S.1 SHORT TITLE, EXTENT AND COMMENCEMENT.

       (1) This Act may be called the Tamil Nadu Indebted Agriculturists (Temporary Relief) Act, 1975.
       (2) It extends to the whole of the State of Tamil Nadu.
(3) It shall be deemed to have come into force on the 10th January, 1975.

S.2 DEFINITIONS

       In this act, unless the context otherwise requires –
       (a) ‘Agricultural lands’ means land used for agriculture or horticulture not being land appurtenant to a residential building;-
       (b) agriculturist’ means a person who owns an interest in agricultural land, and who, by reason of such interest, is in possession of such land or is in receipt of the rents or profits thereof and shall include a lessee; but shall not include –
       (i) a firms registered under the Indian Partnership Act, 1932 (Central Act IX of 1932), or a company as defined in the Companies Act, 1956 (Central Act 1 of 1956), or a corporation formed in pursuance of an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom or of any special Indian Law, or.
(ii) any person who was assessed to income-tax under the Income-Tax Act 1961 (Central Act 43 o

S.3 BAR OF SUITS AND APPLICATIONS

       No suit for the recovery of a debt shall be instituted, no application for the execution of a decree for payment of money passed in a suit for the recovery of a debt shall be made, and no suit or application for the eviction of a tenant on the ground of non-payment of a debt shall be instituted or made, and no suit or application for the eviction of a tenant on the ground of non-payment of a debt shall be instituted or made, against any agriculturist in any civil or revenue court before the expiry of a year from the date of the commencement of this Act.

S.4 STAY OF PROCEEDINGS

(1) All further proceedings in suits and applications of the nature mentioned in section 3 in which relief is claimed against an agriculturist not being proceedings for the amendment of pleadings or for the addition, substitution, or the striking off or parties, but otherwise inclusive of proceedings consequent on orders or decrees made in appeals, revision petitions or applications for review shall, subject next to succeeding sub-section, stand stayed until the expiry of a year from the date of the commencement of this Act.

S.5 EXCLUSION OF TIME FOR LIMITATION

       (1) In computing the period of limitation or limit of time prescribed for a suit for the recovery of a debt or an application for the execution of a decree passed in such suit, the time during which the institution of the suit or the making of the application was barred by section 3 of this Act, or during which the plaintiff or his predecessor-in-title, believing in good faith that section 3 of this Act applied to such suit or such application, refrained from instituting the suit or making the application shall be excluded.
       (2) Where in a suit or an application in which the question of the exclusion of time under sub-section (1) arises the defendant or the respondent, or one of the defendants or respondents with respect to whom the question is raised, would have been an agriculturist but for the fact that in the year ending 1971-72, 1972-73, or 1973-74 he had been assessed to incom

S.6 EFFECT OF TRANSFER OF IMMOVABLE PROPERTY BY THE DEBTOR

Every transfer of immovable property by a debtor entitled to the benefit of section 3 or section 4, made after the date of the commencement of this Act and before the expiry of a year from the date of this Act, shall, in any suit or other proceedings, with respect to such transfer, be presumed, until the contrary is proved, to have been made with intent to defeat or delay the creditors of the transferor.

S.6(a) Interest not to accrue in respect of certain debts. –

No interest shall accrue during the period of operation of the Tamil Nadu Indebted person (Temporary Relief) Act 1975 in respect of a debt due from a Agriculturists on the 22nd July 1975, but interest shall accrue in respect of any debt obtained by an agriculturist after the said date.

S.7 ACT TO OVERRIDE OTHER LAWS, CONTRACTS, ETC.

       The provisions of this Act shall have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith contained in the Tamil Nadu Cultivating Tenants Protection Act, 1955 (Tamil Nadu Act XXV of 1955), the Tamil Nadu Public Trusts (Regulation of Administration of Agricultural Lands) Act 1968 (Tamil Nadu Act 16 of 1968), the Tamil Nadu Cultivating Tenants Arrears of Rent (Relief) Act, 1972 (Tamil Nadu Act 2) or in any other law for the time being in force, or any custom, usage or contract, or decree or order of a court of other authority.

S.8 POWER TO MAKE RULES.

       (1) The State Government may make rules to carry out the purposes of this Act.
       (2) All rules made under this Act shall be published in the Tamil Nadu Government Gazette, and unless they are expressed to come into force on a particular day shall come into force on the day on which they are so published.
       (3) Every rule made under this Act shall, as soon as possible, after it is made, be placed on the table of both Houses of the Legislature and if, before the expiry of the session in which it is so placed or the next session both Houses agree in making in modification in any such rule or both Houses agree that the rule should not be made, the rule shall thereafter have effect only in such modified form or be no effect, as the case may be, so however, that any such modification or annulment shall be without prejudice to the validity of anyth

S.9 REPEAL

The Tamil Nadu Indebted Agriculturists (Temporary Relief) Ordinance, 1975 (Tamil Nadu Ordinance 1 of 1975), is hereby repealed.