In an important verdict yesterday, the honorable Uttarakhand High Court at Nainital has removed the Uttarakhand Government restriction for non-domiciles (people who are not original residents of Uttarakhand) on buying of agricultural land in the state.

Calling the said 2003 Act unconstitutional, the Uttarakhand High Court today struck down the much-contentious land reforms in the state under which outsiders were prohibited to buy more than 250 sq m of agriculture land.

In the verdict, the division bench of Chief Justice Barin Ghosh and Justice U C Dhyani said all the citizens of the country would now be able to purchase up to 12.5 acres (or 50586 sq metres approximately) of agriculture land in the state under the Land Ceiling Act.

Following this judgement any person who is a citizen of India can purchase 12.5 acres of agricultural land in Uttarakhand which is also the permissible limit under the Land Ceilings Act.

The ruling is also seen by few, as a step which will rectify the existing land laws which were discriminatory against the residents of Uttarakhand as any person who do not possess any agriculture land before the Act came into being in 2003 was not eligible to buy more than 250 sq meters of land.
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