Model (Agricultural) Land Leasing Act, 2016 27/01/2020 – Posted in: Daily News

For: Preliminary & Mains

Topics covered: About the Model (Agricultural) Land Leasing Act, 2016.

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The State government to amend Section 5 of the Karnataka Land Reforms Act, 1961 is based on the Model (Agricultural) Land Leasing Act, 2016.

Model (Agricultural) Land Leasing Act, 2016 is proposed by the Centre’s think tank NITI Aayog to increase investments in agriculture and productivity.

The Expert Committee on Land Leading chaired by T Haque has among other things, prepared a Model Agricultural Land Leasing Act.

 

Model (Agricultural) Land Leasing Act, 2016

  • Legalise land leasing to promote agricultural efficiency, equity and power reduction. This will also help in much needed productivity improvement in agriculture as well as occupational mobility of the people and rapid rural change.
  • This is very important step for land reforms through which needs of landlord as well as lease holder have been taken care.
  • Through this act, the landlord can legally lease the land with mutual consent for agriculture and allied activities. In this act, it has been taken care that in any circumstances the leased holders’ claim on land will not be valid.
  • Lease holder may receive institutional loan, insurance and disaster relief so that he may invest more and more in agriculture.
  • Allow automatic resumption of land after the agreed lease period without requiring any minimum area of land to be left with the tenant even after termination of tenancy, as laws of some states require.
  • Incentivise tenants to make investment in land improvement and also entitle them to get back the unused value of investment at the time of termination of tenancy.
  • In order to resolve the dispute between the landlord and lease holder, the provision of “Special Land Tribunal” has been made in the Civil Court.

 

Tenancy laws in States

  • Land distribution was quite skewed in favour of influential people during the British rule and therefore, land leasing was very common during that period.
  • During the post-independence period, the major agenda of the government on land reforms, next to the “abolition of zamindari system,” was tenancy reforms. All states had adopted legislation concerning agricultural tenancy in the 1960s or 1970s.
  • The provisions of tenancy laws adopted by various state governments had covered defining tenants, regulation of rent, security of tenure, landlords’ right to resume personal cultivation on leased land, conferment of ownership rights to tenants, surrender of tenancy rights with mutual consent, prohibition of future tenancies, tenants’ rights of preemptive purchase, correcting the tenancy records, abolishing oral tenancies, etc.

 

Restrictive Nature of Tenancy Laws in the Various States

Category of States
 
Nature of Restrictions in Tenancy Laws
Kerala and Jammu & Kashmir Leasing out of agricultural land is legally prohibited without any exception.
Telangana, Bihar, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Odisha Leasing out of agricultural land is allowed only by certain categories of landowners such as disabled, minors, widows, defence personnel, etc.
Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Assam Leasing out of agricultural land is not specifically banned, but the tenant acquires the right to purchase the tenanted land after a specific period of creation of tenancy (six years in Pun and Har) except if landowner is disabled.
Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal There are no restrictions on land leasing, although in West Bengal, only share cropping leases are legally permitted.
In Scheduled Tribe areas of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra Transfer of land from tribal to non-tribal even on lease basis can be permitted only by a competent authority. The idea is to prevent alienation of land from tribal to non-tribal.

 

Source: The Hindu & EPW

 

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