In a move that is likely to give a big boost to the realty business, Uttarakhand High Court has struck down provisions of the much contentious land reforms that bar “outsiders” from buying more than 250 square meters of land.
A division bench ocomprising Chief Justice Barin Ghosh and Justice U C Dhyani yesterday ruled that all the citizens of the country would now be able to purchase up to 12.5 acres of agriculture land in the state as per the land ceiling Act filed by Jaswant Singh, a landless farmer.
The court termed the land law as unconstitutional and discriminatory in nature saying the government did not put any restriction where the agriculture cannot be used for other purposes. The court took the cognisance of the fact that the government was giving permissions for constructing hotels, industries and resorts in the state on agriculture land.
“We are glad that this judgement has opened the doors for realty companies to enter Uttarakhand as there were lot of restrictions earlier,” said petitioner Rakesh Uniyal, a property consultant. He had contended that the existing land laws were discriminatory against the residents of the Uttarakhand as well other citizens of the country as any person, who did not have any agriculture land before the first act came into being in 2003, was not eligible to buy more than 250 sq meters of land.
In 2003, the Congress government framed a law where the government’s permission was necessary for purchase of more than 500 Sq meter of land. However, Chief Minister B C Khanduri in 2007 further toughened this law with a ceiling of 250 sq meter only. When contacted, top officials said the government would study the judgement and accordingly take the next step whether to move the Supreme Court against the High Court’s order.