Land Law in India

Description

This book is a critical study of the laws regulating landownership patterns. Land and land law are woven into the fabric of our society and are therefore integral to the substantive questions of equality and developmental ideologies of the state. This volume uncovers the socio-economic realities that surround land and approaches the law from the standpoint of the marginalized, landless and the dispossessed. Cover Half Title Title Copyright Dedication Contents List of annexures Foreword Acknowledgements Part I A general introduction to the law of land 1 The construction of an Indian right to property in land Objectives The distinction between land and property The Indian interpretation of property Property rights and land laws – a distorted debate The composition of a constitutional right to property A combined reading of the constitutional right to property and the legal regime constructed to reform land A five-point argument Land, the law, and a distinction from general property The First Amendment and a constitutional space for land reform laws A possible harmonious interpretation for property rights and land reform Land reform going astray with the subsequent interpretations Reading together the constitutional right to property and the directive principle of redistribution of land 2 Thematic sketch of land laws in the country Classification of the law Excess land law The tables – as an instrument of study State models 3 Land reform and its impact on the existing land tenure system Creating a concept of land reform The Indian land structure The social aspect of land and land reform The concept of land reform, its ideology, programme, and the law Components of land reform and their impact on the tenure Part II Law of land reform 4 Alteration of the land tenure system: laws relating to abolition of intermediaries and tenancy reform The fundamental concepts of reform Laws abolishing intermediaries and other classes holding estates in land Legal provisions abolishing intermediaries Law reforming tenancies Statutory provisions reforming tenancies Exclusions created by tenancy law – classification of tenants The clause of personal cultivation – insecurity of tenancy tenure 5 Law of land redistribution Introduction: need for redistribution and the concept Law imposing ceilings on agricultural holdings The policy of land ceiling The ceiling statutes The general procedure Determination and extent of ceiling limit Statutory provisions imposing ceilings Statutory unit of identification Computation of compensation Vesting of surplus Scheme of redistribution within ceiling law Law conferring rights on tenants to purchase holdings of landowners Law of land assignment 6 Land administration, records, and titling The law of land records, its purpose and functions The Andhra–Telangana legal scenario Part III Law of land acquisition 7 Framework of the law of land acquisition and its inherent inequity: a combined working of land reform and acquisition law The legal regulation of land by the state – interaction of laws of land reform and acquisition Compulsory acquisition of land – the framework of law, its functioning and impact on the land structure Legal construction of public purpose The legal choices of procedures available for acquiring land Alternated choices for acquisition 8 Displacement, dispossession, compensation, and rehabilitation in matters of land reform and acquisitions An introduction to the essential concepts: public purpose, development, and displacement The development–displacement duo Understanding displacement Compensating the erstwhile landowners and displaced The shaping of a fundamental right to property through deliberations over the compensation clause: an Indian construction of a property regime Purpose and adequacy of compensation: its reasonability, fairness, and justness in computation of amount Statutory principles determining computation of compensational amount: the acts of 1894 and 2013 Resettlement and rehabilitation of the displaced 9 Concluding remarks: land relationships, landlessness, and the law Annexures References Index