Land Reforms Vis-a-Vis Urban Land Ceiling Act and its Connotations in West Bengal

Land continues to be of growing importance in today’s age of technology and development and the essence of land is etched deep within the history of India. The concept of ownership of land was not prevalent in ancient India and from Vedic era till the establishment of Lord Ashoka “zamindars” were non-existent. Kings thereafter did not own land and they were only responsible to provide security to its subjects, whereas it was the subjects who gave a certain percentage of the agricultural produce to the Kings as revenue. The Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, 1976 is Central Act enacted under Clause (1) of Article 252 of the Indian Constitution and came into effect in 1976 and was repealed through the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Repeal Act, 1999 by the Government of India. However, the State of West Bengal continues to adopt and implement this said legislation for social benefit and ceiling of urban land. The purpose behind the Act is to prevent concentration of urban land in the hands of few persons and to prevent profiteering so that equitable distribution of land can be achieved for the benefit of the entire population. The ceiling on land introduced by the Urban Land (Ceiling & Regulation) Act continues to play an important role in West Bengal whereas it has already been repealed in other States of India. The need of the hour is for reforms in land laws throughout the country to root out the middle-men who continue to thrive under different regimes of power and utilitarian laws such as Urban Land (Ceiling & Regulation) Act should meet its purpose within a short span of time and then make way for progress or else development would be immensely affected, as is the condition in West Bengal