[Tmdl.edu.vn] In this story know all about the West Bengal Land Reforms Act

The Land Reform Act applies to initiatives to change how land is owned and governed in India. A government-initiated or -backed property redistribution, typically of agricultural land, is called land reform. Therefore, the land reform act can refer to the transfer of ownership from the powerful to the weaker, such as from a limited group of affluent or aristocratic owners with extensive land holdings to an individual request by individuals who labor the land. Such ownership transfers may be made with or without compensation, and the latter might range from small sums to the entire land value. 

Land reform can also partition government-owned collective farms and smallholdings, or it can refer to transferring land from individual ownership—even peasant ownership in smallholdings—to government-owned collective farms. But all land reforms share one thing in common: they change or replace the institutional frameworks that now control who owns the land and how it is used. So, although land reform may be radical, such as through extensive property transfers from one group to another, it can also be less dramatic, such as regulatory reforms to improve land administration. 

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However, any modification or reform of a nation’s land laws can still be a highly political process because changing land policies affect how communities interact with one another, with the State, and with one another. As a result, even minor legal and land reform initiatives may spark heated debate or violence. 

 

West Bengal Land Reforms Act  

In West Bengal, the Land Reforms Act is the primary piece of legislation addressing land reform and land rights. Although the Land Reforms Act addresses several land-related issues, it is mainly notable for: 

Rights and obligations of landowners  

According to the LRA, a “landowner” is any individual or organization that owns the land for any use. Landowners can typically transfer their property through sales, gifts, bequests, exchanges, and various types of mortgages. In essence, the West Bengal Land Reforms Act assumes that landowners may engage in any transfer unless expressly prohibited by the law. These transactions must be made in writing and documented. 

Landowners who breach the law’s restrictions on how they might utilize their property risk losing it altogether. Landowners are specifically required to “personally cultivate” their land and cannot:

1. Lease out any portion of their property.
2. Use it for any purpose other than that it is held or settled.
3. Use it for any other purpose without the District Collector’s prior written consent. 

Personal cultivation is work done on the land by the landowner themself, family members, or any servants or laborers paid in cash or in-kind. In addition, the landowner or a member of the landowner’s family must spend most of the year in the area where the land is located, and produce from the land must be the primary source of the landowner’s income to meet the criteria of personal cultivation. The land vests in the State and the State are responsible for paying the landowner if these conditions are not satisfied for three years. After that, however, the compensation is far below the market worth of the land. 

Landowners must also take care of their property to prevent degradation, character changes, and conversion to uses other than those for which it was initially established or previously held unless they have the explicit consent of the Collector. Although severe, the penalty for breaking this rule does not include land forfeiture. Instead, the punishment for breaking the law is three years in prison and a fine of up to 1,000 rupees. 

• Rights and obligations of Bargadars (Sharecroppers)  

Bargadars are given specific protection under the West Bengal Land Reforms Act, including the ability to carry on cultivating. These rights, which must be listed in the record of dues, can be passed down the generations but cannot otherwise be transferred. 

Unless they are related to the landowner, everyone legally cultivating any land that belongs to another person is assumed to be a bargadar. No other state’s legislation has this particular element that distinguishes the West Bengal Land Reforms Act. It places the burden of proof on the landowner to demonstrate that a person working on their property is not a bargadar. 

Only if the cultivator is also a member of a Scheduled Tribe is the cultivator eligible to claim bargadar status when the landowner belongs to a Scheduled Tribe. 

 

• Regularization and limitation of share payments 

According to the LRA, bargadars must turn over half of their harvest if the landowner furnishes the plow, animals, manure, and seeds required for cultivation and 25% of their crop in all other circumstances. The landowner shall deliver to the bargadar a written receipt upon payment.

• Landowners are restricted in their capacity to revoke the agricultural rights of bargadars 

Only the following situations will result in the termination of a Baradar’s right to cultivate land:

1. The bargadar is not using the land for agricultural purposes or is not producing it.
2. The bargadar is not personally acquiring the land.
3. The bargadar failed to tender the full extent of the share.
4. The landowner needs the land for personal cultivation.

Notably, the concept of personal cultivation for this clause excludes cultivation by servants or laborers. Furthermore, only an order issued by a state-appointed entity has the power to revoke a Baradar’s right. 

Suppose the termination would leave the landowner with more than 7.41 acres or would leave the bargadar with less than 2.47 acres. In that case, the landowner cannot terminate the Baradar’s cultivation right. The land vests in the State if the landowner fails to cultivate it personally within two years of the termination date or permits another person to do so. A bargadar may request their cultivation privilege reinstated if a landowner improperly ends it. The application must be filed no later than two years after the termination date or two years after the effective date of this provision. If more than one candidate applies, the bargadar who farmed the land the longest may resume.

• Surrender by the bargadar  

A bargadar is free to give up their right to cultivate, but a state-appointed officer must assess whether or not the surrender was genuinely voluntary. The proprietor must give control of the property to someone prepared to develop it as a bargadar, even if the transfer was voluntary.

• The most land a bargadar is permitted to cultivate 

The maximum amount of land a bargadar may cultivate, including owned and barga land, is 9.88 acres. If a bargadar cultivates more than this, the State will be entitled to the remainder of the crop grown on the extra land. A different person is willing to acquire the ground as a bargadar must be given the land by the landowner who owns the excess land that the bargadar uses for farming. 

 

Preemptive purchase rights of Bargadars and adjoining landowners  

According to the West Bengal Land Reforms Act, bargain hunters have the first preemptive right to buy any land sold. The neighboring landowner with the most extended common boundary has priority over the other landowners if the bargadar does not accept the property. Transfers made via bequest, gift, mortgage, exchange, partition, for charity or religious reasons, or in favor of a bargadar are all exempt from this clause’s application. Additionally, the rule does not cover transfers involving considerations other than money. 

The State may create a “state land corporation” and one or more “regional land corporations” under the LRA. These organizations may lend money to bargadars to use this preemptive purchase power to buy land. The land company sets the price based on the market worth of the ground if the bargadar and landowner cannot reach an agreement on a price of their choosing. These Act clauses do not seem to be being used yet. 

When a bargadar declines to buy an owner’s land, the state land corporation may, at the owner’s request, offer the land to a buyer who qualifies for section 49 land purchases, which is typically a landless or almost landless individual. 

Unlike laws in some other states like Karnataka, the West Bengal Land Reforms Act does not offer bargadars the right to become owners of the barga land without the owner’s consent. Even though bargadars are given first rights to buy barga land if the landowner wishes to sell the land. Unless the landowner voluntarily sells the property, the law appears to envision an everlasting relationship between the bargadar and the proprietor. 

Ceiling on holdings  

With a few minor exceptions, no landowner can own more land than the allowed amount. Significantly, the LRA includes non-agricultural land in its definition of “land.” West Bengal is the only Indian State to use such a broad term of “land” in its land reform legislation. The intention is to stop landowners from reclassifying agricultural land as non-agricultural to break the law. Additionally, unlike most other states, the ceiling limit only applies to privately owned land; it does not apply to leased land. 

For an adult, single owner, the ceiling area ranges from 6.2 “standard acres” to a maximum of 17.3 “standard acres” for an owner with a nine-person family. For irrigated land, a “standard acre” is 1 acre, and for all other types of property, 1.4 acres. Other Indian states use “families” of up to five people as the application unit rather than individuals. West Bengal is one of two Indian states where the ceiling area is reduced if the number of family members is less than five. 

The total ceiling limit has a few small exceptions:

1. The state government may extend the ceiling area if the land is used for charity or religious reasons.
2. The State may also permit landowners to hold more than the maximum amount of property if they want to build a township, factory, workshop, dairy, animal farm, poultry farm, or tea garden.
3. The ceiling does not apply to local authority-owned property or land in the hills close to Darjeeling. 

Any land transferred after August 7, 1969, before the 1971 amendment is included in the calculation of the size of the landowner’s holding as if the land had not been transferred or partitioned to prevent landowners from anticipatory land transfers to avoid the ceiling. Genuine transfers or partitions are exempt from this provision. Transfers to a specific set of family members are assumed to be fraudulent. 

Landowners with more land than the allowed amount must submit a document to the revenue officer with detailed descriptions of the land they intend to keep and the additional land. Owners of the land that exceeds the ceiling area are prohibited from selling, giving away, or parting any of their lands until the excess has been ascertained and the State has taken ownership of it unless specifically authorized in writing by the Revenue Officer. Landowners with more than the maximum amount of land are subject to up to two years in prison and a fine of 5,000 rupees if they refuse to provide the required paperwork without a valid reason or willfully make an error. The Revenue Officer decides which property will vest in the State and takes possession after receiving the paperwork. 

Every piece of land over the ceiling area becomes fully vested in the State. A landowner’s surplus is holding vests in the State if it ever surpasses the ceiling after the LRA’s start. If a bargadar is cultivating ceiling surplus land, their right to do so is revoked on land larger than one acre. Any land less than an acre in size belongs to the bargadar. The West Bengal Land Reforms Act does not mention the bargadar being compelled to compensate the owner or the government for this land. Landowners whose extra land becomes state property must receive compensation from the government. If the land has been assessed, they are entitled to 15 times the land revenue. They are entitled to 135 rupees per acre in cases where land revenue has not been considered. The prescribed compensation is significantly less than the market value in both scenarios. 

Distribution of vested land  

The rules for how the state government should divide the land that became its property either because it exceeded the cap or was utilized unlawfully are outlined in Section 49 of the LRA. People who live in the community where the property is located and who, with their family, possess either no land or less than one acre of agricultural land receive such land free from the State. Before the West Bengal Land Reforms Act, land distribution to proprietors with less than 2.47 acres was permitted. However, the “one-hectare” limit was changed to a “one-acre” limitation in the LRA in 1980 to better focus the advantages on the landless and most minor landowners. 

The State may distribute vested land for public purposes. Such as founding, upkeep, or preservation of any educational or scientific institution or industry, in addition to providing it to the landless or nearly landless—half of the land that a family cultivates as bargadars counts toward the total quantity of land ownership. A grantee of agricultural land must have a farming use in mind. Those who receive homestead land grants must not already have a homestead there and intend to do so. Landless households, people from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and people who organize themselves into cooperative societies are given preference among qualified people. 

Anyone who has a family member “engaged or employed in any business, trade, endeavor, manufacture, calling, service, or industrial profession” is not eligible to receive land under Section 49. However, this caveat does not apply to fishermen, craftspeople, or agricultural employees. In addition, the West Bengal Land Reforms Act severely restricts a grantee’s ability to transfer the land. Such land may not be sold, gifted, exchanged, or leased by the grantee. 

A grantee may only transfer their land in the following ways, excluding transfers by inheritance: 

1. By a simple mortgage
2. Through a mortgage that entails the delivery of title deeds to specific financial institutions or cooperative organizations listed in the West Bengal Land Reforms Act.
3. Furthermore, these mortgages can only be used to secure loans to improve agricultural production, develop land, or build a residence. 

 

Restrictions on alienation of land by members of Scheduled Tribes  

By limiting their ability to transfer the property they hold, Scheduled Tribe members’ interests are protected, according to one of the LRA’s goals. 

Any transfer by a landowner who is a member of a Scheduled Tribe is void, with the following exceptions:

1. A complete usufructuary mortgage with a Scheduled Tribe member for less than seven years.
2. Sale or gift to the government for a public or charitable purpose.
3. Simple mortgage to the government or a registered cooperative society.
4. Simple mortgage or mortgage by deposit of title deeds in favor of a scheduled bank, a cooperative land mortgage bank, or a corporation owned by the government for land development or improvements.
5. A gift or bequest to a member of a Scheduled Tribe.
6. A sale or exchange to any member of a Scheduled Tribe. 

Members of Scheduled Tribes are occasionally permitted to sell their property to anyone with the Revenue Officer’s prior approval. The Revenue Officer may set aside transfers against the West Bengal Land Reforms Act or obtain them through fraud or deceit. Unless the transferee has been in continuous possession of the land for 30 years, anyone who wrongfully owned tribal land may be expelled from it. However, a transfer will stand if the transferor owns or cultivates more than 9.88 acres of land and the transferee retains less than one acre.

Land consolidation  

Several land consolidation-related clauses in the LRA have, for the most part, not been put into practice. For example, the West Bengal Land Reforms Act allows the government to buy land to combine holdings into manageable chunks. As an alternative, consolidation can be done if seven or more landowners, each of whom owns no more than one acre of land, request it. 

The West Bengal Land Reforms Act stipulates that payment must be made for these acquisitions, but it does not mention the payment amount. These clauses are still essentially unimplemented. Similar to this, the LRA stops land from being divided up. To prevent fragmentation, the state government creates a “standard area,” which varies by locality and land quality. Legally, landowners are not permitted to divide their property into pieces smaller than the “standard area.” 

Formation of Co-operative Farming Societies  

Cooperative farming societies and cooperative standard service organizations may be established, registered, and eligible for government subsidies under the West Bengal Land Reforms Act. However, due to a lack of organized grassroots demand from farmers for societies, these measures have also not been routinely implemented. A cooperative agricultural group can be established by seven or more landowners who already hold or want to purchase property in a compact block. 

All member properties that comprise a compact block after registration, except homesteads, vest in the society. A member who transfers ownership of their land to the cooperative is compensated with shares of equal value. In addition, a joint may receive concessions from the government, such as a decrease in revenue assessments, free seed, and manure supply for the first three years, discounted rates, free technical advice from state government experts, financial assistance, and arrangements for better marketing. 

Moreover, any group of seven or more people who each own, cultivate, or possess up to one acre of land is eligible to create a cooperative everyday service society. However, the West Bengal Land Reforms Act does not allow for the vesting of land in the harmonious common service society, unlike in the case of cooperative farming organizations. 

Maintenance Of Land Records  

A land rights record-keeping system can be created and managed according to the LRA’s regulations. In particular, the data below must be documented and kept current:

1. A change in ownership due to a gift, inheritance, or transfer.
2. The division, exchange, or consolidation of land.
3. The creation of cooperative farming societies.
4. The settlement of new lands or holdings.
5. A change in revenue.
6. A change in the mode of cultivation, such as when a bargadar starts or stops cultivating the land.
7. Such other causes necessitate a difference in the record of rights.

 

Land Reform Act Administration and implementation in West Bengal  

Success in the land reform act cannot be attained solely through enacting supportive and carefully worded legislative provisions. Such regulations must be applied appropriately and managed. The success of West Bengal’s land reform act has been dramatically influenced by administration and implementation. West Bengal has made considerable progress, especially in the late 1960s and since 1977, not only in revising the law to narrow loopholes and increase the possibility for success but also in putting the land reform laws and policies into practice. 

 

FAQs 

In what year was the West Bengal Land Reform Act passed?

The West Bengal Land Reform Act implementation was in 1955.

According to the WB Land Reforms Act of 1955, what rights are granted to raiyats?

By Section 4(3) of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act of 1955, a raiyat was permitted to keep 25 acres of land, excluding his homestead. The West Bengal Land Reforms (Amendment) Act, 1971, and later the West Bengal Land Reforms (Amendment) Act, 1972, both deleted subsection (3) of section 4 of the law.

Who is a Bargadar, according to the West Bengal Land Reforms Act of 1955, is defined.

As a result, the Bargadar is responsible for paying all expenses associated with farming the land and employing workers. As a result, the Bargadar are frequently referred to as Bhags or Abhidhagas, who farm other people’s lands.

What changes have been made to agriculture in West Bengal?

In West Bengal, how many acres of land may one own?

According to the West Bengal Land Reforms Act, the maximum amount of agricultural land privately owned in the State is 17.5 acres for irrigated regions and 24.5 acres for purely rainfed areas. In metropolitan areas, private ownership is limited to 7.5 cottages or one-eighth of an acre.

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