Government of India Act 1935

PART X The North West Frontier Province.

General requirement as to residence.

1 No person shall be qualified to be included in the electoral roll for any territorial constituency unless he is resident in the constituency.

For the purposes of this Part of this Schedule proof that a person or, in the case of a woman, her husband owns a family dwelling-house or a share in a family dwelling-house in a constituency and that that house has not during the twelve months preceding the prescribed date been let on rent either in whole or in part shall be sufficient evidence that that person is resident in the constituency.

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 during the previous financial year, he was either—

(a) assessed to income tax; or

(b) assessed in the Province in respect of any direct municipal or cantonment tax to an amount of not less than fifty rupees; or

(c) in the case of a rural constituency, assessed to district board tax of not less than two rupees.

Qualifications dependent on rights in property, &c.

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

(a) owned throughout the twelve months preceding the prescribed date immovable property of the value of not less than six hundred rupees, not being land assessed to land revenue; or

(b) has for the twelve months preceding the prescribed date occupied as a tenant immovable property of an annual rental value of not less than forty-eight rupees, not being land assessed to land revenue; or

(c) is the owner of not less than six acres irrigated land or not less than twelve acres unirrigated land or of land assessed to land revenue of not less than five rupees per annum; or

(d) is the assignee of land revenue amounting to not less than ten rupees per annum; or

(e) has been for the whole of the preceding fasli year the tenant of not less than six acres of irrigated land or not less than twelve acres unirrigated land; or

(f) is a zaildar, inamdar or lambardar :

Provided that for the purposes of sub-paragraph (c) and sub-paragraph (e) of this paragraph a person shall be deemed to own or, as the case may be, to have been the tenant of, at least six acres of irrigated land if he owns, or, as the case may be, was the tenant of, irrigated and luiirrigated land and the sum of the area of that irrigated land and half the area of that unirrigated land is not less than six acres.

Educational qualification.

4 Subject as aforesaid, a person shall also be qualified to be included—

(a) in the electoral roll for any urban constituency, if he is proved in the prescribed manner to have passed a middle school examination or any other examination prescribed as at least equivalent to that examination;

(b) in the electoral roll for a rural constituency, if he Is proved in the prescribed manner to have passed the primary (fourth class) examination or any other examination prescribed as at least equivalent to that 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 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 if her husband possesses the qualifications requisite for the purposes of this paragraph or if she is shown in the prescribed manner to be literate :

Provided that, 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 have effect as if the words " or if she is shown in the prescribed manner to be literate " were omitted therefrom.

7 A husband shall be deemed to possess the qualifications requisite for the purposes of the last preceding paragraph if either—

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

(b) he has an income of at least forty rupees per month; or

(c) he was during the previous financial year assessed to income tax; or

(d) in relation to an urban constituency, he was, during the previous financial year, assessed in the Province in respect of any direct municipal or cantonment tax to an amount of not less than fifty rupees; or

(e) in relation to a rural constituency, he was during the preceding financial year assessed in the Province in respect of any cess, rate or tax to an amount of not less than four rupees per annum payable to the district board; or

(f) he owned throughout the twelve months preceding the prescribed date immovable property in the Province of the value of not less than six hundred rupees, not being land assessed to land revenue; or

(g) he occupied as a tenant throughout the twelve months preceding the prescribed date immovable property in the Province of an annual rental value of not less than forty-eight rupees, not being land assessed to land revenue; or

(h) he is the owner of land in the Province assessed to land revenue of not less than ten rupees per annum; or

(i) he is an assignee of land revenue in the Province amounting to not less than twenty rupees per annum; or

(j) he is a tenant or lessee, under the terms of a written lease for a period of not less than three years, of land in the Province assessed to land revenue of not less than ten rupees per annum; or

(k) he is a tenant with a right of occupancy, as denned in Chapter II of the Punjab Tenancy Act, 1887, in respect of land in the Province assessed to land revenue of not less than ten rupees per annum.

Application necessary for enrolment in certain cases.

8 No person shall, by virtue of paragraph four or paragraph six of this Part of this Schedule, be included in the electoral roll for any territorial constituency unless application is made by him in the prescribed manner that he should be so included.

Interpretation, &c.

9 (1) In this Schedule, in relation to the North West Frontier Province—

• " annual rental value, " in relation to immovable property, means the amount for which the property, together with its appurtenances and furniture, if any, is actually let, or may reasonably be expected to be let, from year to year;

• " fasli year " means a year ending on the thirtieth day of September;

• " land revenue " means land revenue as denned in subsection (6) of section three of the Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887, and, in the case of fluctuating land revenue or land revenue assessed on land subject to river action, the annual amount thereof shall be taken to be the average amount paid during the three years preceding the prescribed date;

• " zaildar, " " inamdar " and " lambardar " mean respectively persons appointed as such in accordance with rules for the time being in force under the Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887, and do not include a substitute appointed temporarily for any such person;

• " tenant " in relation to agricultural land means a tenant as defined in the Punjab Tenancy Act, 1887, and in relation to other property, means a person who holds that property by lease and is, or, but for a special contract, would be, liable to pay rent therefor, and in relation to a house not situate in military or police lines includes any person occupying the house rent free by virtue of any office, service or employment.

(2) In computing for the purposes of this Part of this Schedule the period during which a person has owned any immovable property, any period during which it was owned by a person from whom he derives title by inheritance shall be taken into account.

(3) Any reference to immovable property, not being land assessed to land revenue, includes a reference to any building situated on land assessed to land revenue.

(4) Where property is held or payments are made jointly by, or assessments are made jointly on, the members of a joint family, the family shall be adopted as the unit for deciding whether the requisite qualification exists and, if it does exist, the person qualified 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.

(5) Subject to the provisions of the last preceding sub-paragraph, any reference in this Schedule to land assessed to land revenue, to other immovable property, to a tenancy or lease of land assessed to land revenue or to assigned land revenue, shall, in relation to any persons who are co-sharers in such land, property, tenancy or lease, or land revenue, be construed as a reference to the respective shares of those persons :

Provided that the share of any person under the age of twenty-one years shall, if his father is alive and a co-sharer, be deemed to be added to the share of his father, and, if his father is dead and his eldest surviving brother is a co-sharer, be deemed to be added to the share of that brother.