BE it enacted by Parliament in the Sixty-third Year of the Republic of India as follows:

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1 The National Right to Homestead Bill, 2013 STATEMENT OF OBJECTS AND REASONS The poorest and most vulnerable among the rural families are those who are landless and homesteadless. An estimated 13 to 18 million families in rural India today are reported to be landless, of which about 8 million lack homes of their own. The National Sample Survey (NSS) data shows 10 per cent landlessness in the country and 5.5 per cent are houseless implying thereby 7.9 million persons without dwelling units. It s now an accepted position globally and also as laid out in various judgements of Hon ble Supreme Court of India, that a roof over one s head needs to be seen as a basic human right, and a fundamental right that guarantees dignity to an individual. The Government of India believes that a homestead of 10 cents provided to a poor homesteadless family shall help in enabling the family build a shelter and take up supplementary livelihood activities such as backyard poultry, goat-rearing, horticulture and vegetable cultivation. A law to guarantee minimum space to build the house and carryout supplementary livelihood activities is imperative. Access to such homesteads in addition to providing human dignity is critical as social security and social insurance measure. Such a law is also in pursuance of the Constitutional mandate to the Governments to endeavour to eliminate inequalities in status, facilities and opportunities and further that the ownership and control of the material resources of the community are so distributed as best to subserve the common good. The National Right to Homestead Act, 2013 thus seeks to ensure that every homesteadless poor family in rural areas has a right to hold homestead of not less than ten cents. It provides that such a right to homestead shall be enforced within a time period as specified but not exceeding five years from the date of enactment of this law, and in accordance with the Plans to be made at the State level and the district levels for the purpose. A BILL to provide for a right to homestead so as to ensure human dignity and social security to the poor landless and homesteadless in rural areas of the country by providing a human right to homestead and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. BE it enacted by Parliament in the Sixty-third Year of the Republic of India as follows: 1. Short Title, extent and commencement (1) This Act may be called the National Right to Homestead Act, (2) It extends to the whole of India except the State of Jammu and Kashmir. (3) It shall come into force on such date when the National Right to Homestead Bill, 2013 receives the assent of the President.

2 2. Definitions - In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, - Family means a person, her or his spouse, minor children, minor brothers and minor sisters dependent on her and him. Provided that widows, divorcees and women deserted by families shall be considered separate families. Gram Panchayat means an institution (by whatever name called) of selfgovernment constituted, at the village level, under Article 243B of the Constitution, for the rural areas; Gram Sabha means a village assembly which shall consist of all adult members of a village; Homestead means plot of land for dwelling and livelihood purposes of a family that is not shared in common with any person other than a person belonging to the same family; Landless poor and homesteadless family means a landless poor family in rural areas who does not legally own a homestead including those who legally own a homestead less than ten cents; Explanation: The criteria for selection of the families to be covered under this Act shall be prescribed by the State Government; Notification means a notification published in the official Gazette; prescribed means prescribed by rules made under this Act; Rural area means any area in a State except those areas covered by any urban local body or a Cantonment Board established or constituted under any law for the time being in force; Single Women means widows, divorced women, separated women, women whose husbands are missing and unmarried women aged 30 years or more; "Suitable," when referring to homestead land, shall mean land located within 1.5 kilometres of existing habitations permitting the beneficiaries to maintain their occupations and community relationships, drained year-round, with access to potable water for household needs, that can be developed at reasonable cost, that is not in a geographically hazardous location or a location prone to river erosion or other similar natural calamities, and that is not subject to any unresolved dispute affecting ownership or possession of the plot. 3. Right to Homestead (1) Every landless poor and homesteadless family has a right to hold homestead of not less than ten cents as provided under this Act. (2) The right to homestead granted under the Act is heritable but not alienable for 15 years after receipt of the patta.

3 (3) The right to homestead shall be secured to the identified eligible families, within a time period and Plan under section 4 and section 5 of this Act, by the competent authority as prescribed by the State government. 4. Implementation Plan for enforcing Right to Homestead (1) For the purposes of giving effect to the provisions of section 3, every State Government shall within six months from the date of commencement of this Act, notify an Implementation Plan for providing homestead of not less than ten cents to every landless and homesteadless family of the concerned State. (2) The Implementation Plan made under sub section (1) shall provide for minimum features specified in Schedule I. 5. Enforcing Right to Homestead in rural areas in a phased manner (1) The provisions of section 3 shall be implemented in a phased manner such that all the Districts in a State are covered with a period of five years, in a phased manner, commencing from the date of the notification of the Act. (2) In accordance with the Plan made under section 4, the State Government shall make district-wise Annual Plans for implementation of the Act in a phased manner. Provided that separate notifications for every District enlisting Panchayats shall be made, at least six months prior to the commencement of the implementation in such Districts/Panchayats; Provided further that all the eligible families in the Districts/Panchayats so notified shall be fully covered within two years of such notification. 6. Eligibility - All the landless poor and homesteadless families in rural areas are eligible to demand and receive Homestead as per the eligibility criteria prescribed by the State Government. Provided that the following families shall not be eligible to demand and receive Homestead - a) Families who own homestead land in other parts of the country; b) Persons required to pay Income Tax; c) Government Employees; d) Employees from the Private Sector earning an annual income as prescribed by the State government; e) Any other grounds of exclusion prescribed by the State government. 7. Title- The title to the homestead shall be granted in the name of adult woman member/s of the eligible family, except in cases, where there is no adult woman member in the family.

4 8. Priority The priority in allocation of homestead under the Act shall be given to woman headed families, single woman, persons belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, De-notified Tribes, Families with disabled members, members of other marginalised and deprived communities, including transgenders, displaced persons, permanent migrant workers, and such other categories as may be prescribed by the State government. Provided that Nomadic tribes and communities, who are willing to settle, shall be provided with ten cents of homestead land in terms of this Act. 9. Inventory of Land for allotment of homestead - The state government shall make an inventory of available and suitable government, ceiling surplus, bhoodan, unutilised land acquired for industry, land on which the lease has expired, and other land, and provide the details of it under the Plan made under Section 4 of this Act so as to make such land available for allotment to the eligible families as homestead. In case, no suitable Government land, ceiling surplus land and bhoodan land is available, the Government shall purchase suitable land from the open market at market prices, following an appropriate procedure. 10. Power to acquire land - (1) Where the State Government is satisfied that for the purposes of guaranteeing right to homestead, it is necessary to acquire any land, it may acquire suitable land in pursuance of this section. (2) The provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (Central Act I of 1894)shall apply to any land which is acquired for the purpose specified in sub-section (1). 11. Financing of the provision of Homesteads The Central Government shall bear hundred percent of the cost of the enforcing the right to homestead and cost of civic amenities under section 12 (c) of this Act. 12. National Homestead Guarantee Fund (1) The Central Government shall, by notification, establish a fund to be called the National Homestead Guarantee Fund ( the Fund ) for the purposes of this Act. (2) The Central Government may, after due appropriation made by Parliament by law in this behalf, credit by way of grants or loans such sums of money as the Central Government may consider necessary to the Fund. (3) The amount standing to the credit of the Fund shall by utilised in such manner and subject to such conditions and limitations as may be prescribed by the Central Government. Provided that the Fund shall pay the costs described in Section Responsibilities of Central Government The Central Government shall for the purposes of this Act- (a) Provide funds to the State Governments in accordance with Section 11 ; and

5 (b) Issue rules, regulations and directions for implementation of the Act. (c) Supervise the monitoring of the Act; and (d) Align all housing schemes of the Central and State Governments for the enforcement of the right to homestead in rural areas of the state. 14. Responsibilities of State Government The State Government shall for the purposes of this Act- (a) Identify available suitable land for allotment of homesteads. (b) Ensure that families have had the opportunity to view the land and have accepted the land as suitable for homestead before it is allocated to them. (c) Allot and provide titles and deliver possession the homesteads to all eligible families in the state. (d) Provide basic civic amenities including drinking water, approach roads, internal roads, sanitation, electricity and access to other essential services for the allotted homesteads. (e) Establish grievance redressal mechanism to address grievances arising out of the allotment or implementation of the right to homestead, including appeals by families who believe they have been wrongly excluded from the list of homestead recipients. (f) Establish a Monitoring and Evaluation System to ensure effective, adequate and time-bound implementation of the Act. (g) Ensure transparency and accountability in the implementation of the Act. (h) Facilitate conduct of Social auditing on the implementation of the Act. 15. Responsibilities of the Gram Sabha- The Gram Sabha shall be responsible for - a) Identifying all the landless and homesteadless poor families and preparing the priority list for allotment within its jurisdiction. b) Preparing a plan for the development of homesteads. c) Causing proposal/s to be sent to the state government through the concerned Gram Panchayat for preparation of the implementation plan for development of homesteads and implementation of the said plan. d) Ensure that families listed for receiving homestead land under this Act have the opportunity to view the land before it is allocated to them and the opportunity to reject the land as not suitable for homestead.

6 16. Responsibilities of Gram Panchayat- The Gram Panchayat shall be responsible for- (a) Consolidating all the identified eligible families from the concerned Gram Sabhas and preparing the priority list in consultation and with approval of the Gram Sabha. (b) Preparing the plan for the development of Homesteads and submitting the proposals to the Block/District Panchayat, as prescribed by the State government. 17. Offences by competent authority or officers or member of such authority- Where any competent authority or officers or member of such authority contravenes any provisions of this Act or any rule made thereunder concerning allotment and implementation of right to homestead, it, or they, shall be deemed to be guilty of an offence under this Act and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished with fine which may extend to five thousand rupees: Provided that nothing contained in this section shall render any member of the authority or any person referred to in this section liable to any punishment if he proves that the offence was committed without his knowledge or that he had exercised all due diligence to prevent the commission of such offence. 18. Act to have overriding effect- The provisions of this Act or the Plans made thereunder shall have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith contained in any other law for the time being in force or in any instrument having effect by virtue of such law: Provided that where a State enactment exists or is enacted to provide right to homestead consistent with the provisions of this Act under which the entitlement to homestead is not less than what is guaranteed under this Act, the State Government shall have the option of implementing its own enactment: Provided further that in such cases the financial assistance shall be paid to the State Government concerned in such manner as shall be determined by the Central Government, which shall not exceed what the State would have been entitled to receive under this Act. 19. Power of the Central Government to make Rules The Central Government may by a Notification, make rules to carry out the provisions of this Act. 20. Power of the State Government to make Rules The State Government may by a Notification, and consistent with this Act and the rules made by the Central Government make rules to carry out the provisions of this Act. 21. Power of the Central Government to issue directions Every performance of duty and exercise of powers under this Act shall be subject to such general or special directions, as the Central Government may, from time to time, give in writing.

7 22. Laying of Rules and Plans (1) Every rule made by the Central Government under this Act shall be laid, as soon as may be after it is made, before each House of Parliament while it is in session, for a total period of thirty days, and if, before the expiry of session immediately following the session or the successive sessions aforesaid, both Houses agree in making any modification in the rule or both the Houses agree that the rule should not be made the rule shall have thereafter have effect only in such modified form or be of no effect, as the case may be; so, however that any such modification or annulment shall be without the prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under that rule. (2) Every rule or Plan made by the State Government under this Act shall, as soon as, may be after it is made, be laid before each House of the State Legislature where there are two Houses, and where there is one House of State Legislature, before the House. 23. Power to remove difficulties (1) If any difficulty arises in giving effect to the provisions of this Act, the Central Government may, by order published in the Official Gazette, make such provisions, not inconsistent with the provisions of this Act, as appeared to it to be necessary or expedient for removing the difficulty: Provided that no order shall be made under this section after the expiry of three years from the commencement of this Act. (2) Every order made under this section shall be laid as soon as may be after it is made before each House of Parliament. SCHEDULE I [(See Section 4 (2)] MINIMUM FEATURES OF THE IMPLEMENTATION PLAN ON RIGHT TO HOMESTEADS 1. The Implementation Plan notified under Section 4 by all the States shall be called State Implementation Plan followed by the name of the relevant State. 2. The State Implementation Plan for providing homestead of not less than ten cents to every homesteadless poor family of the concerned State shall cover the following elements: (1) Measures and modes of identifying beneficiary homesteadless poor families: (a) In order to identify the homesteadless poor family within the meaning of this Act the concerned State Governments shall ensure collection of the following lists of families from the respective authorities: (i) Completely landless families list from Rural Household Survey (RHS); (ii) Waiting list of IAY beneficiaries that have no land, from GP/BDO;

8 (iii) Antyodoy Anna Yojona list, from GP/Food Inspector at Block; (iv) Any particular set of landless households known to the Gram Panchayat (GP) or known to elderly persons living in the villages; (v) Lists of landless sharecroppers. (vi) Those who have previous to the effective date of the present Act, obtained Job Cards under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), having made an entry on such Job Card affirming their status as BPL, and have performed actual manual labour under that scheme. Provided that in West Bengal, if that State chooses to participate in the scheme set forth in the present Act, there shall be added to the above list the Landless Bargadar list, from RI office. (b) Each of the list and the families identified under (a) above shall be physically verified in accordance with the criteria and priority as set out under this Act before finalisation of the list of potential beneficiary family. (c) the State Government shall in consultation with village Panchayats and various case and community leaders within a village select the beneficiaries so as to ensure that there is no exclusion of any genuine and eligible landless poor and homesteadless family (2) Particulars of competent authorities in each district The State Implementation Plan shall provide for particulars of competent authorities in each district responsible to deliver the homesteads to the identified families including Block Development Officer, Panchayat Samiti, Gram Sabha, Self Help Groups, Caste and community leaders at the local level. (3)Means to develop Inventory of land for allotment of homesteads (a) In terms of Section 9 of this Act the state government shall make an inventory of available suitable Government land, ceiling surplus land, bhoodan land, wasteland and other lands and provide the details of it so as to make such land available for allotment to the eligible families as homestead. (b) Where the State Government is satisfied that for the purposes of guaranteeing right to homestead, it is necessary to purchase or acquire any suitable land, it may purchase or acquire the land in accordance with sections 9 or 10 of this Act. (4)Determining suitability of plots for allotment of homesteads The concerned State Governments shall ensure that the plot for allotment of homesteads is suitable for its purpose. Suitability of plots shall include provisions for proximity of allotted homesteads to existing habitations permitting the beneficiaries to maintain their occupations and community relationships, that the

9 plot is drained year-round, and that the plot has access to potable water for household needs, that can be developed and provided at reasonable cost. The plot shall not be in a geographically hazardous location or a location prone to river erosion or other similar natural calamities. There must not be any unresolved dispute affecting ownership or possession of the plots. (5)Terms and conditions applicable on the Beneficiaries on allotment of homesteads Beneficiary families must begin making some use of the allotted homesteads within no more than 30 months after receipt of the patta or title to the homestead, and must begin residing upon such allotted homesteads within no more than 60 months after receipt of such patta. Provided that beneficiaries shall not sell, lease, mortgage or otherwise transfer the allotted homestead or any part of it (other than transfer by inheritance) for 15 years after receipt of the patta, and any attempted transfer in violation of this provision shall be absolutely void. Provided also that all allotted homesteads pursuant to this Act shall be made free of any charge to the recipients of such homesteads land, including land costs, registration costs and fees, stamp duties, premium charges for settlement, land revenue, cess and all other land-related costs, charges, taxes or fees. (6)Measures for publication of the State Implementation Plan To ensure that the people understand the State Implementation Plan and the homesteadless poor families avail themselves of the Plan, every concerned State Government shall publicize the existence of this Plan using television, radio and other means of mass communication likely to reach the rural poor families.