‘Land’ may refer to the part of the Earth that is not covered by water. ‘Land law’ is the form of law that deals with the rights to use, alienate, or exclude others from land. In many jurisdictions, these species of property are referred to as real estate or real property, as distinct from personal property. Land has been the source of livelihood of human beings . The struggle for human existence has been the struggle for land. From the time immemorial there have been a number of events /wars on account of land disputes. With the advent of civilization due to industrialization, modernization, globalization and more particularly the democratization, the land became focal point of governance.
The Constitution originally provided for the right to property under Articles 19 and 31. It also provided that compensation would be paid to a person whose property had been taken possession of or acquired for public purposes. Both the state government as well as the union (federal) government were empowered to enact laws for the ‘acquisition or requisition of property’ (Schedule VII, Entry 42, List III to the Constitution of India). It is this provision that has been interpreted as being the source of the state’s ‘eminent domain’ powers.
The provisions relating to the right to property were changed a number of times. The 44th Amendment Act of 1978 deleted the right to property from the list of Fundamental Rights. A new article, Article 300-A, was added to the constitution which provided that “no person shall be deprived of his property save by authority of law”. Thus, if a legislature makes a law depriving a person of his property, there would be no obligation on the part of the State to pay anything as compensation. The aggrieved person shall have no right to move the court under Article 32. Thus, the right to property is no longer a fundamental right, though it is still a constitutional right. If the government appears to have acted unfairly, the action can be challenged in a court of law by citizens. The liberalisation of the economy and the Government’s initiative to set up special economic zones have led to many protests by farmers and have opened up a debate on the reinstatement of the fundamental right to private property.
In the light of the initiatives taken by the University Grants Commission-Legal Education Committee, the subject ‘land laws’ has now become a compulsory subject of study for all the Law students covered under revised syllabi. In this book, we have covered the topics like Ownership of lands, Land reforms in India, Tenancy laws, Law relating to acquisition of property, law relating to ceiling on land holdings and laws relating to alienation/assignment in schedule areas etc., This book provides a short cut to the students of the 3/5 year law degree course to enable them to get a broad understanding of the topics that would be covered under the revised syllabus with effect from the academic year 2009-2010.
We owe our gratitude to Mr. D. Durga Prasad, LL.B, FCS, for his personal attention, inputs and technical support. Our thanks are also due to Mr. M. Venkateswarlu for his wholehearted and efficient secretarial support in bringing out this Book.
