Land Acquisition Act, 1894

3. Definition:-

In this Act, unless there is something repugnant in the subject or context,-

(a) the expression” land" includes benefits to arise out of land, and things attached to the earth or permanently fastended to anything attached to the earth;

(b) the expression " person interested" includes all persons claiming an interest in compensation to be made on account of the acquisition of land under this Act; and a person shall be deemed to be interested in land if he is interested in an easement affecting the land;

(c) the expression "Collector" means the Collector of a district, and includes a Deputy Commissioner and any officer specially appointed by the appropriate Government to perform the function of a Collector under this Act;

(d) the expression "Court" means a principal Civil Court of original jurisdiction, unless the appropriate Government has appointed (as it is hereby empowered to do) a special judicial officer within any specified local limits to perform the functions of the Court under this Act;

(e) the expression "Company" means a Company registered under the {See now the Indian Companies Act, 1913(7 of 1913)} Indian Companies Act, 1882, or under the (English) Companies Acts, 1862 to 1890, or incorporated by an Act of Parliament {Ins.by the A.O.1950.} [of the United Kingdom ] or by an Indian law, or by Royal Charter or Letters Patent {Ins.by Act 17 of 1919, s.2.}[and includes a society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, and a registered society within the meaning of the Co-operative Societies Act, 1912];

{Ins.by the A.O.1950.}[(ee) the expression "appropriate Government" means, in relation to acquisition of land for the purposes of the Union , the Central Government, and, in relation to acquisition of land for any other purposes, the State Government].

(f)The expression " public purpose" includes the provision of village-sites In districts in which the appropriate Government shall have declared by notification in the Official Gazette that it is customary for the Government to make such provision; and

(g) the following persons shall be deemed persons "entitled to act" as and to the extent hereinafter provided (that is to say)-

trustees for other persons beneficially interested shall be deemed the persons entitled to act with reference to any such case, and that to the same extent as the persons beneficially interested could have acted if free from disability;

a married woman, in cases to which the English law is applicable, shall be deemed the person so entitled to act, and whether of full age or not, to the same extent as if she were unmarried and of full age ; and the guardians of minors and the committees or managers of lunatics or idiots shall be deemed respectively the persons so entitled to act, the same extent as the minors, lunatics or idiots themselves, if free from disability , could have acted:

Provided that-

(i) no person shall be deemed "entitled to act" whose interest in the subject- matter shall be shown to the satisfaction of the Collector or Court to be adverse to the interest of the person interested for whom he would otherwise be entitled to act;

(ii) in every such case the person interested may appear by a next friend or, in default of his appearance by a next friend, the Collector or Court , as the case may be , shall appoint a guardian for the case to act on his behalf in the conduct thereof ;

(iii) the provisions of {See now the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (5 of 1908), Sch.I Order XXXII.} Chapter XXXI of the Code of Civil Procedure shall , mutatis mutandis, apply in the case of persons interested appearing before a Collector or Court by a next friend, or by a guardian for the case, in proceedings under this Act ; and

(iv) no person "entitled to act" shall be competent to receive the compensation- money payable to the person for whom he is entitled to act unless he would have been competent to alienate the land and receive and give a good discharge for the purchase- many on a voluntary sale.

PART II

ACQUISITION

Preliminary investigation

{As to amendments with which this section should be read when land is required for the purposes of a Company, See s.38 (2), infra.)

(A protected monument may be acquired under this Act as if its preservation were a "public purpose" within the meaning of the Act, see s.10 of the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act, 1904 (7 of 1904).}

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