Government of India Act 1935

PART III Bombay.

General requirement as to residence.

1 No person shall be qualified to be included in the electoral roll for a territorial constituency unless he satisfies the requirement as to residence in relation to that constituency.

For the purposes of this Part of this Schedule a person shall be deemed to satisfy the requirement as to residence—

(a) in relation to a Bombay city constituency, if he has for a period of not less than one hundred and eighty days in the previous financial year resided in a house in the city of Bombay or in the Thana mahal or the South Salsette taluka;

(b) in relation to any other urban constituency, if he has for a period of not less than one hundred and eighty days in the previous financial year resided in a house in the constituency or within two miles of the boundary thereof;

(c) in the case of a rural constituency, if he has for a period of not less than one hundred and eighty days in the previous financial year resided in a house in the constituency, or in a contiguous constituency of the same communal description :

Provided that a person shall be deemed to satisfy the requirement as to residence in relation to any European or Anglo-Indian territorial constituency if he has for a period of not less than one hundred and eighty days in the previous financial year resided in a house in the Province.

A person is deemed to reside in a house if he sometimes uses it as a sleeping place, and a person is not deemed to cease to reside in a house merely because he is absent from it or has another dwelling in which he resides, if he is at liberty to return to the house at any time and has not abandoned his intention of returning.

Qualifications dependent on taxation.

2 Subject to the provisions of Part I of this Schedule and to any overriding provisions of this Part of this Schedule, a person shall be qualified to be included in the electoral roll for any territorial constituency, if he was assessed during the previous financial year to income tax.

Qualifications dependent on property.

3 Subject as aforesaid a person shall also be qualified to be included in the electoral roll for any territorial constituency if he—

(a) holds in his own right, or occupies as a tenant, alienated or unalienated land or land on talukdari tenure, being land in the constituency assessed at, or of the assessable value of, not less than eight rupees land revenue; or

(b) is the alienee of the right of the Government to the payment of rent or land revenue amounting to not less than eight rupees in respect of alienated land in the constituency ; or

(c) is a khot or sharer in a khoti village in the constituency, or a sharer in a bhagdari or narwadari village in the constituency, and is responsible for the payment of not less than eight rupees land revenue; or

(d) occupies in the constituency as owner or tenant a house or building, situate in the city of Bombay or in any municipal borough, municipal district, cantonment or notified area, and having at least the appropriate value.

In sub-paragraph (d) of this paragraph, the expression " the appropriate value " means—

(i) in relation to a house or building situate within the city of Bombay, an annual rental value of sixty rupees;

(ii) in relation to a house or building situate outside the city of Bombay but in an area in which a tax is based on the annual rental value of houses or buildings, an annual rental value of eighteen rupees;

(iii) in relation to any other house or building, a capital value of seven hundred and fifty rupees.

Educational qualification.

4 Subject as aforesaid, a person shall also be qualified to be included in the electoral roll for any territorial constituency if he is proved in the prescribed manner to have passed the matriculation or school leaving examination of the University of Bombay, or an examination prescribed as at least equivalent to either of those examinations, or, if it is so prescribed, any other prescribed examination, not lower than a vernacular final examination.

Qualification by reason of service in His Majesty's forces.

5 Subject as aforesaid, a person shall also be qualified to be included in the electoral roll for any territorial constituency if he is a retired, pensioned or discharged officer, non-commissioned officer or soldier of His Majesty's regular military forces.

Additional qualification for women.

6 Subject as aforesaid, a person who is a woman shall also be qualified to be included in the electoral roll for any territorial constituency—

(a) if she is the pensioned widow or the pensioned mother of a person who was an officer, non-commissioned officer or soldier of His Majesty's regular military forces; or

(b) if she is shown in the prescribed manner to be literate; or

(c) if her husband possesses the qualifications requisite for the purposes of this paragraph.

7 A husband shall not be deemed to possess the qualifications requisite for the purposes of the last preceding paragraph unless he satisfies the requirement as to residence in relation to the constituency in question, but subject as aforesaid a husband shall be deemed to possess the said qualifications if—

(a) in the previous financial year, he was assessed to income tax; or

(b) he is a retired, pensioned or discharged officer, noncommissioned officer or soldier of His Majesty's regular military forces; or

(c) in the constituency he holds in his own right, or occupies as tenant, alienated or unalienated land or land on talukdari tenure assessed at, or of the assessable value of, not less than sixteen rupees land revenue in the Pan eh-Mahals sub-division of the Broach and Panch-Mahals district or in the Ratnagiri district, or not less than thirty-two rupees land revenue elsewhere; or

(d) he is the alienee of the right of the Government to the payment of rent or land revenue in respect of alienated land in the constituency amounting to not less than sixteen rupees in the Panch-Mahals sub-division of the Broach and Panch-Mahals district or in the Ratnagiri district and to not less than thirty-two rupees elsewhere; or

(e) he is a khot or sharer in a khoti village in the constituency or a sharer in a bhagdari or narwadari village in the constituency and, in either case, is responsible for the payment, in the Panch-Mahals sub-division of the Broach and Panch-Mahals district or in the Ratnagiri district, of not less than sixteen rupees land revenue, and, elsewhere, of not less than thirty-two rupees land revenue; or

(f) he occupies as owner or tenant in the constituency a house or building situate in the city of Bombay or in a municipal borough, municipal district, cantonment or notified area and having at least the appropriate value.

In sub-paragraph (f) of this paragraph, the expression " appropriate value " means—

(i) in relation to a house or building in the city of Bombay, an annual rental value of one hundred and twenty rupees;

(ii) in relation to a house or building in the Panch-Mahals sub-division of the Broach and Panch-Mahals district or the Ratnagiri district, situate in an area in which any tax is based on the annual rental value of houses or buildings, an annual rental value of twenty-four rupees;

(iii) in relation to any other house or building in the Panch-Mahals sub-division of the Broach and Panch-Mahals district or the Ratnagiri district, a capital value of one thousand rupees;

(iv) in relation to a house or building in amy other area in which any tax is based on the annual rental value of houses or buildings, an annual rental value of thirty-six rupees; and

(v) in relation to any other house or building, a capital value of one thousand five hundred rupees.

Special qualification for scheduled castes.

8 Subject as aforesaid a person who is a member of the scheduled castes shall also be qualified to be included in the electoral roll for any territorial constituency if either—

(a) he is shown in the prescribed manner to be literate; or

(b) he was at any time during the year ending on the thirty-first day of December next preceding the prescribed date a person actually performing in the Province the duties of an inferior village office, whether hereditary or not:

Provided that a person who has been dismissed for misconduct and has not been re-employed shall not by virtue of sub-paragraph (b) of this paragraph be qualified to be entered in any electoral roll.

Application necessary for enrolment in certain cases.

9 No person shall by virtue of paragraph four or of paragraph six of this Part of this Schedule be included in the electoral roll for any territorial constituency unless application is made in the prescribed manner by him or, if it is so prescribed, on his behalf, that he should be so included :

Provided that, except in relation to the original preparation of electoral rolls and revisions thereof within three years from the commencement of Part III of this Act, this paragraph shall, in relation to women qualified by virtue of their husbands' qualifications, have effect only where the husband's qualification is that mentioned in sub-paragraph (b) of paragraph seven of this Part of this Schedule.

Provisions as to joint property, &c.

10 (1) Subject to the provisions of this paragraph, any reference in this Part of this Schedule to land or other immovable property, or to rent or land revenue in respect of alienated land, shall, in relation to any persons who are co-sharers in such land, property, rent or land revenue, be construed as a reference to the respective shares of those persons.

(2) Where two or more persons occupy any house, the rental value of the house shall, in relation to each of those persons, be deemed to be the rental value thereof divided by the number of those persons.

(3) Where property is owned, held or occupied, or payments are made, jointly by, or assessments are made jointly on, the members of a joint family, and the property, payments or assessments would qualify a person if they had been owned, held, occupied or made by or on him solely, then, subject to the provisions of Part I of this Schedule and to any overriding provisions of this Part of this Schedule, one member of the family shall be qualified in respect of the property, payment or assessment, and that person shall be, in the case of a Hindu joint family, the manager thereof and, in other cases, the member authorised in that behalf by the family themselves.

Save as aforesaid, any property owned, held or occupied, or payments made, jointly by, or assessments made jointly on, the members of a joint family shall be left out of account for the purposes of this Part of this Schedule.

(4) Nothing in this paragraph affects the provisions of Part I of this Schedule relating to partners in firms assessed to income tax.

Interpretation, &c.

11 (1) In this Schedule, in relation to Bombay—

• " holder " means a person lawfully in possession of land, whether his possession is actual or not, and " hold " shall be construed accordingly;

• " tenant " means a lessee, whether holding under an instrument or under an oral agreement, and includes a mortgagee of a tenant's rights with possession, and, in relation to a house not situate in military or police lines, also includes any person occupying the house rent-free by virtue of any office, service or employment;

• " Bombay city constituency " means a constituency comprising any part of the city of Bombay.

(2) The value of any machinery, furniture or equipment contained in or situate upon any house or building shall not be included in estimating for the purposes of this Part of this Schedule the rental value or the capital value of the house or building.

(3) In computing for the purposes of this Part of this Schedule the assessable value of any land, regard shall be had to the average rate of assessment on assessed land in the same village or, if there is no such land in the same village, the average rate of assessment on assessed land in the nearest village containing assessed land.