Now, any Indian citizen can buy land in Jammu & Kashmir
Unacceptable amendments to the land ownership laws of J&K. Even the tokenism of domicile has been done away with when purchasing non-agricultural land & transfer of agricultural land has been made easier. J&K is now up for sale & the poorer small land holding owners will suffer.
Biswabrata Goswami
Hummingbird News
KRISHNAGAR, 27 OCT: In a significant move, the Center has paved the way for people from outside Jammu and Kashmir to buy land in the Union Territory (UT) by amending several laws.
The
Union home ministry said in an order that the Real Estate (Regulation &
Development) Act, 2016 has been notified in the UT while 12 laws of the
erstwhile state have been repealed.
The Act
makes it mandatory for each state and UT to set up its own real estate
regulator and frame rules to govern the functioning of the regulator. In a
gazette notification, the Centre omitted the phrase “permanent resident of the
state” from Section 17 of the Jammu and Kashmir Development Act, which deals
with disposal of the land in the UT.
“With immediate effect, the Acts mentioned in the schedule to this order shall, until repealed or amended by a competent legislature or other competent authority, have an effect, subject to the adaptations and modifications directed by the said schedule, or if it is so directed, shall stand repealed,” said the order.
On
August 5 last year, the Centre had abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution
which granted special status to the erstwhile state, bifurcating it into UTs of
J&K and Ladakh. Earlier, Article 35A prohibited citizens from other parts
of India from buying land in J&K. It allowed the J&K legislature to
define permanent residents of the state and only those who were eligible could
purchase land or property.
As per
section 96 of the J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019, the Centre has the powers
to repeal or amend the laws for the application of any law made before the
appointed date till the expiration of one year from the appointed date in
relation to Union Territories.
Earlier, the laws passed by Parliament were applicable to the state only after the state government gave its concurrence due to its special status and separate Constitution. The J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019, extended 113 central laws including Muslim Women Protection of Rights Act, 1986, RTI Act, PC Act, Aadhaar Act, Enemy Property Act, Evidence Act, Special Marriage Act, Delimitation Act and Dissolution of Muslim Marriage Act to J&K. A total of 165 laws exclusively framed for the state of Jammu and Kashmir were repealed.
Political parties here called it unacceptable saying it was like
putting J&K up for sale.
However, the government like previous orders, has not extended
the adaptation to Ladakh region. A senior government official said the third
adaptation of the laws is only meant for Jammu and Kashmir, not Ladakh.
“Unacceptable amendments to the land ownership laws of J&K. Even the tokenism of domicile has been done away with when purchasing non-agricultural land and transfer of agricultural land has been made easier. J&K is now up for sale and the poorer small land holding owners will suffer,” former chief minister Omar Abdullah said.
In another order issued on Tuesday, the Union home ministry repealed and amended 25 other central laws including the Stamp Act, 1977, Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services Decentralisation and Recruitment Act.
Further amending the J&K Development Act, 1970, the order said, the government might on the written request of an Army officer not below the rank of Corp commander, can declare an area as “strategic area” within a local area “only for direct operational and training requirement of armed forces”.
By amending the J&K Agrarian Reforms Act, 1970 the MHA has also clipped the powers of the Revenue Minister, who citing public interest “could overturn” an order passed by a Tehsildar or Assistant Commissioner in respect of any evacuees land or state land. It is to be noted here that J&K is currently under the Central rule.
In this order, the MHA has further amended the domicile law by allowing “spouse of a domicile” to be deemed a domicile. This was earlier applied only to children of Central government officials posted in J&K for a total period of 10 years, who are also eligible as domiciles.
Under the order, a new body - the J&K Industrial Development Co-operation - has been set up and if it is unable to acquire land, the government could invoke the provision of the Right to Fair Compensation Act, and acquire the land on behalf of the corporation for public purposes.
With the changes in the land acts, the MHA said, “The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA), 2016 will now be applicable in the UT.”
The erstwhile state laws, which are completely repealed, include the Jammu & Kashmir Alienation of Land Act, the Jammu & Kashmir Big Landed Estates Abolition Act, the Jammu & Kashmir Common Lands (Regulation) ACT, 1956, the Jammu & Kashmir Consolidation of Holdings Act, 1962, and a few others.
Courtesy: Images from Web.
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