Srinagar: A Bill to restore the right to housing of the poorest of poor in Jammu and Kashmir under Article 21 of the Constitution has been submitted by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader Waheed Para for consideration by the assembly in its forthcoming session.
The Jammu and Kashmir (Regularisation and Recognition of Property Rights of Residents in Public Land) Bill, 2025 calls for “recognising the proprietary rights” of owners of houses which have been built on state land, Kacharia land, common land and Shamlat land in the Union territory (UT) with March 31, 2025 as the ceiling limit.
Terming the Bill as a “constitutional and moral imperative”, Para said that the people of Jammu and Kashmir “deserve legal protection over their homes and land and a shield from arbitrary eviction” following the reading down of Article 370, which has empowered the government and armed forces to take over land in any part of the UT.
“The intention of the Bill is not to give property rights upon public land which is encroached for commercial or agricultural activities. We only seek through this bill, protection of the right to shelter as a one-time special policy against bulldozing of houses so that residents have a sense of security,” Para told The Wire.
He said that the Bill was submitted to the assembly secretariat on directions of the PDP president Mehbooba Mufti. PDP leader Iltija Mufti said that the Bill will provide ownership rights and “a much needed sense of security” to thousands of people in J&K.
“Given the ruthless demolition drives carried out across J&K since 2019 one can’t state enough the relief it will provide to these families,” Mufti said in a post on X.
The right to adequate housing has been upheld by the Supreme Court as a fundamental right emanating from the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution.
Also read: ‘Is There No End to Our Rehabilitation?’: Kashmiri Pandits After Jammu Demolition Drive
J&K was one of the few states in India which abolished the feudal system of land ownership by redistributing land to the actual tillers under the ruling National Conference (NC) founder Sheikh Abdullah.
The idea of vesting ownership of land to the occupants was the brainchild of then finance minister and senior NC leader Abdul Rahim Rather. Under chief minister Farooq Abdullah, the then J&K government passed the J&K State Land (Vesting of Ownership to the Occupants) Act, 2001, under which 2.5 lakh acres of land was to be transferred to existing occupants.
However, on November 1, 2020, the UT administration cancelled all land transfers that took place under the law. A majority of the transfers had taken place in the Jammu region.
During the controversial 2023 eviction drive which was launched to retrieve around 20 lakh kanal land from alleged encroachers, according to an official estimate, thousands of people who live in houses built on public or common lands in J&K were targeted by the UT administration
Officials claimed to have retrieved more than 15 lakh kanals of “encroached land” during the month-long drive during which hundreds of homes and commercial properties were demolished. However, the eviction drive was put on hold by the J&K administration, which is run directly by the Union home ministry, following widespread public outrage in the region.
If passed in its present form and approved by the lieutenant governor, the PDP leader’s Bill will provide relief to these families if they do not own any land in other parts of the Union Territory.
However, the Bill excludes those houses which have been built on land notified under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
The 10-page Bill also exempts “unauthorised development” on land along “Scheduled Roads and National Highways” or any other area restricted by central or state laws, public or common lands and commercial buildings from its purview.
Under the proposed law, an applicant would need to file an affidavit attested by a first class judicial magistrate and appended with report from the concerned lumbardar (village head) and attested by patwari halqa that they do not own “either in his own name or in the name of any of his dependent family member any site of building or built up house in the village other than the one sought to be regularised under this Act.”
The Bill empowers Assistant Commissioner Revenue (ACR) in concerned districts outside municipal limits to regularise such land in favour of the applicants who will have to pay one-third of the circle rate as regularisation charges.
The Bill proposes that the ACR could exempt people belonging to “weaker sections”, ‘Below Poverty Line’ families, sole widow who has no legal heir, person with more than 70% disability and legal heirs of an ex-service man in the army or J&K Police who has laid down his life in the line of duty from such charges.
