PDP legislator to move bill for proprietary rights of house owners living on state land in Jammu and Kashmir

Jammu: Senior PDP legislator is going to introduce a private members bill in the Budget Session of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly next month to seek proprietary rights for the owners of houses constructed on public land in the Union Territory.

PDP MLA from Pulwama Waheed ur Rehman Parra submitted the bill titled "The Jammu and Kashmir (Regularisation and Recognition of Property Rights of Residents in Public Land) Bill, 2025" to the assembly secretariat.

In a major anti-encroachment drive in 2023, the Lt Governor-led Jammu and Kashmir administration retrieved thousands of hectares of state land including Roshni and Kahcharai (grazing) land.

On November 1, 2020, the Union Territory administration cancelled all land transfers that took place under the Jammu and Kashmir State Land (Vesting of Ownership to the Occupants) Act, 2001 - also known as the Roshni Act.

The act initially envisaged the conferment of proprietary rights of around 20.55 lakh kanals (1,02,750 hectares) to the occupants of which only 15.85 per cent of land was approved for vesting of ownership rights.

The scheme, which was declared "unconstitutional" by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court in 2020, was finally repealed by former governor Satya Pal Malik on November 28, 2018.

The bill, submitted by the PDP leader, seeks special provisions for the residents of Jammu and Kashmir to recognise the proprietary rights of houses constructed on state land, kahcharai land, common land and shamilat land (section 4 of J&K Agrarian Reforms Act, 1976), by securing the rights of ownership or transfer in favour of the residents of such residential house owners, who are in possession of such land in the interest of right to shelter as guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution.

"It is expedient to have a law to recognise and confer rights of ownership or transfer to the residents of residential houses constructed upon state land, kahcharai land, common land and shamilat land (section 4 of J&K Agrarian Reforms Act, 1976) as one-time special measure," Parra said.

He highlighted the "phenomenal" increase in the population and the failure of successive governments or public offices to prevent illegal and unauthorised constructions over the past decades.

The PDP leaders suggested the beneficiaries should be residents having a valid permanent resident certificate (PRC) and who have been in continuous physical possession of the property for more than 20 years excluding the symbolic possessions.

The land includes land beneath and adjacent to the residential house and shall exclude the commercial buildings, he said, also seeking the formation of a sub-committee by the government for regularisation, identification and recognition of proprietary rights and for fixation of any nominal fee, charges or rates per marla of the land.

Parra, however, proposed that the charges directed to be paid under this act for regularisation shall not exceed one-third of the circular rate in the specified area.

"The competent authority shall have the discretion to exempt such charges to be paid by a person belonging to a weaker section of the society or the person who belongs to below poverty line section of the society or sole widow who has no legal heir or person with more than 70 per cent disability or legal heirs of an ex-serviceman in Army or Jammu and Kashmir Police, who has laid down his life in service to the nation," the PDP leader said.

He also suggested that no relief of regularisation shall be available to any unauthorised construction or encroachment on public land after March 1, 2025, unauthorised development raised on land falling in restricted areas along scheduled roads and National Highways or any other restricted area declared under any other central or state law among others.