Altaf Hussain Janjua

Jammu, Dec 3 (IANS): Now those who own agricultural land in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir can transfer their land to their legitimate legal heirs under the Jammu and Kashmir Land Revenue Act.

In this regard, the government has issued a formal order for which action was being taken at the administrative level since November last year.

As per the powers conferred under Section 96 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs issued an order and made several amendments to the Land Revenue Act of Jammu and Kashmir.

There was a ban on transferring agricultural land to a person who doesn't cultivate the land.

J&K's Finance Department approached the Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs to resolve the issue seeking legal opinion on Section 141 of the Jammu and Kashmir Land Revenue Act.

The Law Department, in response, said that Section 141 provides that if any difficulty arises in enforcing the provisions of the Land Revenue Act, the government cannot by order make such provisions inconsistent with the provisions of the Act.

Accordingly, the Law Department advised the Revenue Department to take recourse to this provision and pass such appropriate orders as may be deemed fit for the purpose of removing the difficulty.

Now, in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 141 of the Jammu and Kashmir Land Revenue Act, the government has directed that legal heirs, i.e., mother, father, wife and children of an agriculturist also fall under the category of agriculturists for the purpose of the section. Thus, the government has removed the difficulty in implementing the provisions of Section 133-H.

In order to implement this order, all the field staff of the Revenue Department have been informed that this decision of the government will benefit thousands of families in J&K.