The 5 most important agricultural land laws in Uttar Pradesh

For most families in our village, land is the largest thing they own, and the most common reason to go to the tehsil. Whose name is in the khatauni, who inherits a field, how it can be divided, sold or joined into one plot, how much of it one family may hold, and what the government must pay when it takes it: five laws decide nearly all of it.

This is a plain guide to those five laws, and to what each one means for a farming family in Uttar Pradesh. It gives the law as it stood on 26 September 2026, with the section numbers to ask about and the official sources at the end. It is general information, not legal advice: laws change, and every case turns on its own facts.

The Uttar Pradesh Revenue Code, 2006

This is the law you meet at the tehsil. It decides who is recorded as the owner of a field, how an inheritance or a sale reaches the records, how land is divided, leased or turned to other uses, and which revenue court hears what.

In force since

11 February 2016, with a few sections from 18 December 2015

It replaced

39 older revenue laws, among them the Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act, 1950 and the Land Revenue Act, 1901

Rules under it

The Uttar Pradesh Revenue Code Rules, 2016

Who decides

The Tahsildar, the SDM, the Collector, the Commissioner or the Board of Revenue, depending on the matter

Who owns the land

The Code has four kinds of landholder (section 74). A bhumidhar with transferable rights owns the land in the full sense: they may use it for any purpose, sell it, give it away or leave it by will. A bhumidhar with non-transferable rights, such as a family given land by the village land management committee or surplus land under the ceiling law, may farm it but not sell it, and becomes a bhumidhar with transferable rights after five years (section 76). An asami holds land as a tenant or lessee, and a government lessee holds it on lease from the State.

The khatauni, and mutation

The khatauni is the record of rights. It shows each landholder’s name, plot numbers, area and share (section 31), and its entries are presumed to be true until someone proves otherwise (section 40), which is why a wrong entry should be put right quickly. Changing the name in it is called mutation: naamantaran, or daakhil kharij.

• After a death, the heir reports the succession to the Revenue Inspector, through the lekhpal, who gives a receipt. There is no fee and no stamp (section 33, rule 29). An inheritance that nobody disputes is recorded by the Revenue Inspector, and the whole application is handled online.
• After a sale, a gift or a family settlement, the new owner reports it to the Tahsildar (section 34), and the sub-registrar also informs the Tahsildar within seven days of registering the deed. The Tahsildar puts up a public notice, with the hearing at least 30 days away, and aims to decide within 45 days if nobody objects and within 90 days if someone does (rule 34). Any land revenue due must be paid first (section 36).
• If you disagree with the Tahsildar’s order, you can appeal to the SDM within 30 days (section 35).
• Mutation is not proof of ownership. A mutation order does not stop anyone from going to court over who owns the land (section 39).

An application for mutation after a sale can be made online on the revenue courts’ website, which also shows how the case is moving. On 25 September 2026 the state’s mutation dashboard showed a limit of 45 days under the public services guarantee law, and an average of 39 days.

Mistakes in the records

To correct an error in the map, the khasra or the khatauni, apply to the Tahsildar (section 38). The Revenue Inspector can correct a mistake that nobody disputes, and a forged or manipulated entry can be struck out. The aim is to finish within 45 days. This route cannot settle a quarrel about who owns the land.

Boundaries

The SDM decides boundary disputes (section 24), going by the survey map, or the chakbandi map where there is one, and otherwise by who is actually in possession. The decision should come within three months. For a demarcation the applicant deposits a fee of ₹1,000, and the demarcation must be done within a month of the order (rule 22). An appeal lies to the Commissioner within 30 days. In 2025 and 2026 the Allahabad High Court held that such an order has to be carried out on the ground, with boundary marks fixed and possession restored.

Dividing a holding

A co-owner can ask the SDM’s court to divide a joint holding (section 116). The lekhpal prepares the plan of division, the kurra, within a month, and the SDM aims to decide within six months (rule 109). A family that agrees can instead divide ancestral land by a registered partition deed, which since September 2025 costs no more than ₹5,000 in stamp duty and ₹5,000 in registration fee (see the next law).

Inheritance

A bhumidhar with transferable rights may leave land by will, but the will must be in writing, signed before two witnesses, and registered (section 107). Without a will, the Code sets its own order of heirs, and it is not the order of the Hindu Succession Act.

When a man who holds land dies, section 108 decides who inherits:

1. First, together, in equal shares by branch: his widow, his unmarried daughters, and his sons and their sons.
2. If there is none of them, his mother and father.
3. Then his married daughter.
4. Then his brothers and unmarried sisters, and so on down a longer list.

A widow inherits only if she has not remarried. When a woman who inherited land from a man dies, marries or remarries, the land usually passes to that man’s nearest heir rather than to her own family (section 109); a daughter who dies leaving children of her own is the exception. When a woman who holds land dies, section 110 gives it first to her sons, her unmarried daughters and their line, then to her husband, and then to her married daughters.

That judgment was taken to the Supreme Court, and we could not find a decision on the appeal. In July 2026, in a case from outside Uttar Pradesh, the Supreme Court held that a part of the Hindu Succession Act does apply to agricultural land, which adds to the doubt. A public interest case challenging these sections of the Code was being heard in the Allahabad High Court in early 2026, and in September 2025 the Board of Revenue was reported to have drafted an amendment to put married daughters on the same footing as unmarried ones. No such amendment appears in the Code as published in July 2026.

Meanwhile a father can still give land to a married daughter by a registered will, or by a gift deed, on which the stamp duty for a daughter is now at most ₹5,000. Land that has been declared non-agricultural (see below) is inherited under personal law, which for Hindus is the Hindu Succession Act (section 81).

Limits on buying and selling

• Twelve and a half acres. No one may buy, or take as a gift, land that would take them above 5.0586 hectares (12.5 acres) in Uttar Pradesh, counting the land of their family: themselves, their husband or wife, and their minor children other than married daughters (sections 4 and 89). This is the limit that applies to a buyer, and it is not the same as the ceiling law below.
• Land of Scheduled Caste families. A bhumidhar from a Scheduled Caste may sell, gift, mortgage or lease land to someone who is not from a Scheduled Caste only with the Collector’s written permission, which is given only in limited cases (section 98). Land of a Scheduled Tribe family cannot be transferred outside a Scheduled Tribe at all (section 99).
• A transfer that breaks the Code is void, and the land goes to the State (sections 104 and 105).

Leasing out land

Since 2019 any bhumidhar may lease out land for farming or for a solar plant, for up to 15 years at a time, or 30 years for solar (section 94). A lease for one crop, or for up to a year, can be spoken or written; a longer one must be registered. The tenant gets no lasting right in the land, and it returns to the owner automatically when the lease ends (section 95).

Using farmland for a house, a shop or a factory

Farmland used for a house, a shop or industry can be declared non-agricultural by the SDM, who must decide within 45 working days. Since 2020, if the fee has been paid and the co-owners have agreed but the SDM does not decide in time, the declaration counts as made (section 80). Under the rules the fee is 1% of the land’s agricultural circle-rate value, and there is none for land used for your own home. Once declared, the land pays no land revenue, the limits on transfer stop applying, and it is inherited under personal law (section 81). Since 2026, inside the areas of development authorities, a building or layout permission itself counts as such a declaration.

Village land: ponds, pastures and chak roads

Pastures, threshing floors, ponds, burial and cremation grounds, chak roads and paths belong to the Gram Panchayat, and no one can become their owner (sections 59 and 77). If someone occupies such land, the lekhpal reports it, and the Tahsildar, acting as Assistant Collector, can evict them and recover damages (section 67). Blocking a chak road, a path or common land is punishable with a fine of ₹1,000 to ₹10,000 (section 226).

The Registration Act, 1908, and the Indian Stamp Act, 1899

A sale, a gift, a family partition or a lease for more than a year counts in law only when it is written, stamped and registered.

Where

The sub-registrar's office. Bulandshahr district has eight: Anupshahr, Dibai, Khurja, Sadar I, Sadar II, Shikarpur, Sikandrabad and Syana

Online

igrsup.gov.in: appointments, circle rates, a stamp duty calculator and model deeds

Time limit

Four months from signing the deed

• Only a registered deed transfers land. A sale of land worth ₹100 or more can be made only by a registered deed (Transfer of Property Act, section 54), and a deed that had to be registered but was not does not affect the property at all (Registration Act, section 49).
• Register within four months of signing (section 23). The Registrar can allow up to four months more, with a fine of up to ten times the registration fee (section 25).
• Stamp duty on a sale is 5% of the price or of the circle-rate value, whichever is higher. Where a further 2% development duty applies, which includes some villages, it is 7%. The stamp duty calculator on the IGRS website shows the rate for each village.
• The registration fee is 1% of the same value, with no upper limit, since February 2020.
• Women buyers pay 1% less stamp duty on property worth up to ₹1 crore, since July 2025.
• Dividing ancestral land among up to three generations of direct descendants, by a partition deed, costs at most ₹5,000 in stamp duty and ₹5,000 in registration fee, since September 2025.
• A gift to close family, such as a son, a daughter, a parent, a husband or wife, a brother, a sister or a grandchild, carries stamp duty of at most ₹5,000, under a notification of January 2026. The person who receives it must not give it away again within five years.
• The circle rate is the minimum value of land, fixed each year by the Collector, as far as possible in August.
• At the office, all the parties and two witnesses must be present. From February 2026, Akashvani reported, identity is checked through Aadhaar.

After registration, apply for mutation under the Revenue Code. The sub-registrar informs the Tahsildar, but a family should still make its own report, and follow it up until the khatauni shows the new name.

The Uttar Pradesh Consolidation of Holdings Act, 1953

Chakbandi rearranges each family’s scattered plots into one or a few compact fields, called chaks, each with a channel for irrigation and a chak road. While it runs in a village, its officers, not the ordinary courts, decide questions about land in that village, and the deadlines are short.

In force since

1954

Its officers

Assistant Consolidation Officer, Consolidation Officer, Settlement Officer (Consolidation), Deputy Director of Consolidation

Deadlines

21 days, 15 days and 30 days, as below

1. It begins with a notification by the state, published in the Gazette, in a daily newspaper and in the village (section 4).
2. Court cases about the land stop. A pending suit over land rights or records abates once the court passes an order after hearing the parties, and the claim is then made before the consolidation officers (section 5). From then on no civil or revenue court can hear such a matter (section 49).
3. Using the land. During chakbandi, using a plot for anything other than farming needs the written permission of the Settlement Officer, Consolidation (section 5). Selling land is no longer barred; that bar was removed in 1991.
4. Objections to the records, within 21 days of the notice. This is the moment to raise every claim about ownership, shares and the value of plots, because a claim that could have been raised then cannot be raised later (sections 9 and 11-A). An appeal against the order goes to the Settlement Officer within 21 days (section 11).
5. Objections to the proposed chaks, within 15 days (section 20), and an appeal to the Settlement Officer within another 15 days (section 21).
6. A revision, called nigrani, against an order can be filed in the court of the Deputy Director of Consolidation within 30 days (section 48, rule 111).
7. The new chaks. Possession of the new chaks is given within six months, and the new map and records are then presumed correct (sections 24 and 27). No one gets more than three chaks without the Deputy Director’s approval (section 19).

The land acquisition law of 2013

When the government needs farmland for a road, an industrial area or an airport, this law decides whose consent is needed, how the price is worked out and what else is owed. In Bulandshahr this is close to home: in 2022 the state notified land in Syana tehsil for the Ganga Expressway.

Full name

The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013

In force since

1 January 2014, replacing the Land Acquisition Act, 1894

In Uttar Pradesh

Rules of 2016, and a multiplication factor of 2 for all rural land, notified on 22 October 2014

• Consent. For a private company’s project, at least 80% of the affected families must agree, and for a public-private partnership, at least 70% (section 2). The government’s own projects need no consent.
• A social impact assessment must be finished within six months, with a public hearing, and is then reviewed by independent experts (sections 4, 5 and 7).
• Irrigated land that grows more than one crop a year may be acquired only as a last resort, except for roads, railways, canals and similar lines (section 10).
• Once the first notification is out, the land cannot be sold or mortgaged, and objections must be filed within 60 days (sections 11 and 15).
• The market value is the highest of three figures: the circle rate, the average price of the costlier half of land sales nearby in the past three years, and any price agreed for the project (section 26).
• The compensation in rural Uttar Pradesh is that market value multiplied by 2, plus the value of houses, trees and crops, and then a solatium equal to the whole amount again (section 30). That comes to about four times the market value, with 12% a year added from the date of the social impact assessment notification.
• Resettlement. Affected families are also owed a choice of a job, ₹5 lakh once, or ₹2,000 a month for 20 years. A family that has to move is owed a house if it loses one, ₹3,000 a month for a year, ₹50,000 for transport, and a resettlement allowance of ₹50,000 (Second Schedule).
• Buying by agreement. Uttar Pradesh also buys land directly, by agreement with the owners, under a government order of 19 March 2015. In rural areas the price may be at most four times the market value or circle rate, whichever is higher, and there are no separate resettlement benefits. If the purchase fails, the state acquires the land under the 2013 law instead. In August 2026 the Allahabad High Court held that owners cannot be forced to sign such sale deeds.

Before agreeing to sell land for a project, ask whether it is a purchase by agreement or an acquisition under the 2013 law. The rules, and the money, are different.

The Uttar Pradesh Imposition of Ceiling on Land Holdings Act, 1960

This law sets the most land one family may hold. Few families come near it, but it explains the patta land that some families in the village were given, and it is often confused with the 12.5 acre limit on buying.

In force since

1961, with today's limits since 8 June 1973

Family

A landholder, their husband or wife, and their minor children other than married daughters

• The ceiling is 7.30 hectares of irrigated land for a family of up to five, with two more hectares for each adult son who holds little or no land, and in a larger family for each member beyond five, up to six more hectares in all (section 5). At most, that is 13.30 hectares.
• Unirrigated land counts for less. One and a half hectares of unirrigated land, or two and a half hectares of grove or usar land, count as one hectare of irrigated land (section 4).
• Land above the ceiling goes to the State (section 14), with payment of forty times the land revenue to a bhumidhar (section 17), and is then given out, first for the village’s common use (section 27). A transfer made while such a case is pending is void.
• If your family was given surplus land, you hold it at first as a bhumidhar with non-transferable rights, which become transferable after five years (Revenue Code, section 76).

Where to see your land records online

• UP Bhulekh (upbhulekh.gov.in): see your khatauni free, and get a certified copy online or at the tehsil. It also shows whether a plot is under dispute, and since November 2025 you can apply online to correct a name or a share.
• UP Bhu-Naksha (upbhunaksha.gov.in): the village map, plot by plot. Where the map and the khatauni disagree about an area, the khatauni counts.
• Revenue courts (vaad.up.nic.in): the dates, orders and progress of any case in a revenue court, and online applications for mutation, inheritance, demarcation and non-agricultural use.
• IGRS (igrsup.gov.in): circle rates, the stamp duty calculator, an encumbrance certificate, model deeds, and appointments for registration.

Before you buy or sell land

• Check the seller’s name and share in the khatauni on UP Bhulekh, and whether the plot is under dispute.
• Match the plot on the village map with the land on the ground, and walk its boundary.
• Check the circle rate and the stamp duty on IGRS before you agree a price.
• If the seller is from a Scheduled Caste and you are not, ask to see the Collector’s permission.
• Pay only against a registered sale deed. An unregistered agreement does not transfer land.
• Apply for mutation straight after registration, and keep checking until the khatauni shows your name.
• Keep safe the registered deeds, mutation orders, copies of the khatauni, the Kisan Bahi and the receipts for land revenue.

Sources

• The Uttar Pradesh Revenue Code, 2006⁠, official English text as amended up to 2026, India Code
• The Uttar Pradesh Revenue Code Rules, 2016⁠, India Code
• The Uttar Pradesh Consolidation of Holdings Act, 1953⁠, India Code
• The Uttar Pradesh Imposition of Ceiling on Land Holdings Act, 1960⁠, India Code
• The Registration Act, 1908⁠, India Code
• Registration fee of one per cent, notification of 13 February 2020⁠, India Code
• Stamp duty rates⁠, Stamp and Registration Department, Uttar Pradesh
• Concession for women buyers, notification of 29 July 2025⁠, Stamp and Registration Department, Uttar Pradesh
• Family partition deeds, notification of 4 September 2025⁠, Stamp and Registration Department, Uttar Pradesh
• Gift deeds within the family, notification of 8 January 2026⁠, Stamp and Registration Department, Uttar Pradesh
• Aadhaar authentication for property registration⁠, Akashvani, 29 January 2026
• The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013⁠, India Code
• Uttar Pradesh’s multiplication factor for rural land, 22 October 2014⁠, India Code
• The Uttar Pradesh rules under the 2013 Act, 23 November 2016⁠, India Code
• Government order on buying land by agreement, 19 March 2015⁠, Government of Uttar Pradesh
• Awadhesh Singh v. State of U.P., 18 August 2026⁠, Allahabad High Court
• Ganga Expressway, declaration for land in Syana tehsil, 6 July 2022⁠, Bulandshahr district
• The Hindu Succession Act, 1956⁠, India Code
• Archna v. Deputy Director of Consolidation, 27 March 2015⁠, Allahabad High Court, and the appeal in the Supreme Court⁠
• Mahinder v. Puran Singh⁠, Supreme Court, July 2026, reported by LiveLaw
• The challenge to sections 108 to 110 of the Code⁠, Allahabad High Court, reported by LiveLaw, 15 January 2026
• A proposal to give married daughters a share in farmland⁠, Amar Ujala, 7 September 2025
• Chandrabhan v. State of U.P., 2 February 2026⁠, Allahabad High Court
• UP Bhulekh⁠, UP Bhu-Naksha⁠, revenue courts⁠ and the mutation dashboard⁠, Board of Revenue, Uttar Pradesh
• IGRS⁠, Stamp and Registration Department, Uttar Pradesh

Every fact in this article was checked against these sources on 26 September 2026.