Bonanza for villagers: ‘Abadi deh’ residents to get ownership rights

Offering major relief to rural residents, the Haryana Government has decided to grant ownership rights to occupants of land in the ‘abadi deh’ areas — inhabited parts of villages. The long-awaited benefit has been cleared through the Haryana Abadi Deh (Vesting, Recording and Resolving of Ownership Rights) Ordinance, 2025, issued by Governor Ashim Kumar Ghosh on November 26. The Ordinance will be tabled in the upcoming winter session of the Assembly for conversion into law.

What the Ordinance provides

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Grants ownership rights to current occupiers of ‘abadi deh’ land

Applicable to areas outside municipal limits

Cut-off date: March 8, 2019

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Survey and record preparation to be done by govt authorities

Civil courts barred from intervening in matters under the Ordinance

Enables villagers to monetise property, access loans and upgrade civic services

Pro-people move aimed at ease of living

The decision is yet another ‘pro-people’ initiative by the Nayab Singh Saini government. The BJP government is committed to ease of living for all citizens, especially those living in the rural areas of the state.

— Rajiv Jaitly, media adviser to CM

The ‘abadi deh’ refers to land within a village’s ‘lal dora’ — the boundary encompassing houses, buildings and other structures. Land outside the ‘lal dora’ is categorised as agricultural or recognised as “extended lal dora” (phirni).

The cut-off date has been fixed as March 8, 2019, coinciding with the signing of an MoU between the Haryana Government and the Survey of India for village surveys and settlement records.

Calling the move another “pro-people” step, Chief Minister’s media adviser Rajiv Jaitly said the BJP government was committed to improving ease of living, especially in rural areas.

“The object of this Ordinance is to identify, record and resolve the existing rights of the occupiers within the ‘abadi deh’ by a process of ascertaining the persons best entitled to be recorded as owners and vesting the ownership rights in such persons. It will also accomplish demarcating, delineating the boundaries and areas of each survey unit and to create a presumption of truth in the records so prepared,” the ordinance states.

Officials said the updated record would support planned development of ‘abadi deh’ areas, strengthening civic services and aligning villages with urban planning standards. “The decision would also lead to levying of taxes of community development, enhance the land value by improving lay out and provide a road map for villages in an easy and simple manner and help occupiers in monetising the property by taking financial assistance,” the Ordinance further says.

The decision applies to ‘abadi deh’ areas outside municipal limits. Ownership rights will be recorded in the name of an individual, panchayat, government body, juristic person or other entity, but will not cover tenants, lessees, mortgage holders or anyone without ownership title.

The Ordinance vests civil court powers in competent authorities, including the Financial Commissioner, Commissioner, Collector and Assistant Collectors, and bars civil courts from adjudicating matters arising under its provisions.