> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://newsanek.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Gujarat Legalises Decades of Farmland Splits and Sales Under Old Law - URL: https://newsanek.com/gujarat-legalises-farmland-fragmentation-deals-free/ - Published: 2026-11-03T15:54:29.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-03T15:54:29.000Z - Description: Gujarat's Assembly has passed a change to its 1947 land fragmentation law, making farmland deals from 1948 to March 2026 legal at no cost. - Author: Kumar Ujjwal - Tags: India, Gujarat, #state-gujarat, #starter The Gujarat Assembly has unanimously passed an amendment to the state's 1947 law on the fragmentation of farmland, locally known as the Tukda Dhara. According to Swarajya, every sale or division of farmland made against that law between 1948 and March 2026 is now legal. Owners do not have to pay anything, and all pending cases against such deals have been dropped. ### Key points - Farmland deals made against the 1947 law from 1948 to March 2026 are now legal in Gujarat, free of cost. - Pending cases over such deals have been dropped, and the Assembly passed the change unanimously. - The law sets one minimum plot size for the whole state and removes towns and cities from its scope. - Maharashtra, which has the same 1947 law, first charged owners a fee and made the pardon free only for land in and around towns. ## Why the law was a problem Farms in India get smaller with each generation as land is divided among children. Swarajya notes that India had about 7 crore farm holdings in the 1970-71 Agriculture Census. By 2015-16 the number had roughly doubled to over 14.6 crore, and the average holding was 1.08 hectares, a little over two and a half acres. After Independence, several states, including Punjab, Rajasthan, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha and the old Bombay State, banned dividing or selling farmland below a minimum size. The idea was that a very small farm cannot support a family. Families still divided land, and farmers still sold small pieces when they needed money. The laws only made these deals illegal on paper. As a result, lakhs of buyers held land that the revenue department would not accept as theirs. They could not sell it cleanly, borrow against it or build on it, and many fought the government for years. ## What the new law changes Along with the free pardon, the amendment sets a single minimum plot size for the entire state in place of a confusing set of local rules. It also takes towns and cities out of a law that was written for farms. The report points to the case of Devansh Patel, who bought farmland in Narmada district in 2012, registered the sale and paid the seller in full. Two years later, district revenue officials declared the deal illegal under the fragment law. His appeal to the state revenue department failed in 2018, and he then moved the Gujarat High Court. By the time the case was heard, the new law was in force. The government still asked for the matter to be sent back to revenue officials, but the court refused. It noted that Patel had bought the land honestly, that the sellers had kept his money and that he had been sent from office to office for years. The court closed the case in his favour. Swarajya says thousands of buyers in Gujarat had similar files. ## How other states compare Maharashtra, which has the same 1947 law, first asked owners to pay up to a quarter of their land's market value to legalise such deals. Owners did not come forward, so the charge was cut to 5 per cent. Many still stayed away. In 2025 the state made it free, but only for land in and around towns. Swarajya argues that other states with similar laws should study Gujarat's approach. It also suggests that the next reform should let small owners lease out their land safely, so that it can be farmed in larger blocks while families keep ownership. This is the outlet's view, and the source does not say that any state has planned such a step. --- ### Source - [Swarajya: Indian Farms Shrink With Every Generation. Gujarat’s New Land Law Shows Other States How To Tackle It](https://swarajyamag.com/commentary/indian-farms-shrink-with-every-generation-gujarats-new-land-law-shows-other-states-how-to-tackle-it?ref=newsanek.com)