Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah speaks during the budget session of the state legislature on April 1. Photo: X/@CM_JnK via ANI Photo
The J&K Assembly on Wednesday (April 1, 2026) passed a bill to reverse the Lt. Governor’s 2022 amendments to the Land Grants Act, 1960, which posed a threat of permanent eviction of local tenants from government land and hotels across the region, especially in the tourist spots of Gulmarg, Pahalgam and Patnitop.
When the bill came before the House, J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said, “The government would like the House to discuss the matter in detail. Then the government will decide whether to support the bill or not. Therefore, I will not oppose its introduction at this stage.”
The bill could then be submitted by voice vote. Ruling National Conference (NC) lawmaker Tanvir Ali Sadiq introduced a bill titled J&K Land Grants (Restoration and Protection) Bill, 2025 as a private member’s bill. It aims to restore the rules created in the Land Grants Act, 1960 to their original form “as they existed before the J&K Land Grants Act, 2022” introduced by the LG.
“It will give legal sanctity to those legally occupying land in J&K, be it from Kashmir’s Gulmarg and Pahalgam or Jammu’s Patnitop or Reasi. Any auction under the amended rules would allow outsiders to participate. Compared to locals, outsiders would have more purchasing power,” Sadiq told The Hindu.
During the vote, the bill did not meet with any major opposition from the opposition benches.
Under the rules introduced by the LG in 2022, those residents whose leases ended were not renewed, but were scheduled to be re-auctioned. This also allowed outsiders to participate in an auction in J&K for the first time. The 2022 LG eviction is likely to affect the popular tourist destinations of Srinagar, Jammu, Gulmarg, Pahalgam, Patnitop etc. in J&K where most of the hotels are built on leased land since the 1970s and 1980s.
Speaking outside the assembly, J&K Peoples Conference (JKPC) lawmaker Sajad Lone termed the bill as one that “mainly benefits the super-elite while ignoring the poor”.
“The Bill deals with some of the most expensive real estate in Kashmir. It is aimed at helping the super elite. The lands affected could be worth tens of thousands of crores. What does it get the poorest of the poor? Lakhs of families living on two or three marlas plots continue to face harassment. Don’t they deserve a bill?” said Mr. Lone.
BJP legislator and Leader of Opposition Sunil Sharma also criticized the bill. “It is deeply unfortunate and amounted to a betrayal of trust. It seems that the mandate given by the people is not being used for public good but to protect the privileged few. The proposed legislation could pave the way for release of large tracts of government land at low rates,” Mr Sharma said. He said the government was patronizing a select group of influential people instead of protecting public property.
Another BJP lawmaker, Ranbir Singh Pathania, said, “The bill goes to the very core of the post-reorganization legal order in the Union Territory. It is an attempt to reopen a framework that was definitively settled by Parliament through the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019. Parliamentary supremacy cannot be undermined by a private member’s attempt to nullify a statutory law.”
Meanwhile, the J&K Assembly also passed another bill introduced by NC legislator Sajad Shaheen to set up a university campus at Banihal in Ramban district “to promote higher education, research and socio-economic development in the region”.
Published – 02 Apr 2026 05:20 IST
