Section 32:
Conditions as to— power to stop water-supply; claims to compensation in case of failure or stoppage of supply; claims on account of interruption from other causes; duration of supply; sale or sub-letting of right to use canal-water; transfer, with land, of contracts for water; no right acquired by user.
Such contracts and rules must be consistent, with the following
conditions:--
(a) Power to stop water-supply.--The Divisional Canal-officer may not stop the supply of
water to any water-course, or to any person, except in the following cases:
(1) whenever and so long as it is necessary to stop such supply for the purpose of
executing any work ordered by competent authority and with the previous sanction of
the State Government;
(2) whenever and so long as any water-course is not maintained in such proper customary
repair as to prevent the wasteful escape of water therefrom;
(3) within periods fixed from time to time by the Divisional Canal-officer;
(b) Claims to compensation in case of failure or stoppage of supply.-- No claim shall be
made against the State Government for compensation in respect of loss caused by the
failure or stoppage of the water in a canal, by reason of any cause beyond the control of
the State Government or of any repairs, alterations or additions to the canal, or of any
measures taken for regulating the proper flow of water therein, or for maintaining the
established course of irrigation which the Divisional Canal-officer considers necessary;
but the person suffering such loss may claim such remission of the ordinary charges
payable for the use of the water as is authorised by the State Government :
(c) Claims on account of interruption from other causes.--If the supply of water to
any land irrigated from a canal be interrupted otherwise than in the manner described in the
last preceding clause, the occupier or owner of such land may present a petition for
compensation to the Collector for any loss arising from such interruption, and the Collector
may award to the petitioner reasonable compensation for such loss:
(d) Duration of supply.--When the water of a canal is supplied for the irrigation of a,
single crop, the permission to use such water shall be held to continue only until that crop
comes to maturity, and to apply only to that crop; but, if it be supplied for irrigating two
or more crops to be raised on the same land within the year, such permission shall be held
to continue for one year from the commencement of the irrigation, and to apply to such
crops only as are matured within that year :
(e) Sale or subletting of right to use canal-water.--Unless with the permission of the
Superintending Canal-officer, no person entitled to use the water of any canal, or any
work, building or land appertaining to any canal, shall sell or sublet or otherwise transfer
his right to such use:
Provided that the former part of this clause shall not apply to the use by a cultivating
tenant of water supplied by the owner of a water-course for the irrigation of the land held
by such tenant :
Transfer, with land, of contracts for water.--But all contracts made between the
State Government and the owner or occupier of any immovable property, as to the supply
of canal-water to such property, shall be transferable therewith, and shall be presumed to
have been so transferred whenever a transfer of such property takes place :
(f) No right acquired by user.--No right to the use of the water of a canal shall be, or
be deemed to have been, acquired under the 1
Indian Limitation Act, 1877 (15 of 1877), Part
IV, nor shall the State Government be bound to supply any person with water except in
accordance with the terms of a contract in writing.
Notes:
1. See now the Indian Limitation Act, 1963 (36 of 1963).