Land Policies in India (eBook)

Sony Pellissery is a Professor at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. After his doctoral studies at Oxford, UK he served as an associate professor at the Institute of Rural Management, Anand for five years. He is involved in developing a Master’s Programme in Public Policy at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. He is the recipient of Prof. G. Ram Reddy Social Scientist Award—2015.  Ben Davy is Professor of Land Policy, Land Management and Municipal Geo-information at the School of Spatial Planning, TU Dortmund University, Germany. He is essay editor of Planning Theory and member of the editorial boards of the Journal of the American Planning Association, Planning Theory and Practice, and The Public Sector. From 2010 to 2016, he was the Vice President and President of the International Academic Association on Planning, Law, and Property Rights. Ben Davy's areas of research include property theory, land policy, planning theory, and real estate evaluation.Harvey M. Jacobs is affiliated to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, where he holds a joint appointment as Professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.  He is also a Visiting Professor at Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands, and is a 2008 recipient of the L’Ordre des Palmes Académiques, awarded by the French Government.  Prof. Jacobs’ academic specialty is the social and legal aspects of land policy, with a particular focus on property rights.  Prof. Jacobs has been invited to give lectures on his research and consult on aspects of his work in countries around the world, including in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, and throughout North America.

Foreword 6
Preface 10
Contents 14
About the Editors 16
1 Human Dignity and Property in Land— A Human Rights Approach 17
1 The World of Things and Citizenship of the World 18
2 Property and Human Rights Law 22
2.1 The Golden Rule of Property as a Human Right 22
2.2 Property Relations in UN-Sponsored Human Rights Law 26
2.3 Result of Legal Analysis 30
3 Property and Human Dignity 31
3.1 Human Rights and Human Dignity 31
3.2 Private Property and Human Dignity 34
3.3 Three Worlds 36
3.4 The Core, the Floor, and the Ceiling: Basic Ideas 39
3.5 The Core, the Floor, and the Ceiling: Locke’s Property Theory 42
4 Why not Follow the Golden Rule of Property as a Human Right? 44
Acknowledgements 45
References 45
2 Evolution of Property Rights in India 50
1 Introduction 50
2 Evolution of Property Rights in India: Pre-independence 51
3 Indian Constitution and Property Rights 53
4 Individual Right Versus Community Rights: Constitution Amendments 1951–1964 54
5 Golak Nath, Bank Nationalizations and Princely Privileges: Constitution Amendments 1971–72 56
6 Fundamental Rights Case and the Forty-Second Amendment 1977 58
7 Abolition of Right to Property: The Forty-Fourth Constitution Amendment 1978 59
8 Legacy of Kesavananda, Article 300A and the Right to Property 60
9 The Ninth Schedule: A Bottomless Pit 62
10 Conclusion 64
References 65
3 Postcolonial Evolution of Water Rights in India and the United States 66
1 Introduction 66
2 Overview of India and the United States 67
2.1 United States 67
2.2 India 68
3 Deviation from the English Common Law in the United States 69
4 Surface Water 70
4.1 Introduction 70
4.2 United States 71
4.2.1 Eastern United States 71
4.2.2 Western United States 71
4.3 India 73
4.4 Conclusion 74
5 Groundwater 75
5.1 Introduction 75
5.2 United States 76
5.3 India 78
5.4 Conclusion 80
6 Regulated Riparianism 80
6.1 Introduction 80
6.2 United States 80
6.3 India 81
6.4 Conclusion 82
7 Conclusions and Recommendations 83
References 84
Cases 85
4 Conflicting Interests and Intelligible Utilisation of Common Property Resources: A Study of a Tropical Wetland in South India 86
1 Introduction 86
2 Common Property Resources 88
3 Methodology and Data Sources 90
4 Vellayani Lake—A Tropical Wetland 90
5 Stakeholders Are Multiple and Varied 91
5.1 Kerala Water Authority and Drinking Water Source 91
5.2 Panchayats and Tourism Potential 93
5.3 Fishermen and Their Livelihood 93
5.4 Farmers and Agricultural Activities 94
5.5 Real Estate and Alternate Land Use 95
5.6 Scientists and Conservation Measures 95
5.7 Environmentalists and Uniqueness of Wetland 96
6 Proposals to Conserve 96
7 Underlying Conflicts 97
8 Management of CPRs: A Tough Task to Accomplish 99
References 102
5 Land Transfer Tax Policy Regime and Its Influence on Property Markets: Analysing the Land Transfer Tax Policy of Kerala in the Last Decade 104
1 Introduction 104
2 Review of Land Transfer Taxes (LTTs) 105
3 Background 107
4 Methodology and Data 107
5 Analysis 108
5.1 Changes in Rates 108
5.2 Changes in the Structure 110
5.2.1 Fair Value Land Taxation 110
5.2.2 Short-Term Capital Gains Tax 111
5.3 Influence of Tax Policy Changes on Land Markets 111
5.4 Impacts 113
6 Concluding Observations 114
References 117
6 Development or Disaster? Land Acquisition and Dispossession in the Mining Belts and Coastal Zones of Rural Odisha, India 119
1 Introduction 119
2 Theoretical Background 121
2.1 Political Economy Discourse of Land Reforms and Land Acquisition 121
2.2 Political Economy of Dispossession: How the Question of Land Is Understood? 123
2.2.1 Marx’s Theory of Primitive Accumulation 123
2.2.2 Accumulation by Dispossession (David Harvey) 123
3 Empirical Background 124
3.1 Study Area 124
3.1.1 Methods 126
4 Political Economy of Land Acquisition 126
4.1 Discourses in Odisha 126
4.1.1 Losing Land to Mining Due to Land Acquisition 127
4.2 Agricultural Land Grab Through Extraction of Mining: Alienation and Dispossession in the Districts of Keonjhar and Sundergarh 127
4.2.1 Change in the Ownership Right Due to Mega Industrialization Projects and Mining Leases 129
4.2.2 Alienation from CPR Due to Endangered Mining 130
4.2.3 Another Cry of Khandadhar 133
4.3 The Neo-liberal State, Resistance and Dispossession in Odisha: Narratives of the Story of POSCO Through Revisiting Political Ecology Discourse 133
4.3.1 Displacement Under Eminent Domain in the Region: Does the Land Bill of 2011 and 2013 Address the Local Problems or Further Impoverishes the Poor? 134
4.3.2 Land Acquisition as ‘Accumulation by Dispossession’—POSCO Project 135
4.3.3 Resistance Against POSCO: A Successful Story 136
5 Conclusion 137
References 137
7 The “Public Purpose” That Is Not Inclusive 140
1 Introduction 140
2 Cost of Achieving “Public Purpose” 142
2.1 Costs Beyond the Price of Land 142
2.2 The Unequal Weight of Social Costs of Displacement 144
3 Social Benefits and Public Purpose 145
3.1 Regressive Benefits 145
3.2 The Idea of Benefit and Public Purpose 146
4 Political Willpower, Administrative Efficiency, and Judicial Pro-activism 148
4.1 The Unutilized “Purpose” 149
4.2 The Misappropriated “Purpose” 150
4.3 The Failed “Purpose” 150
4.4 The Role of Judiciary 151
5 Alternatives 152
5.1 A Stake in Development 152
5.2 Voluntary Sale & Preemption of Resource Needs and Need for Better Land Use Planning
6 Conclusion 155
References 156
8 The Cyclical Interaction of Institutional Constraints to Formal Affordable Housing Market in Raipur, India 159
1 Institutions, Property Rights and Transaction Costs 161
1.1 Institutions 161
1.2 Property Rights 162
1.3 Transaction Costs 163
2 The Case Study 164
2.1 Credit for Purchasing the House 164
2.2 Trust in Real Estate Dealing 166
2.3 House Hunting 166
2.4 Getting Approval to Build 167
2.5 Buying the Completed Building 168
2.6 The Building Industry—Taxation Regulations 169
2.7 Credit for the Builders 169
2.8 Government Supply Affecting the Housing Market 171
2.9 Restrictions on Selling the Dwellings 171
2.10 Accumulation of Regulations 172
3 The Cyclical Interaction of Constraints: Institutions (Regulations), Property Rights and Transaction Costs 172
4 Conclusion: Challenges for Public Policy on Affordable Housing 175
References 176
9 City in Crossfire—The Environment Versus Development Debate in Navi Mumbai 178
1 Introduction 179
2 Environmental Protection Act, 1986 179
3 CRZ Notification, 1991 180
3.1 Category-I (CRZ-I) 180
3.2 Category-II (CRZ-II) 181
3.3 Category-III (CRZ-III) 181
3.4 Category-IV (CRZ-IV): Coastal Stretches in the Andaman and Nicobar, Lakshadweep 181
4 CRZ Notification 2011 182
5 Hon. Bombay High Court Order (2005) on Protection of Mangroves 183
6 Mangroves, CRZ, Court Order and Dilution of Mandate 184
7 The Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act of 1966 185
8 Navi Mumbai—A New Coastal Town 186
8.1 The People’s New Town—Public Investment 186
8.2 Pro-environment, Before Time 187
8.3 The Vulnerable Creek 188
9 The Unique Geomorphology––Navi Mumbai 188
10 Environment Versus Development Debate: Literature Review 189
11 Environment and Development at Loggerheads 192
12 Balance and Imbalance 194
13 Impact of the Imbalance—Destabilization of Storm Water Drainage System 195
14 Impact of the Imbalance—Loss of Land 197
15 Mangroves: A Sacred Entity? 197
15.1 Mangroves on Land, Not Creek 197
15.2 Legal Provisions Judging the Context of a Forest 198
16 Way Forward 199
References 200
10 Property Regimes in India: A Study of Political Determinants of Structural Factors 202
1 Introduction 202
2 Why Do Regimes Order Property Rights? 204
3 The Type States in India 206
3.1 Gujarat 206
3.2 Kerala 208
3.3 Karnataka 209
3.4 Tamil Nadu 210
4 Basis of Building Typology 212
4.1 Access Mapping 212
5 Summary and Conclusions 214
References 215
11 Property in India: Global Perspectives, National Issues 217
1 A Classical View That Emerges in the Eighteenth Century 218
2 An Alternate Twentieth-Century View 222
3 Private Property for the Future? 225
4 Future of Land Policies in India 226
5 Idea and Materiality of Land 226
6 Technology and Land 228
7 Livelihood Versus Growth 230
8 Rural Shrinkage and Urban Transformation 231
9 Legal Versus Policy Approaches 232
10 Conclusion 234
References 235