What is that you wanted to know about this especially when you have already sold the property?
There has been considerable news and reputation damage to the real estate sector in Uttarakhand on account of the alleged ban on buying property in the State. Even today, most investors and prospective buyers are under the misguided notion that one cannot purchase property in the State of Uttarakhand or some believe that one can buy, but only to a certain extent.
ection 154(3) was added by the Amendment Act which restricted sale of land by a ‘bhumidar’ “to any of the categories of tenure holders in the State of Uttaranchal as mentioned in section 129 or such owner of any immovable property in Uttaranchal who has acquired it on or before [deleted], or to any member of the ‘family’….”
Furthermore, the newly inserted Section 154(4)(1)(a) provided that a non-tenure holder or a person not owing property before [deleted] may purchase land not exceeding 500 sq. mts. in his lifetime without the permission (of the Government). This limit was reduced to 250 sq. mts. by an amendment dated July 16, 2007. Interestingly, the 2007 amendment also added the words ‘for residential purpose’ after 250 sq. mts. Therefore, the law now reads: ‘250 sq. mts. for residential purpose in his lifetime without the permission.’
These two sections created a lot of hue and cry among investors as it was reported by the media and interpreted by the common man to mean an absolute prohibition on all kinds of property. However, Section 1 (2) of the Amendment Act restricted the application of these new sections effectively only to agricultural land or land outside municipal/cantonment limits. Clause (2) states:
“It extends to the whole State of Uttaranchal except the areas included and may be included from time to time in any Municipal Corporation, Nagar Panchayat, Nagar Parishad and Cantonment Board Limits.”