LG Saxena approves Ladakh Nautor land rules, clears path for ownership rights up to 10 acres

LAHDCs vested with authority to allot Nautor land; rules provide for one-time regularisation of eligible holdings occupied before Oct 27, 2020

New framework provides one-time regularisation for eligible pre-October 2020 holdings; regularised land can be mortgaged for development, while encroachments and post-cut-off occupations remain outside its ambit.

LEH: The Ladakh Administration on Friday approved a new framework for regularisation of Nautor land, allowing eligible occupants to obtain proprietary rights over holdings of up to 10 acres and vesting the authority to allot such land with the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils (LAHDCs) in all seven districts.

Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena approved the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils (Nautor Regularisation) Rules, 2026, which seek to provide legal certainty to genuine Nautor landholders while putting in place verification, audit and land-use safeguards to protect government and Council land.

The rules will be placed in the public domain for two weeks of consultation before their final notification.

Under the new framework, proprietary rights may be granted to eligible Nautor landholders for up to 10 acres. For holdings beyond 10 acres, proprietary rights may be allotted on a leasehold basis, subject to the conditions prescribed under the rules.

The amount payable for proprietary rights over eligible land up to 10 acres will be at par with the market rate notified by the Administration for the concerned revenue village. For leasehold allotments beyond the 10-acre ceiling, the premium will be 80% of the notified market rate.

The rules apply to Nautor land occupied before October 27, 2020, the date on which the J&K Tenancy Act, 1980 was repealed. Possession established after the cut-off date will not be eligible for regularisation.

Over 60,000 acres recorded as Nautor holdings

Nautor land refers to barren or wasteland owned by the government and historically allotted to individuals for cultivation or other productive use. More than 60,000 acres in Ladakh are presently recorded as Nautor holdings in revenue records.

The absence of a uniform legal framework had left many occupants without proprietary rights and limited their ability to use such land as a financial asset, including for obtaining loans. At the same time, the lack of clear rules had created the possibility of competing claims over government and Council land.

The new framework seeks to address both concerns by combining regularisation of eligible holdings with field verification and restrictions against encroachment and unauthorised occupation.

For Gair Mustaqil holdings, field verification by the Revenue Authorities will be mandatory. Officials will establish the identity of the occupant, the area under occupation, the nature and extent of cultivation, the date of possession and whether the occupation existed before the prescribed cut-off date.

For Mustaqil holdings, the concerned LAHDC will decide whether field verification is required, depending on the circumstances on the ground.

LAHDCs to exercise allotment powers

The rules vest the authority to allot Nautor land with the LAHDCs across the Union Territory.

The framework invokes Sections 42 and 23 of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils Act, 1997, under which land within a district stands transferred to the Council and the Council exercises executive powers relating to the allotment, use and occupation of land vested in it.

The Administration has, however, ruled out regularisation of abandoned land and land found to have been encroached upon. Such land will not qualify for allotment and may be liable for eviction.

Nautor land mutated before the October 27, 2020 cut-off but subsequently subjected to a change in land use may be considered for regularisation only after formal approval of the change in land use by the competent authority.

Regularised land can be mortgaged

One of the major provisions of the rules is that land regularised under the framework may be mortgaged with Scheduled Banks, Financial Institutions and government-backed lending agencies for development purposes.

The provision could give eligible landholders greater access to institutional credit by converting land with proprietary rights into a usable financial asset.

The rules also impose planning restrictions in urban and regulated areas. In municipal areas, planning areas and areas covered by Master Plans, Zonal Plans or Development Authorities, the use of regularised land will have to conform to applicable planning regulations.

All allotments and regularisations will be subject to periodic review and audit. Violations, misrepresentation, concealment of facts, non-utilisation, unauthorised transfer or breach of conditions may result in cancellation or resumption of the land.

‘Balance between genuine claims and public land’

Saxena said the rules were intended to address a long-standing issue affecting the livelihoods of people in Ladakh while protecting land belonging to the government and the Councils.

“The Nautor issue has a deep historical connection with the lives and livelihoods of the people of Ladakh,” he said, noting that generations of people had brought barren and wasteland under cultivation in difficult agricultural conditions.

According to the Lieutenant Governor, the new framework would establish a transparent and uniform mechanism for dealing with genuine claims and enable eligible landholders to use the land as a financial asset, including for obtaining bank loans.

The approval comes after years of uncertainty surrounding Nautor holdings, with the absence of a common framework leaving questions over ownership, allotment, land use and the status of existing occupants.

The two-week public consultation is now expected to provide an opportunity for stakeholders to examine the provisions before the rules are finally notified.