EXPLAINER: 5 new laws, 1 overhauled city: How Centre’s legal reset is changing life in Chandigarh

Chandigarh residents will soon deal with a fundamentally different legal landscape — one that promises cleaner property transactions, safer buildings, accountable landlords, protected tenants, regulated travel agents and digitised land records.

The Centre, through notifications issued on May 6 under Section 87 of the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966, has extended five state-level legislations to the Union Territory — three from Punjab, one from Haryana and one from Assam. Since Chandigarh has no legislature of its own, it has historically adopted laws through this route.

Together, these five laws replace outdated, often colonial-era statutes and introduce modern, citizen-centric frameworks aligned with current socio-economic realities. But the reforms have not gone down well with the city's legal fraternity — the District Bar Association has launched an indefinite strike in protest, bringing the District Courts to a standstill.

The five laws at a glance

1. Assam Tenancy Act, 2021 (replaces East Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act, 1949)
2. Indian Stamp (Punjab Amendment) Acts, 2001 and 2003 (amending the Indian Stamp Act, 1899)
3. Punjab Abadi Deh (Record of Rights) Act, 2021
4. Punjab Prevention of Human Smuggling Act, 2012 and Amendment Act, 2014
5. Haryana Fire and Emergency Services Act, 2022 (replaces Delhi Fire Prevention and Fire Safety Act)

LAW 1 | Tenancy overhaul: Rights for both landlord and tenant

What was wrong: The East Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act, 1949 — a 76-year-old law — governed rental housing in Chandigarh. Widely considered outdated, it favoured neither landlord nor tenant in practice and had fuelled decades of court disputes over evictions, rent revisions and possession.

What has changed: The Assam Tenancy Act, 2021, modelled on the Centre’s own Model Tenancy Act, 2021, replaces it. The law mandates written tenancy agreements that clearly specify rent amount, duration, revision terms and other key conditions — eliminating verbal arrangements that have historically led to disputes. It lays down a structured, legally defined process for eviction and repossession, ensuring neither side can act arbitrarily.

How it helps: Tenants get formal security and defined rights. Landlords get a clear legal pathway to recover possession without years of litigation. A designated institutional authority will handle tenancy disputes through a time-bound resolution mechanism. The law is also expected to unlock dormant housing stock — properties currently kept vacant by owners wary of indefinite tenancies — making more rental accommodation available across the city.

Big picture: States including Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Assam, and union territories including Jammu & Kashmir and Lakshadweep, have already enacted similar laws. Chandigarh now joins that modernised framework.

LAW 2 | Stamp duty reforms: Plugging the property valuation loophole

What was wrong: Punjab had amended the Indian Stamp Act, 1899, in 2001 and 2003 to tighten property valuation and stamp duty collection. However, those amendments were never extended to Chandigarh, creating a legal gap that allowed undervaluation of properties and, consequently, evasion of stamp duty — a practice that distorted the property market and denied the exchequer legitimate revenue.

What has changed: The Indian Stamp (Punjab Amendment) Acts of 2001 and 2003 now apply to Chandigarh. Under Section 47A of the amended framework, collectors are empowered to detect undervaluation and recover deficient stamp duty. Agreements to sell that involve physical possession of property and will now be treated on a par with conveyance deeds for stamp duty purposes — closing a widely used structuring loophole.

How it helps: Property buyers and sellers will operate within a transparent, predictable valuation system. Citizens will have a clear appellate mechanism if they dispute any valuation order. The amendments also bring Chandigarh's stamp duty framework in regulatory alignment with neighbouring Punjab, removing anomalies that arose from the two jurisdictions operating differently despite sharing geography and a common property market.

LAW 3 | Abadi deh: Land rights for uncharted habitation areas

What was wrong: Large habitation pockets — commonly known as abadi deh or lal dora areas — have historically existed outside formal land record systems. Ownership in these areas was undocumented, informally traded and legally vulnerable, making residents susceptible to disputes and hampering planned urban development.

What has changed: The Punjab Abadi Deh (Record of Rights) Act, 2021 provides a statutory framework for surveying these areas and formally recording ownership rights. It brings habitation areas that were “off the map” of official land records into a structured, documented system.

How it helps: Residents of such areas — many of whom have lived on their land for generations without legal documentation — will now get formal ownership records, significantly reducing the scope for encroachment, land grabbing and prolonged legal disputes. For the administration, it creates a cleaner foundation for planned urban development and infrastructure rollout in these zones.

LAW 4 | Anti-smuggling law: Crackdown on fraudulent travel agents

What was wrong: Chandigarh sits at the heart of a region with one of India's highest concentrations of overseas aspirants — students seeking education abroad and youth looking for employment. This has spawned a proliferation of travel agents and immigration consultancies, many of them unregistered and operating without accountability. Until now, such activities were covered only under Section 191(3) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 — a provision considered wholly inadequate to tackle the scale of the problem.

What has changed: The Punjab Prevention of Human Smuggling Act, 2012, along with its 2014 Amendment, now applies in Chandigarh. The law defines “travel agent” broadly — covering visa consultancy, ticketing, promotional services and informal intermediaries — bringing all such entities under regulatory oversight. No person can operate as a travel agent without obtaining a licence from a competent authority, with grant of licence subject to mandatory police verification. The authority can suspend or cancel licences in cases of fraud, misrepresentation, criminal conviction or violation of prescribed conditions.

How it helps: Authorised officers now have powers of search, seizure and arrest for offences under the Act. Punishment for human smuggling and illegal facilitation ranges from three to seven years' imprisonment, along with fines. Courts are empowered to attach and confiscate properties derived from such activities. For the thousands of families in the Tricity region who annually pay large sums to immigration agents, the law creates a formal accountability structure that simply did not exist before.

LAW 5 | Fire safety: Out with the old regime, in with risk-based compliance

What was wrong: Fire safety in Chandigarh was governed by the Delhi Fire Prevention and Fire Safety Act — a framework increasingly seen as outdated and poorly calibrated to the city's current urban development density. The existing system imposed a compliance burden on building owners and businesses without commensurate improvement in actual fire safety outcomes.

What has changed: The Haryana Fire and Emergency Services Act, 2022, takes its place, introducing a contemporary, risk-based fire safety regime — one that calibrates compliance requirements to the actual risk profile of a building or facility, rather than applying uniform rules across vastly different structures. Fire Safety Certificates will carry longer validity periods, reducing recurring compliance costs. The penalty framework has been rationalised to be proportionate rather than punitive.

How it helps: For residents and property owners, it means fewer procedural bottlenecks and a streamlined approvals process. For the city, it means a professional, modern fire safety system better equipped to protect life and property in an increasingly dense urban environment.

The accountability angle

Taken together, the five laws address a long-standing structural problem in Chandigarh’s governance: the gap between the city’s modern, aspirational urban identity and the antiquated legal framework it was being administered under.

The tenancy reform introduces institutional accountability in the rental market. The stamp duty amendments make property transactions harder to manipulate. The land records law brings informal habitation areas into formal governance. The anti-smuggling law creates a licensing and enforcement chain where none meaningfully existed. The fire safety overhaul shifts the system from form-filling compliance to genuine risk management.

The Governor’s word

Speaking to The Tribune, Punjab Governor and Chandigarh Administrator Gulab Chand Kataria said: “These five legislations mark a decisive step in aligning Chandigarh's legal framework with the needs of its residents today. Whether it is protecting a tenant’s rights, ensuring honest property transactions, securing land ownership for long-neglected habitation areas, shielding our youth from fraudulent immigration agents or safeguarding lives through modern fire safety standards — each of these laws puts the citizen first. Chandigarh deserves governance that is transparent, accountable and future-ready, and these reforms move us firmly in that direction.”

Lawyers hit back: District courts shut, writ petition in the works

The five laws, however, have triggered sharp pushback from Chandigarh’s legal fraternity — and it is the Tenancy Act that has become the flashpoint.

The District Bar Association (DBA) Chandigarh, in a General House meeting on May 8, voted to launch an indefinite strike against the newly notified Tenancy Act, with members resolving to abstain from all court work till at least May 13. DBA President Ashok Chauhan confirmed that the association has also constituted a five-member committee — comprising advocates NK Nanda, Yogesh Mittal, Vinod Choda, Pawan Sharma and Vinod Verma — to draft and file an appropriate Writ Petition before the Punjab and Haryana High Court challenging the Act.

The strike is total in scope. DBA Vice President Sandeep Gujjar said the house resolved to boycott even the National Lok Adalat scheduled for Saturday. No matter — including traffic challans — is to be entertained during the strike period. Notaries and Oath Commissioners have been asked to participate as well. Any member who appears before a court, or sends an intern in their place during the strike, faces a fine of Rs 2,000.

A follow-up General House meeting has been fixed for May 13 at 11 am to decide the further course of action, leaving open the possibility of an extended or escalated agitation depending on the administration’s response.

The lawyers’ protest has put the administration on notice that implementation will need to carefully address transitional legal and procedural concerns — particularly around the Tenancy Act, whose replacement of a seven-decade-old law touches directly on the bread-and-butter practice of the city’s civil bar.

The bottom line

Five laws. Five outdated frameworks replaced. And a city of over 12 lakh people that will — once implementation catches up with legislation — navigate tenancy, property, land, travel and fire safety through a fundamentally more transparent and protective legal system. Whether the lawyers’ legal challenge delays or derails any of these reforms will now be decided, fittingly, in court.