Karnataka moves to amend SC/ST land transfer law, 25-year time bar on claims by grantees to be removed

“A special Cabinet meeting approved the amendment of the PTCL Act to remove the time limit for the land owner to file a complaint under Section 5(1) of the Act in case the land allocated to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes has been transferred without the permission of the government,” the Chief Minister’s Office said after the Cabinet meeting.

On July 7, during his Budget speech, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had stated that he was intent on amending the PTCL Act. “In order to enable SC/ST land grantees to appeal for restoration of land, suitable amendments will be made to the Karnataka Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prohibition of Transfer of Certain Lands) Act, 1978 by prescribing timeline in the Act itself,” he had stated.

SC/ST groups have been demanding the removal of the time bar for claims on lands that were originally granted to them but were subsequently sold or taken over by others without government clearances.

Thousands of acres of land acquired around cities like Bengaluru for private purposes were originally government lands granted to landless SC/ST community members. Politicians and big builders are among those alleged to have acquired the land that was, in fact, barred from acquisition under the PTCL law.

As per the proposed Bill that was tabled in the state legislature by Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda, the Karnataka Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prohibition of Transfer of Certain Lands) Act, 1978 will be amended to say that “there shall be no limitation of time or reasonable time to invoke the provisions of this Act” and that the new provision will “apply to all cases pending before all the competent authorities and all courts of law…”

The government has stated in the Bill that the clauses in the original law for non-alienation of land granted to SC/ST communities and the provision for cancellation of grants where the land is illegally alienated were not enough to help the SC/ST grantees. Their “ignorance and poverty have been exploited by persons belonging to the affluent and powerful sections to obtain sales or mortgages either for a nominal consideration or for no consideration at all and they have become the victims of circumstances,” it said.

The Karnataka Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prohibition of Transfer of Certain Lands) Act, 1978, which came into force in 1979, was originally enacted to ensure that land granted to the less privileged should be restored to the original grantee or their heirs even if the land has been procured by others. The law lies at the core of hundreds of land disputes.

It bars the transfer of land even by means of “a sale, gift, exchange, mortgage (with or without possession), lease or any other transaction”. Hundreds of acres of land acquired by top politicians in Karnataka are purported to have originally been SC/ST land that were acquired by means of gift deeds and other means.

A Supreme Court order of 2017 had imposed a time bar of 25 years on the period when an original SC/ST allottee or their kin can stake a claim to land that was granted to a family member. The apex court ruling had resulted in many courts disposing of PTCL cases filed by Dalits on grounds of being time-barred, says the new Bill.

The Bill states that “with respect to the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s order, Dalit organisations have requested the Government to amend this Act in such a way that there should not be time limit to restore such lands which have been transferred without the prior permission of the Government or to register suo motu case by the competent authority”.