Null provisions of piecemeal prohibition law applicable in agricultural lands

- People oriented

- Guidance - - H.S. Patel IAS (Retd.)

- 'Amendment of not applying piecemeal provisions in family distribution is necessary in the interests of farmers'

Laws regulating lands are framed for specific purposes and objectives. Before the introduction of land reform laws after independence, the Land Revenue Act 1879 was enacted during the British regime with the objective of land revenue, as the Prevention of Fragmentation and Consolidation Act: to prevent fragmentation of agricultural land and enact consolidation laws into smaller pieces of agricultural land. If there is no efficient use of the land in terms of crop production and when this law was enacted in 1956, our country was not self-reliant in the food sector, so if the agricultural land is in a collective form, with the good intention of increasing the agricultural production along with the efficient use. According to the law, which has been formulated and classified the agricultural land according to the type of land, there is a provision that if there is less than 2 acres of irrigated land and less than 20 guthas of irrigated perennial land, it will be considered as piece land.

There are two processes to prevent fragmentation of agricultural land and consolidation of lands. While there is a provision to record the proportional area of ​​land as determined on the basis of the said area and to give notice to the concerned owner as per the provisions of the law, but instead of doing so, when this law was enacted in the entire state, the land is calculated for the piece at once, village wise in the title deeds. A note was recorded and the note was attested as per law and its effects were made in 7 x 12 of the owner's land. Consolidation was to be done in the second part of this law by the Consolidation Officer (Consolidation Officer) in some district talukas of the state. Contiguous lands of the respective village owners were to be exchanged and consolidated. was given and in such cases the permission of block division as well as prior inheritance had to be taken from the provincial officer, while even today if the area is more than the proportional area, block division is taken and there is a provision to take the approval of Mamlatdar for consolidation of survey numbers.

Now analyzing the issue of actual implementation of this law, the basic idea of ​​this law is to prevent fragmentation of agricultural land and instead of consolidating it, since agricultural land is an important immovable property and the only means of livelihood of the farmers, distribution of lands among the heirs as part of the family system, the fragments which are fragmented on the occasions of inheritance and transfer. Lands registered as such are cultivated on the basis of generational heirs, brothers, in actual physical form, part of the land is cultivated as part of the share. That is, the division of even fragmented lands cannot be practically prevented on the ground, on the contrary, the co-sharers of the agricultural land experience difficulties as a separate existence of the land. E.g. Crop credit, loan taking, sale, electric (agricultural) connection etc. and therefore based on the submissions made by the revenue department of the government when we were the collector of Rajkot, dt. As per Circular No.-HKP/102016/1017/J dated 14/3/2016, the most important matters regarding taking rights from land, distribution, redistribution and entry of rights in survivorship etc. have been made and under these provisions without any kind of registered document only Rs. Action can be taken by affidavit on 300 stamp paper. The unfortunate thing is that this circular is not communicated by the revenue officials to the hereditary cultivators. Nowadays, land disputes, questions of inheritance arise, there is no need to wait till the death of the holder and then the stage of inheritance. In the same way sisters can be entered in their names as community / co-sharers / rights in the survivorship and their rights can also be waived by consent and while para-3 of this circular provides for partition and redistribution of land held in joint names, when When the share is on distribution basis it is shown as co-sharer in 7 x 12 and making separate 7 x 12 is considered as breach of partition rule. Thus, this is a contradiction of the provisions of the Government circular and the provisions of the piecemeal rule which need to be clarified and amended and such family distribution should not be considered a violation of the piecemeal rule and should be sanctioned and in the case of the locality owning and cultivating separate land. In case of sale to the owner, the prohibition of piecemeal does not apply. The government has amended the law and made such a provision.

With increasing urbanization / industrialization in Gujarat, many village lands are now included in the Mahanagarpalika / Municipality or Urban Authority area and in developed areas when agricultural lands are not used for agriculture. Thus, mostly such lands are sold internally. Only someone is given to maintain the land. In many cases, when the co-shareholder's land has been sold to another farmer and an application is made for sale or conversion of his share of land to non-cultivation, it is decided to revise the note as a violation of the earlier sanctioned note or to proceed as a hundredth violation, and in doing so, the agricultural land worker. The intended use for agricultural production has failed. The state government has only increased the amount of fine (up to 1000) in the powers given to the Mamlatdar for violation of the section law, but ultimately the original purpose has not been achieved, so the state government needs to change the section law and take action including exempting certain areas from this law, taking into consideration the current relative actual situation. is And when the original objectives of the piecemeal legislation have not been maintained, it has become necessary to repeal the Act in the interest of the whole. Government should consider this direction in larger interest.