CHAPTER XVI
PROVISIONS AS TO RENT AND REALISATION OF RENT
Instalment of rent135. (1) Subject to agreement or establishment usage, the rent payable by a raiyat shall be paid in two equal instalments falling due on such dates as may be prescribed.
(2) Subject to agreement, the rent payable by a non-agricultural tenant shall be paid in one annual instalment falling due on the last day of the agricultural year.
Time and place for payment of rent136. (1) Every raiyat shall pay or tender each instalment of rent and every non-agricultural tenant shall pay or tender the rent before sunset of the day on which it falls due:
Provided that the raiyat or the non-agricultural tenant may pay or tender the rent payable for the year at any time during the year before it falls due.
(2) The payment or tender of rent may be made-
(a) at the village tahsil office or at such other convenient place as may by appointed in that behalf by the Collector; or
(b) by postal money-order in the manner prescribed.
(3) When rent is sent by postal money-order in the prescribed manner it shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, that a tender has been made.
(4) When rent sent by postal money-order is accepted, the fact of this acceptance shall not be used in any way as evidence of the correctness of any of the particulars set forth in the postal money-order form.
(5) Any rent or any instalment or part of an instalment of rent not duly paid at or before the time when it falls due shall be deemed to be an arrear.
Appropriation of payments137. (1) When a raiyat or a non-agricultural tenant makes a payment on account of rent, he may declare the year or years and the instalment or instalments in respect of which he wishes the payment to be credited, and the payment shall be credited accordingly.
(2) If he does not make any such declaration, the payment shall be credited towards the arrears, if any, and the balance, if any, after the arrears have been satisfied, and where there is no arrear, the whole amount, shall be credited as the rent of the current year.
Raiyat making payment of his rent entitled to a receipt138. Every raiyat or non-agricultural tenant who makes a payment on account of rent shall be entitled to obtain forthwith, from the person authorised in writing by the Collector to receive such rent, a written receipt in the prescribed form for the amount paid by him signed by the person so authorised.
Liability of holding to sale for arrears139. The holding of a raiyat or the tenancy of a non-agricultural tenant shall be liable to sale in execution of a certificate signed under the Bengal Public Demands Recovery Act, 1913, for the rent thereof, and the rent shall be a first charge thereon.
Interest on arrears140. An arrear of rent shall bear simple interest at the rate of six and a quarter per centum per annum from the expiry of the year in which the rent or instalments of rent, as the case may be, fall due to the date of payment or of the filing of the certificate under the Bengal Public Demands Recovery Act, 1913, whichever date is earlier.
Realisation of arrears of rent under the Bengal Public Demands Recovery Act, 1913141. All arrears of rent shall be recoverable under the Bengal Public Demands Recovery Act, 1913, subject to such rules as may be made in this behalf by the Government and not otherwise:
Provided that a certificate signed under the said Act for arrears of rent shall not be executed by arresting the certificate-debtor and detaining him in the civil prison.
Amounts paid into court to prevent Sale to be a mortgage demand in certain cases68[141A. (1) When a co-sharer tenant, whose interests are affected by the sale of a holding or tenancy advertised for sale in execution of a certificate for arrears of rent due in respect thereof signed under the Bengal Public Demands Recovery Act, 1913, pays into the court, the amount requisite to prevent the sale-
(a) the amount so paid by him shall be deemed to be a debt bearing interest at six and a quarter per centum per annum and secured by a mortgage of such holding or tenancy to him; and
(b) his mortgage shall take priority over every other charge on such holding or tenancy other than a charge for arrears of rent.
(2) Nothing in this section shall affect any other remedy to which such co-sharer tenant would be entitled.]
Limitation142. The period of limitation for the recovery of an arrear of rent shall be three years running from the last day of the year in which the arrear fell due.