Gujarat Farmer Verification Process Streamlined for Buying Agricultural Land and Non-Agricultural Use Permission

Introduction

On 13-9-2024, the Revenue Department, Gujarat Government issued two Circulars relating to “khedut khatedar kharai” i.e. farmer verification process. The details of the same are as follows:

(i) Vide Circular¹, at the time of recording and verifying the sale of an agricultural land in Gujarat, only for farmer verification certificate, consideration of revenue records will commence from 6-4-1995 (cut-off date) and instructions, relating to verification of sale of an agricultural land, provided under Para 2 of Circular dated 8-11-2019² issued by the Revenue Department, Gujarat Government, like providing details of other lands held by the buyer as well as how the subject land of the sale came to be acquired by the buyer from the very beginning, will no longer be applicable to sale of an agricultural land in Gujarat. Furthermore, vide this Circular, the authorities have been instructed to consider status of applicant as of 6-4-1995 only and are not required to investigate any period prior to such date, while making mutation entry of sale transaction on verifying records available online as well as for the purpose of certification of mutation entry.

(ii) Vide Circular³ pursuant to when a person applies to convert “old tenure land” as well as “non-agricultural land subject to payment of premium” to a “non-agricultural land”, only for the purpose of farmer verification process, cutoff date for consideration of revenue records will commence from 6-4-1995. The said Circular also provides for the aforementioned provision to be read with all the existing provisions relating to non-agricultural use permission (NA permission) in Gujarat.

Background

In order to buy an agricultural land, or apply for a NA permission in Gujarat, the buyer/applicant has to prove that he/she is a farmer as per provisions applicable in State of Gujarat and therefore, is permitted to buy/apply for, the said land. This process is locally known as “khedut khatedar kharai” i.e. farmer verification process.

The year 2004 saw digitisation of revenue records in Gujarat and pursuant thereto, discussions relating to farmer verification process started revolving around consideration of records up to a fixed period. From December 2018, vide Circular⁴ dated 12-12-2018 issued by the Revenue Department, Gujarat Government, the process of obtaining NA permission for land under Section 65 of the Gujarat Land Revenue Code, 1879, was made online in Gujarat. Similarly, vide Circular⁵ dated 8-11-2019 issued by the Revenue Department, Gujarat Government, the process to obtain NA permission for land subject to payment of non-agricultural premium was also made online.

Further, vide Circulars: (i) dated 20-11-2000⁶ and (ii) dated 31-7-2020⁷, issued by the Revenue Department, Gujarat Government, processes with respect to sale of agricultural land as well as obtaining farmer verification certificate in Gujarat were made online.

Furthermore, to obtain various permissions regarding land, in the online procedure under Integrated Online Revenue Applications (iORA) portal, instructions were circulated to make necessary amendments regarding provisional permission, farmer verification and NA permission along with encumbrance vide Circular⁸ dated 8-11-2019 issued by the Revenue Department, Gujarat Government. In the said Circular, under Para 2, instructions with respect to farmer verification have been provided, like to provide the details of the land held by the applicant at different times and like how the land is acquired from the very beginning.

The challenge

Under the aforementioned processes for obtaining NA permission, as well as for the recording the sale of an agricultural land, it was compulsory to furnish the farmer verification certificate. For proving the same, documents dating back as the first promulgation event in Gujarat, which took place in the year 1951-1952, were required. Apart from these documents, it was also insisted that the farmer verification certificate should be recent and should pertain to jurisdiction where the person was originally entitled to own/occupy agricultural land in Gujarat.

The challenges faced to obtain farmer verification certificate like district expansion, natural calamities like flood, present owners not having documents proving that their previous owners were farmers, buyers having old farmer verification certificates, etc. resulted in applications to obtain NA permission as well as to record and verify the sale of agricultural land getting rejected frequently. Because of the increased frequency of such instances, the Gujarat State Government noticed that the applicants who applied for obtaining NA permission as well as to record and verify the sale of agricultural land faced a lot of difficulties in terms of wastage of the applicants’ time and money. Moreover, increased rejections led to increased appeals before appellate authority leading to more delay in deciding of matters pertaining to various issues/disputes relating to revenue laws.

Analysis

Keeping in view the aforementioned situation as well as various requests received by the Revenue Department, Gujarat Government, the aforementioned Circulars were issued by the Revenue Department, Gujarat Government.

These Circulars prove to be a forward step by the State Government of Gujarat in improving the ease of business for its State. The positive aspects of the change in the processes can be easily forecasted since records pursuant to 6-4-1995 would be easily available in revenue records offices, as well as with the applicants themselves, which would result in savings, both in terms of time and money, to applicants and revenue offices alike.

It is also pertinent to note that the said Circulars will not apply to ongoing litigations/investigations relating to farmer verification, making these Circulars prospective in nature. Furthermore, the aforementioned Circulars have also introduced a “self-declaration” form, which is to be filed by the applicants and to be given at time of applying for NA permission or recording of sale of an agricultural land. This form contains certain representations by the applicant which fixes liability on the applicant, if in future it is found that the applicant was not a farmer at the time of applying for NA permission or buying an agricultural land, or if any other detail provided by him/her in the said form is false or fraudulent. Via this form, the State Government intends to make sure that false and fraudulent applications are deterred and consequently tries to balance freedom and convenience in the existing processes relating to farmer verification process while making sure that false and fraudulent applications would not be a burden on the Revenue Department.