Gáro Hills Act, 18691
| [Act No. 22 of 1869] | [24th September, 1857] |
Passed by the Governor General of India in Council.
An Act to remove the Gáro Hills from the jurisdiction of the tribunals established under the General Regulations and Acts and for other purposes.
Preamble.- Whereas it is expedient to remove the territory commonly known as the Gáro Hills from the jurisdiction of the Civil, Criminal and Revenue Courts and offices established under the general Regulations and Acts, and to provide for the administration of justice and the collection of revenue in the said territory; It is hereby enacted as follows;-
1 Received the assent of the Governor General on the 24th September 1857.
1. Short title.- This Act may be called "The Gáro Hills Act, 1869."
2. Commencement of Act.- This Act shall come into operation on such day as the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal shall, by notification in the Calcutta Gazette, direct.
3. Repeal of enactments, Proviso.- On and after such day, Act No. VI of 1835 (so far as it relates to the Khási Hills therein termed ‘Cossyah’ Hills), and the Bengal Regulation X of 1822 shall be repealed: Provided that such repeal shall not affect any settlement of land-revenue or other matters made under the latter enactment with zamíndárs or other persons in any place to which this Act applies.
4. Gáro Hills removed from operation of general Regulations and Acts.- Save as hereinafter provided, the territory known as the Gáro Hills, bounded on the north and west by the District of Gawálpárá, on the south by the District of Mymeusingh as defined by the Revenue Survey, and on the east by the Khási Hills, is hereby removed from the jurisdiction of the Courts of Civil and Criminal Judicature and from the control of the offices of revenue constituted by the Regulations of the Bengal Code and the Acts passed by any legislature now or heretofore established in British India, as well as from the law prescribed for the said Courts and offices by the Regulations and Acts aforesaid;
And no Act hereafter passed by the Council of the Governor General for making Laws and Regulations shall be deemed to extend to any part of the said territory unless the same be specially named therein.
5. Administration of justice and settlement and collection of revenue vested in certain officers.- The administration of Civil and Criminal justice and-the superintendence of the settlement and realization of the public revenue and of all matters relating to rent within the said territory, are hereby vested in such officers as the said Lieutenant Governor may, for the purpose of tribunals of first instance or of reference and appeal, from time to time appoint. The officers so appointed shall, in the matter of the administration and superintendence aforesaid, be subject to the direction and control of the said Lieutenant Governor and be guided by such instructions as he may from time to time issue.
6. Place of imprisonment or transportation.- Any person liable to be imprisoned in any civil or criminal jail, or to be transported beyond sea, under any order or sentence passed by any officer or Court empowered as provided in this Act, may be imprisoned in any civil or criminal jail, or transported to any place, which the said Lieutenant Governor may direct.
7. Power to prevent private collection of cesses and Compensation.- The said Lieutenant Governor may prevent, by such means as he shall think fit, the collection by zamíndárs or other persons of any cesses, tributes, or exactions, on whatsoever pretence the same may be levied, from the inhabitants of the said territory, and may make arrangements either for the remission of such cesses, tributes and exactions, or for their collection direct by the officers of Government, making such compensation to zamíndárs or others justly entitled thereto, for the relinquishment of the same, as may to him seem proper.
8. Power to extend laws to Gáro Hills.- The said lieutenant Governor may, from time to time, by notification in the Calcutta Gazette, extend to the said territory any law, or any portion of any law, now in force in the other territories subject to his government, or which may hereafter he enacted by the Council of the Governor General or of the said Lieutenant Governor for making Laws and Regulations,
and may on making such extension direct by whom any powers or duties incident to the provisions so extended shall be exercised or performed, and make any order which he shall deem requisite for carrying such provisions into operation.
9. Power to extend Act to Jintíá and Nága Hills, and to British portion of Khási Hills.- The said Lieutenant Governor may, from time to time, by notification in the Calcutta Gazette, extend, mutatis mutandis, all or any of the provisions contained in the other sections of this Act to the Jintíá Hills, the Nága Hills, and to such portion of the Khási Hills as for the time being forms part of British India.
Every such notification shall specify the boundaries of the territories to which it applies.
10. Questions of disputed boundary.- Whenever a question arises whether any place falls within the boundary of the territory described in section four or within the boundary of any of the territories to which provisions of this Act may be extended under section nine, such officers as the said Lieutenant Governor shall from time to time appoint may consider and determine on which side of the boundary such place may lie, and the order made thereon by such officer shall be final.