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(3) Lands alienated under Japanese Pressure.
(4)
Lands of Absentee Owners occupied by Trespassers.
(5)
Unregistered Transactions.
(6)
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Devolutions of Land on Death, Bankruptcy or Disability during the Japanese Occupation.
(7) Disputes as to Boundaries or Tenures.
The policy to be followed in regard to each of these is set out below. By "State" is meant the Crown, a Ruler, or the Government of a State or Settlement. "State owned" has a corresponding meaning. The expression "Reparations" includes, not only reparations to be paid by the Japanese, but compensation payable under any relevant compensation scheme which may be inaugurated.
14. CATEGORY 1 - CONFISCATED LANDS.
(a) State owned.
Possession will have been given up by the Japanese and can be resumed by the British Military Administration on behalf of the State. The Japanese, as an occupying Power, are entitled to the ordinary fruits of State immovable property. Accordingly, no order for possession and no account of rents and profits will be necessary, but the Commission should, if requested by the British Military Administration or the State, assess compensation for waste or damage done by the Japanese as a preliminary to a claim against Reparations.
(b) Privately owned.
Remedies which the Commission may give are:
(1) an order for possession;
(ii) an assessment of compensation for damages or waste. The Register will automatically have been rectified so as to replace the previous owner as registered 'proprietor if he has been displaced (Vide paras 2 and 3 above).
The policy should be to disallow claims by absentee owners to rents and profits accrued during the Japanese occupation. CATEGORY 2-LANDS CONFISCATED BY THE JAPANESE AND ALI NATED. (a) State owned.
15.
(b)
The Register will automatically be rectified so as to restore the State's title to the land. (Vide paras. 2 and 3 above). If required, the Commission will grant an order for possession and assess compensation for damage or waste against any occupier who has caused it. The value of any permanent improvements made by an occupier should b allowed to be set off against any such claims for compensation. No claim for past rents and profits should be allowed. Neither the purchaser from the Japanese, nor any subsequent purchaser to whom the land may have been re-sold, should be entitled to a refund of his purchase price, or (except by way of set-off for permanent improvements as aforesaid) to any compensation. An exception to this rule may be made where a vendor has entered into an express covenant for title.
Privately owned.
The previous owner will be entitled to the same remedies as the State under paragraph (a), and purchasers of confiscated private land will be in a similar position to purchasers of confiscated State land under that paragraph.
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