The rajasthan agricultural loans act, 1956

Rajasthan Agricultural Loans Act, 1956 
(Act No. 1 of 1957) 
 
[received assent of  the Governor on the 2nd day of January ,1957] 
An 
Act 
 to consolidate and amend the law relating to loans of money by the State 
Government for agricultural purposes. 
Whereas it is expedients to consolidate and amend the law relating to loans 
of money by the State Government for agricultural purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Rajasthan State Legislature in the Seventh Year of the 
Republic of India as follows, 
1. Short title, extend  and commencement- (1) This Act may be called the 
Rajasthan Agricultural Loans Act, 1956 
(2) It extends to the whole of the State of Rajasthan — 
(3) It shall come into force at once, 
2. Repeal - On and from the coming into force of this Act, the following 
shall stand repealed, namely 
(a) (1) the Alwar State Agriculturists' Loans Act 1944, and (2) the Bundi 
Agriculturists' Loans Act, 1939; and 
(b) any corresponding laws, other than the enactments referred to in clause 
(a) hitherto in force in any of the coven anting States, or in the Abu area 
or the Ajmer area or the Sunel area in so far as such laws are covered by, 
or are inconsistent with, the provisions of this Act. 
3. Interpretation - (1) In this Act, unless the subject or context otherwise 
requires 
(i) "agriculture" shall include horticulture; 
(ii) "agriculturist" shall mean a person who, by himself or by servants or 
tenants, earns his livelihood wholly or principally by agriculture or by 
cattle breeding; 
(iii) "Board" shall mean the Board of Revenue for Rajasthan established 
and constituted under or in accordance with the law for the time being 
in force; 
(iv) "Collector" shall include an Additional collector; 
(v) "improvement" shall mean, with reference to a tenant's holding,- 
(a) a dwelling house erected  on the holding by the tenant for his own 
occupation or a cattle-shed or a store-house or any other construction 
for agricultural purposes erected or set up by him on his holding; 
(b) any work which adds materially to the value of the holding and 
which is consistent with the purpose for which it was let; and, subject 
to the foregoing provisions of this clause, shall include- 
(i) the construction of bunds, tanks, wells water channels and other 
works for the storage, supply, or distribution of water for 
agricultural purposes; 
(ii) the construction of works for the drainage of land for its protection-
from floods or from erosion or from other damage by water; 
(iii) the reclaiming, clearing, enclosing, levelling, or terracing of land; 
(iv) the erection in the immediate vicinity of the holding otherwise than 
on the village site, of buildings required for the convenient or 
profitable use or occupation of the holding; 
(v) the renewal or reconstruction of the foregoing works or such 
alterations therein or additions th ereto as are not of the nature of 
mere repairs; and 
(vi) such other works as the State Government may, from time to time, 
by notification in the Official Gazette, declare to be improvements 
for the purposes of this Act, but shall not include such temporary  
wells, water channels bunds enclosures or other works as are made 
by tenants in the ordinary course of cultivation. 
(vii) "land" shall mean land which is let or held for agricultural 
purposes or for purposes subservient thereto or as grove land for 
pasturage, including land occupied by houses or enclosures 
situated on a holding, or land covered with water which may be 
used for the purpose of irrigation or growing singhara or other 
similar produce but excluding abadi land; it shall include benefits 
to arise out of land and things attached to the earth or permanently 
fastened to anything attached to the earth; 
(viii) "State" shall mean the new State of Rajasthan as formed by 
section 10 of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 (Central Act, 37 
of 1956). 
(2) The provisions of the Rajasthan General Clauses Act, 1955 (Rajasthan 
Act 8 of 1955) in force in the pre -reorganisation State of Rajasthan shall, as far as 
may be, apply mutatis to this Act. 
4. Purposes for which loans may be granted under this Act. - Subject to 
such rules as may be made under section II, loans may be granted under this Act by 
such officer as may, from time to time, be empowered in this behalf by the state 
Government— 
(1) to any person having a right to make an improvement or, with his  
consent, to any other person for the purpose of making such improvement; 
and 
(2) to landholders and tenants of land — 
(a) for the purchase of seed, manure, fodder, cattle, agricultural 
implements of Persian wheels, or 
(b) for the relief of distress, or 
(c) for any other purpose connected with agricultural objects including 
the purchase of rights in land, or for any other work connected with 
cattle breeding which adds materially to the occupation of cattle 
breeding. 
5. Mode of dealing with application for loans.- (1) when an application for 
a loan is made under this Act, the officer to whom the application is made may, if 
it is, in his opinion, expedient that public notice be given of the application, publish 
a notice in such manner as the State Government m ay, from time to time, direct 
calling upon all persons objecting to the loan to appear before him at a time and 
place fixed therein and submit their objections. 
(2) The officer shall consider every objection submitted under sub section 
(1) and make an orde r in writing either admitting or over -ruling it Provided that, 
when the question raised by an objection is, in the opinion of the officer, one of 
such a nature that it cannot be satisfactorily decided except by a Civil Court, he 
shall postpone his proceedi ng on the application until the question his been so 
decided. 
6. Period of repayment of loans. - (1) with the exception of loans granted 
for the purchase of seed, manure and fodder, every other loan granted under this 
Act shall, subject to rules made in thi s behalf by the State Governments be 
repayable by instalments (in the form of an annuity or otherwise) ordinarily within 
ten years from the date of the actual advance of the loan or, when the loan is 
advanced in instalments, from the date of the advance of  the last instalment 
actually paid : 
Provided that in exceptional cases the period may be extended to twenty 
years with the sanction of the State Government. 
(2) subject as aforesaid— 
(a) every loan granted under this Act i.Jr the purchase of seed or manur e 
shall ordinarily be repayable in full immediately after the harvest for 
which the loan is granted; 
(b) every loan for the purchase of fodder. shall be repayable in two 
instalments. 
7. Recovers of loans. - (1) Subject to such rules as may be made under 
section 11, all loans granted under this Act, all interest (if any) chargeable thereon 
and costs (if any) incurred in making or recovering the same shall, when they 
become due, be default of payment, by the recoverable, in collector in all or any of 
the following modes, namely— 
(a) from the borrower, - as if they were arrears of land revenue due by 
him; 
(b) from his surety (if any) as if they were arrears of land revenue due by 
him; 
(c) out of the land for the benefit of which the loan has been granted as if 
they were arrears of land revenue due in respect of that land; 
(d) out of the property comprised in the collateral security (if any) 
according to the procedure for the realisation of land revenue by the 
sale of immovable property other than the land on whic h that revenue 
is due: 
Provided that no proceeding in respect of any land under clause (c) shall 
affect any interest in that land which existed before the date of the order granting 
the loan, other than the interest of the borrower, and of the mortgagees o f, or 
persons having charges on, that interest and, where the loan is granted under clause 
(1) of section 5 with the consent of another person, the interest of that person, and 
of mortgagees of persons having charges on, that interest. 
(2) When any sum due on account of any such loan, interest or cost is paid to 
the Collector by a surety or an owner of property comprised in any collateral 
security or is recovered under sub- section (1) by the Collector from a surety or out 
any such property, the Collector shall, on the application of the surety or the owner 
of that property (as the case may be), recover that sum on his behalf from the 
borrower or out of the land for the benefit of which the loan has been granted in the 
manner provided by sub-section(1). 
(3) It shall be in the discretion of a Collector acting under this section to 
determine the order in which he will resort to the various modes of recovery 
permitted by it. 
8. Order granting loan conclusive on certain points. - A written order 
under the hand of an officer empowered to make loans under this Act granting a 
loan to, or with the consent of a person mentioned therein, for the purpose of 
carrying out a work described therein for the benefit of land specified therein, shall 
for the purposes of this Act, be conclusive evidence— 
(a) that the work described is an improvement within the meaning of the 
Act; 
(b) that the person mentioned had at the date of the order a right to make 
such an improvement; and 
(c) that the improvement is one benefiting the land specified. 
9. Liability of joint borrowers as among themselves. — When a loan is 
granted under this Act to the members of a village community or to any other 
person on such terms that all of them are jointly and s everally bound to the State 
Government for the payment of the whole amount payable in respect there of and a 
statement showing the portion of the amount which as among themselves each is 
bound to contribute is entered upon the order granting the loan and i s signed by 
each of them and by the officer making the order that statement shall be conclusive 
evidence of the portion of than amount which as among themselves each of those 
persons is bound to contribute. 
10. Exemption of improvements from assessment to land revenue. - 
When land is improved with the aid of a loan granted under this Act, the increase 
in value derived from the improvement shall not be taken into account in revising 
the assessment of land revenue or rent on the land: 
Provided as follows : 
(1) where the improvement consists of the reclamation of waste land or of 
the irrigation of land assessed at un-irrigated rates the increase may be so 
taken into account after the expiration of such period as may be fixed by 
rules to be framed by the State Government, and 
(2) nothing in this section shall entitle any person to call in question any 
assessment of land revenue or rent otherwise than as it might have been 
called in question if this Act had not been passed. 
11. Power to make rules. - The State Gover nment may, from time to time, 
by notification in the Official Gazette, make rules consistent with this Act to 
provide for the following matters, namely : 
(a) the manner of making applications for loans; 
(b) the.officers by whom loans may be granted; 
(c) the manner of conducting enquiries relative to applications for loans 
and powers to be exercised by officers conducting those enquiries; 
(d) the nature of the security to be taken for the due application and 
repayment of the money, the rate of interest at wh ich, and the 
conditions under which, loans may be granted and the manner and 
time of granting loans; 
(e) the inspection of works for which loans have been granted; 
(f) the instalments by which, and the mode in which, loans, the interest to 
be charged on them and the costs incurred in the making thereof, shall 
be paid; 
(g) the manner of keeping and auditing the accounts of the expenditure of 
loans and of the payments in respect of the same; 
(h) all matters which may be or are required to be prescribed or in respect 
of which rules may he made or required to be made under any 
provisions of this Act; and 
(i) all other matters pertaining to the working of the Act. 
 
 

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