Pre-Legislative Obligations Before Drafting a New Land Bill

Generally, when a government intends to formulate a new bill, a draft of the proposed bill is prepared and made public, and citizens are invited to express their opinions on it. In the past, several such draft bills have been made public, and ordinary citizens have had the opportunity to provide their feedback on them.Significantly, the Assam government has recently deviated from this practice. Instead of making a draft bill public, the government has constituted a Land Governance Committee under the chairmanship of retired Justice Mr. Prashanta Kumar Deka to prepare a draft of a new land bill considering the changes taking place in land governance in Assam.

In other words, the Assam government has sought public opinions and suggestions before preparing the draft of the new land bill, and it is assumed that the bill will be formulated based on these opinions and suggestions. Initially, the public notice issued by the Assam Land Governance Commission had set the deadline for submitting opinions and suggestions as 7th June. Later, this deadline was extended to 30th June. If the government intends to consolidate all land-related legislation, including the Assam Land and Revenue Regulation, 1886, into a comprehensive draft bill, is a month enough to gather opinions on such a significant initiative? As a result, I would like to request that the Assam government provide the public at least six months to submit their thoughts and comments about the making of such a draft bill.

The aforementioned committee was established in order to prepare the draft bill, which has a number of objectives set by the state government. Among the objectives are-

(i) To repeal/ amend the Assam Land and Revenue Regulation, 1886 and other non-dynamic land governance acts.

(ii) To consolidate all land governance laws into a unified, comprehensive framework.

(iii) To legally mandate the adoption of digital land survey and conclusive titling using modern digital platforms.

(iv) To integrate provisions of the Forest Rights Act and recognize customary and community land rights.

(v) To provide legal certainty through a single-owner conclusive title system ensuring investment and ownership security etc.

Since the government has set objectives for the creation of the proposed bill, I would like to draw attention to the fact that, in addition to these objectives, the government ought to provide the public with data on the efficacy of the land-related laws that have been passed over the years. The government should think about making these details public as a pre-legislative obligation before creating the new bill draft.

The first objective states that the Assam Land and Revenue Regulation and other outdated land laws will either be amended or repealed. The issue is that the government purposefully rendered obsolete the numerous progressive land laws that were passed in the years following independence in order to grant land rights to Assamese citizens, provide land to those who were without it, and free tenants from the ongoing exploitation of landlords. Furthermore, the entire legal system was methodically stalled rather than providing land to the impoverished, disenfranchised farmers, and landless individuals for whose benefit such laws were passed.

The Land Revenue Commission Report from 1938 and the Famine Enquiry Commission Report from 1944 were two important elements that affected the Assam administration in the years following independence. The most significant action taken by the Assam government following independence was the passing of the Assam Adhiars Protection and Regulation Act, 1948, which was intended to safeguard sharecroppers (Adhiars) in accordance with national land reform plans.

Subsequently, other land reform laws enacted for the benefit of ordinary farmers and landless people in Assam include: the Assam  State Acquisition of Zamindaries Act,1951;the  State  Acquisition of Land belonging to  Religious and Public Charitable Institutions of  Public Nature Act, 1959;the Assam  Fixation of Ceiling of Land Holding Act, 1956, The Assam (Temporarily Settled Areas)Tenancy act,1971  etc. Even though post-independence administrations all over India intended to do away with the middleman and zamindari systems and give land rights to the actual cultivators, these intentions were never fully carried out. Tenancy reforms were implemented through the enactment of numerous legislation in different states. However, the legal pledge to provide tenants ownership rights remained just that—promises—in the majority of states, with the exception of West Bengal and Kerala.

Given this historical background, the following details and the government's position on these matters must be made public if the Assam government is sincere about giving its citizens land security and protecting the native population from violent corporate land grabs:

1). In their report, the 1947 Sub-Committee on the North-East Frontier (Assam) Tribal and Excluded Areas, led by Prime Minister Gopinath Bordoloi at the time, voiced serious concerns about the tribal people's persistent anxieties about their land and possible exploitation. The committee noted that strict protections are necessary to protect the hill people's lands since, in the absence of legislative protections people from more developed and densely inhabited places would seize the locals' land. The locals consistently expressed to the committee during their travels to the hill regions that they wanted to have control over migration and land ownership in their communities, and that they needed to exercise this control themselves. What is the current state of affairs in Assam's "Plain Areas," where this issue was first recognized about 78 years ago? Has a lack of protection caused the Assamese indigenous people to lose their lands to foreigners? In the 'Plain Areas' of Assam, especially the Brahmaputra Valley, how much land has been taken over by corporations, tea farms, and outsiders? A thorough understanding of this is necessary prior to drafting any land bills.

2).  The next critical question is: if the Assam Land and Revenue Regulation, 1886 is repealed, will the protections granted to protected people of Assam under Chapter 10 of this regulation remain or be abolished? Outsiders, especially corporate entities eager to buy land in Assam, have long attempted to abolish these protections, particularly around the tribal belts and blocks near Guwahati. Thousands of bighas of land have already been purchased legally and illegally in areas like Sonapur and Boko.These vested interests are constantly applying political pressure to abolish such safeguards and have openly advocated for the abolition of the Sixth Schedule, seeking unrestricted access to land in the Northeast.Does the Assam government have any alternative proposals to protect the indigenous, both tribal and non-tribal, people of Assam from such relentless land aggression?

3). The Assam government must also clarify its stance on whether it accepts the recommendations of the High-Level Committee on Land Rights, led by former Justice Biplab Kumar Sharma.The most significant recommendation of this committee was that, beyond the tribal belts and blocks mentioned in the Assam Land and Revenue Regulation, 1886, the state government should identify revenue circles where only "Assamese people" (defined by the committee itself) can own and possess land. Does the Assam government have the courage to implement such a bold measure, as the Congress government did in 1948 by establishing tribal belts and blocks?

4). Finally, the Assam government needs to disclose how the laws that they now consider to be out of date were purposefully made inactive. How many Assamese citizens obtained land pattas (ownership documents) as a result of the several progressive measures already mentioned and other ground-breaking land reform programs designed to give land to landless and actual cultivators?A white paper outlining the number of persons who obtained land pattas as a result of these acts and state policies must be published by the Assam government.Assamese citizens have a right to know how these progressive legislation become obsolete and non-functional. Ordinary persons can only offer appropriate comments and suggestions about the proposed land bill with this information.

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