; <o assign assign to t ,e oar sue ot er uu~ s an unct10ns additional as it may . oeem fit. duties and functions. iSoard's deci· 1ion final. 6. No appeal or revision shall lie against any order passed by the Board in the exercise of its powers of appeal or revision under this Act. .tloard'.s po- 7. (1) Notwithstaudinrr anything contair.ed 111 we1 of review , _ 6 h "' d 1. . S . or its own ~ectrnn > to t e contrary, an s.Uuject to ect10n 8, j :1dgment. the Board may, on the application of any of the par- ties review its own decision or order in any case and may .pa~s such order as it thinks fit : .· .u Piovide<l that no such decision or order shall · he - .review.c:;d unle>s notice has been given to the opposite ' parties· to· appear and to show cause why ·· such order:·' .:·:, : ,. or tlecision s::ould not b ~ revie'wed . . (2) An apr.lication for review under sub-set; tion (1) by aoy party - shall be made within ninety days from the date of the decis1011 or order of the Board. (3) In computing the period of limitation, the provisions of the Indian Limitation Act, 1908 applica· ble to the applications for review of a judgment or Act IX d order of a Civil Court shall, so far as may be, apply 1903• to applications for review under this section. Amendment 8. Clerical or arith tnetical mistakeg in decision or of decision orders or errors arising therein from any accidental or orders. slip or omission may at any time be corrected by the ~ Board either of its own motion or on the application of any of the parties. Dos ts Board's place of sitting. Contempt [ j · Power to tn .. ke rules, - f: ~ , .. . \ . 9. In any proceeding referred to in Se~tion 4 or Section 7, the Board may award such costs as it thinks fit and determine by whom such costs are tQ be paid and , where there are several persons liable, the amount to be paid by each such person. Any cost awarded by t he Board shall be recoverable as if it were an arrear of land revenue. 10. Subject to the orders of the State Government, the Board may hold its Court at any place within tl:e State of Assam. 11. Tbe Board shall have the same powers of dealing with contempt of the Board or in respect of any proceedings before the Board as if the Board were a High Court referred to in Article 214 of the Constitu­ tion of India . CHAPTER ill MISCELLANEOUS 12. (l) The State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, wake rules consistent with the provisions of this Act, for carrying out the purposes of this Act save in rega.rd to the matters specified in Section 13. (2) All rules under this section ~hall be laid for not less than fourteen days before the Assam Legislative . Assembly as so:::.n as possible after they are made and · ~ ha)l be subj rct to such modifications as the Legislative Assembly may make during the session in which they are so laid or the session immediately following. Power to make l{egu lation by the Boa rd. 13. (1) S ubj ~ct to the previous sancti on of the State Go vernment the Board sha ll, frum time to time, frame regulations consistent with the pro visions of th is Act a nd rnles made undec Section 12 for regulati ng i ts procedure and disposal of it s business. (2 ) The regulations made under sub-sec tion (I. ) shall be published in the Official Gazette. Repeal and l+. ( I) The Assam Board of Revenue Act, 1959, is Assam Act Saving. hereby repealed. VIH of 1960. Eeria l No. (2) The en actmen ts specified i ;1 the th ird cnl u rr n of Sd1edu le 'B ' a re hereby repealed or am ended to the extent mentioned in tl1e fou rth column thereof: (3 ) Not'N ithsta nding such repeal u nder rnb-sections ( ! )and (2), any decision taken, order made, anything done or any proceeding commenced under any of th~ provisions of the Act repealed shall, in so far as they are not inconsistent with the provisinns of th is Act, con tinue in force and sha ll be deemed to have been taken, mad e, done or commenced under the corresponding provisions of this Ac t. SCHEDULE 'A' (See Sect ion 4) At J urisdiction I T he Opium Act, 1878 (1 of I. Appeal or re.vision under rule for the lll78). time bei ng in force mad e under Section 5. 2 T he Assam Local Rates Regulat ion, 1879 (III of 1879). 3 The Assam Forest Regula­ tion, 1891 (VII of 1891) . 4 The A:;sam Motor Vehicl es T axa tion Act, 1936 (I X of 1936) . 5 The Motor Vehicle~ Act, 1939 (IV of 1Q39) . 2. Appeal or revision against an order passed under Sections 23, 24 and 25. Appeal under Section 8 against the order of any officer appointed under Section 6 to as~ess or collect the rates. 1. Appeal in matters of Sections 11, IZ, 13 and 14. 2. R evision under Section 20 of arrange­ ments mar e under Section 13 or 16 . R evision of orders under Section 17. Appeals against the order of the State Transpor t Aut hority in any matter falling under clauses (a), (b), (c), (d), (e) , ( f ) , (g), (h) and (iJ of Section 64. Year 1910 2 3 No. Act 79 SCHEDULE '13' (See Section 14) 4 Extent of repeal or amendment l Assam Excise Act, 1910 1. For section 9 of the Act the following shall be substitu· ted, namely:- " 9. \1) Orders passed by the Excise Commissioner, a District Collector or a Collector other than a· District Collector under this Act or under any Rule made hereunder shall be appealable to the Ass<1m Board of Revenue. (2) The Assam Board of Revenue may call for the proceedings held by any of the officers mentioned in sub-section (1) and pass such orders thereon as it thiuks fit". 2. In sub-section (2) of section 2.7 of the Act, for the word "Board" the words "Assam Board of Reve­ nue" shall be substituted. 1913 III The Bengal Puhlic D emands 1. In section 3 of the Act, after Recovery Act, 1913. sub-clause (7) the following shall be imerted as sub-clau~e (8), namely:- "(8) "Board'' means the Assam Board of Revenue constituted under the Assam Board of Revenue Act, 1962 ". 2. In section 51 of the Act, in clause (b) of sub-section (1), for the word "Commissioner'' the word "Board'' shall be substituted. 3. For section 53 of the Act, the following shall be substituted, namely:- "53. The Collector may revise any order passed by the Certifi­ cate Officer, the Assi&tant Collec­ tor or the Deputy Collector under this Act ; and the Board may .revise any order passed by a Collector µ:qdcr this Acf> · Year I 1935 I 939 !948 80 No. Act 2 3 III The Assam (Temporarily Settled Districts) T enan­ cy Act, 1935, The Northern India ferri~s Act, l 878. I The Assam Commissio­ ners' Powers Distribu­ tion Act, 1939. XII IV The Assam Commissio- ners' (Transfer oJ Powers) Act, 1947. The Assam Revenue Tr i .. bunal (Transfer of fowers) Act, 1946. Extent of repeal or amendment 4 1. In section 3 of the Act, after clause ( 17), the following shall be inserted as clause ~!8), namdy :- "(18) 'Board' means the Assam Board of Revenue consti· tuted und er the Assam Board of Revenue Act, 1962." 2. In section 98 of the Act,- (I) for the word ~ · Commissio­ ner " occurring in clause (a) the word "Board" shall be substituted ; (2) the proviso at the end shall be deleted. 3. In section 99 of the Act, in sub-section (1), for the word " Com missioner'' occurring between the words "the" and ''after'' the word "Board" shall be substitu­ ted. 4. In section 102 of the Act, for the word "Commissioner" occurring between the words "the" and "of" the word "Board" shall be rnbstitu­ ted. In sectiori 31 of the Act, in the second paragraph for t)le words "Commissioner of the Division" occurring between the words •·The" and "may" the words "Assam Board of Revenue" shall be substituted 'fhe Whole Do.