Which of the following best describes eminent domain?

The right of a person who has openly occupied land for a statutory period to become its owner

The State’s power to regulate land use by zoning, without paying compensation, in the interest of public health, safety and the general welfare of the community

The power of an authority to recover from owners a share of the rise in land value caused by public works

A private company wants land for its own factory from 300 affected families, and 230 of them consent. Under the 2013 Act’s consent rule, which statement is correct?

Acquisition cannot proceed on this consent, because a private company needs at least 80 per cent, which is 240 families

Acquisition may proceed, because a simple majority of the affected families is enough for any project

Acquisition may proceed, because 70 per cent consent suffices for every project that is not the State’s own, including a private company’s factory

Acquisition may proceed, because the consent rule applies only when the land is irrigated or tribal

Acquisition cannot proceed on this consent, because a private company needs at least 80 per cent, which is 240 families

Why do States often prefer land readjustment (a town planning scheme) to acquisition for peri-urban greenfield land held by many small owners?

Owners keep a serviced reconstituted plot and share the uplift, so resistance and the authority’s cash outlay both fall

It needs no legal backing, because owners can be made to join the scheme by a municipal resolution alone, without any State law

Every owner is guaranteed a final plot larger in area than the original plot once the land has been serviced and regularised

It removes the need for any survey, valuation or public hearing before the scheme is sanctioned by the State Government

A buyer registers a sale deed under the Registration Act, 1908. What does registration achieve?

It records the transaction and gives public notice, but does not by itself guarantee that the seller had good title

It guarantees conclusive title to the buyer, backed by a State assurance fund against loss

It transfers ownership even where the seller had no title, because the registrar verifies the chain of title before registering the deed

It records the transaction and gives public notice, but does not by itself guarantee that the seller had good title

It replaces mutation, so the revenue and tax records never need to be updated

After inheriting a plot, an heir has the revenue record mutated in her name. In law, the mutation entry:

updates the fiscal record and is presumptive evidence of possession, but neither creates nor extinguishes title

creates a title in the heir that overrides any earlier valid claim to the plot, since the revenue officer decides ownership

updates the fiscal record and is presumptive evidence of possession, but neither creates nor extinguishes title

is conclusive proof of title against the whole world, as in a Torrens register

converts the land from agricultural to non-agricultural use automatically, because the revenue record also shows land use

A State keeps ownership records with the revenue department, parcel maps with the survey department and sale deeds with the registration department, with no link between them. Which problem does this most directly cause, and what addresses it?

The records drift apart (a registered sale never mutated, a sub-division missing on the map); the fix is a land information system linking them by a parcel identifier

Parcels are measured twice by different departments, which raises land prices; the fix is to abolish the registration department altogether and rely on revenue records

Title becomes conclusive through the overlap of three records; the fix is to raise stamp duty so that fewer sales are registered each year

Every parcel loses its identifier because the departments use different formats; the fix is to renumber all survey numbers afresh every decade

The records drift apart (a registered sale never mutated, a sub-division missing on the map); the fix is a land information system linking them by a parcel identifier

Which of the following are features of a Gujarat-style town planning scheme?

Original plots are reconstituted into smaller final plots, with land deducted for roads and public purposes

Some land is set aside as reserve plots whose sale meets the cost of the works

A betterment charge recovers a share of the increase in value of the final plots

Original plots are reconstituted into smaller final plots, with land deducted for roads and public purposes

Some land is set aside as reserve plots whose sale meets the cost of the works

A betterment charge recovers a share of the increase in value of the final plots

The authority must first acquire every plot for cash before the scheme can begin

Which of the following pairings of law and subject are correct?

Registration Act, 1908: registration of documents affecting immovable property

Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, 1976: ceiling on vacant land in urban agglomerations, later repealed through a 1999 Central Act

RFCTLARR Act, 2013: acquisition with consent safeguards, social impact assessment, compensation and R&R

Registration Act, 1908: registration of documents affecting immovable property

Transfer of Property Act, 1882: acquisition of land for public purposes with compensation

Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, 1976: ceiling on vacant land in urban agglomerations, later repealed through a 1999 Central Act

RFCTLARR Act, 2013: acquisition with consent safeguards, social impact assessment, compensation and R&R

In a city, a development authority with a nominated board prepares the master plan, acquires land and builds housing, while the elected municipal corporation maintains roads, water and drains. The criticism most directly raised by this arrangement is that:

parallel agencies answerable to the State, not to city voters, fragment responsibility and weaken the 74th Amendment’s aim of strong local bodies

it is unconstitutional, because Article 243W bars a State from creating any urban planning body other than a municipality, even for a metropolitan region

the corporation loses its constitutional status as soon as any planning function is shared with another body, since Part IXA requires exclusive powers

the authority’s plans have no legal force, because only an elected municipal council can sanction a development plan under the Constitution

parallel agencies answerable to the State, not to city voters, fragment responsibility and weaken the 74th Amendment’s aim of strong local bodies

Which pairing correctly distinguishes transparency from accountability in urban governance?

Transparency: publishing the budget and tenders for citizens to see. Accountability: officials answering to audit, grievance redress and the council, with consequences

Transparency: officials answering to auditors and the council, with consequences for lapses. Accountability: publishing the budget and tenders online for citizens to see at any time

Transparency: holding municipal elections every five years. Accountability: running an e-procurement portal

Transparency: publishing the budget and tenders for citizens to see. Accountability: officials answering to audit, grievance redress and the council, with consequences

The two are the same idea, differing only in whether the information is held online or on paper

A city seeks public views on its draft master plan only through a mobile app. What is the most important weakness of this design for participation?

The digital divide may exclude the poor, the elderly, many women and migrants, so the responses do not represent those affected

A mobile app cannot lawfully receive objections to a draft plan, so the statutory hearing becomes impossible to hold under the State Act

An app gives residents too much power, moving the process to citizen control, the top rung of Arnstein’s ladder, which planners must avoid

Digital feedback cannot be linked to a GIS base, so the plan’s proposals cannot be mapped

Which of the following were among the reforms linked to JNNURM grants?

Repeal of the urban land ceiling law

Adoption of accrual-based double-entry accounting by urban local bodies

Enactment of a public disclosure law and a community participation law

Handing over all municipal water supply to private operators

Repeal of the urban land ceiling law

Adoption of accrual-based double-entry accounting by urban local bodies

Enactment of a public disclosure law and a community participation law

Land and Governance: Eminent Domain, Pooling, Acquisition, Land Records, Local Government and Participation

This chapter answers the second half of AR Part B2, Section B2.2, “Planning Policy and Practice”: “Eminent domain; Land pooling and readjustment; Land acquisition; Laws governing land; Institutions of urban governance; Composition and functions of local self-governments and statutory institutions; Urban reforms and good governance; Participatory planning and use of technology; Municipal information systems, land information systems, cadastral systems”. It explains eminent domain and the laws that govern land, the 2013 acquisition Act in principle, land pooling and the town planning scheme, land records, title and the cadastre, the structure and functions of urban local bodies and parastatals, reforms and good governance, and participation and technology. The numericals are compensation under a stated multiplier, land-pooling arithmetic (contribution, final plot, value gain, area returned), reservation of council seats, and area from a cadastral map scale.

1. Eminent domain, public purpose and the laws that govern land

Eminent domain is the sovereign power of the State to take private property for a public purpose, on payment of compensation, under authority of law. Three limits follow: a public purpose, a law that authorises the taking, and fair compensation. In India the right to property is no longer a fundamental right (the 44th Amendment, 1978, removed Articles 19(1)(f) and 31) but remains a constitutional right: Article 300A says that no person shall be deprived of property save by authority of law. Parliament and the States legislate on acquisition under Concurrent Entry 42.

The colonial Land Acquisition Act, 1894 let the State take land for a broadly defined public purpose, with compensation at market value plus a 30 per cent solatium (after 1984), an urgency clause and little voice for owners. It was replaced by the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (RFCTLARR), in force from 1 January 2014.

Laws governing land
Law	What it governs
Transfer of Property Act, 1882	Transfer of immovable property between living persons: sale, mortgage, lease, gift
Registration Act, 1908	Registration of documents affecting immovable property; gives public notice, not a guaranteed title
Indian Easements Act, 1882	Rights over another’s land, such as way, light and air
State land revenue and tenancy codes	Tenure, revenue assessment, records of rights, tenancy and ceilings
RFCTLARR Act, 2013	Acquisition for public purpose, compensation, rehabilitation and resettlement
Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, 1976	Ceiling on vacant land in urban agglomerations; repealed through a Central repeal Act of 1999, having been criticised for restricting land supply
Environment, forest, monument and coastal laws	Restrict the use of land: impact assessment, Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 (renamed in 2023 as the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam), the 1958 monuments Act, coastal regulation
State planning Acts	Land-use zoning, development permission, town planning schemes (previous chapter)

🎯 Why planners need the power to take land

A reservation for a road, park or school in a plan does not transfer the land. The authority must acquire it with compensation, assemble it by pooling and readjustment, or obtain it by agreement. A reservation with no way to acquire it blights the owner and stalls the plan, which is why acquisition law and pooling schemes are part of planning practice.

2. Land acquisition under the 2013 Act

The 2013 Act changed the logic of 1894 from “the State decides” to “the State justifies and shares”. Its main safeguards are these.

Consent: for acquisition for a private company, prior consent of at least 80 per cent of the affected families; for a public–private partnership project, at least 70 per cent. There is no consent threshold for the State’s own projects.
Social Impact Assessment (SIA): a study of who is affected and what is lost, with a public hearing in the affected area, an expert appraisal and a Social Impact Management Plan, before acquisition proceeds, with narrow exceptions.
Food security: irrigated multi-crop land is not to be acquired except as a last resort and within limits.
Fair compensation: market value multiplied by a factor, plus assets, plus a solatium (table below).
Rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R): separate entitlements and an R&R award for affected families.
Time and use limits: acquisition lapses if the award is not made within twelve months of the declaration; land left unused for five years is returned to the owners or to a land bank.

What the owner receives
Component	Rule
Market value	The highest of: the stamp-duty (circle) rate for the area; the average of the higher half of recent registered sale prices of similar land nearby; and, for private-company or PPP projects, the agreed amount
Multiplier (factor)	Urban areas: 1. Rural areas: between 1 and 2, set by the State according to the distance from the urban area
Attached assets	Buildings, trees, standing crops, wells and the like, valued separately
Compensation	(Market value × factor) + value of assets
Solatium	100 per cent of that compensation (against 30 per cent of market value under the 1894 Act)
Total award	Compensation + solatium

Worked example. A rural parcel of 3 ha has a market value of ₹30 lakh per hectare, the factor is 2 and the assets are worth ₹6 lakh. Land = 3 × 30 × 2 = 180 lakh; compensation = 180 + 6 = 186 lakh; solatium = 186 lakh; total award = 372 lakh. For an urban parcel of the same value the factor is 1, so the award is much smaller.

R&R entitlements cover a house for affected families who lose their homes, a subsistence allowance for a period, a choice among employment, a one-time payment or an annuity for a member of the family, transport and resettlement allowances and, where land is acquired for urbanisation, an offer of a share of the developed land on payment of its cost. Resettlement areas must have basic amenities. Affected families include not only owners but also tenants, agricultural labourers and others whose livelihood depended on the land.

⚠️ Three numbers that get swapped

Consent is 80 per cent for a private company and 70 per cent for a PPP project, and none for the State’s own project. The factor multiplies the market value of the land (1 urban, 1 to 2 rural) while the solatium is 100 per cent of the resulting compensation, which is why a rural award can reach about four times the market value. Do not apply either to the 1894 Act, whose solatium was 30 per cent of market value.

3. Land pooling and readjustment: the town planning scheme

Land readjustment (land pooling) assembles land without acquiring it. Owners in a defined area pool their plots; the planning body lays out roads, open space and amenities, services the area, and returns reconstituted plots that are smaller than the originals but, being serviced and regular, worth more. Part of the land goes to public purposes and part to reserve plots sold to pay for the works. The model comes from Germany, Japan, Korea and Taiwan; in India it is the town planning scheme (TPS) of Gujarat and Maharashtra.

In the Gujarat TPS, under the Gujarat Town Planning and Urban Development Act, 1976 (descended from the Bombay Act of 1915), the authority declares its intention to make a scheme and publishes a draft, a Town Planning Officer appointed by the State hears the owners and finalises the scheme, and the State sanctions it. Each original plot (OP) becomes a final plot (FP) of smaller area; the land deducted goes to roads, open space, amenities, housing for weaker sections and reserve plots. The value of the final plot with the scheme is compared with that of the original plot without it, and a betterment charge recovers a share of the increment, typically up to half; compensation is paid where land is taken and not returned in kind. An appeal body hears disputes.

Delhi’s Land Pooling Policy, first notified in 2013 under the Delhi Development Act, 1957 and the Master Plan and amended since, applies the same idea in the urbanisable fringe: owners pool land with the DDA, which builds trunk infrastructure and returns a share of the developed land to the owners, keeping the rest for roads, facilities and public use. The shares and conditions have been revised, so read the policy as amended.

Land readjustment against acquisition
Feature	Pooling / TPS	Acquisition
Ownership	Owners keep a reconstituted plot	Owners lose title and receive compensation
Cash outlay by the authority	Small; works are paid for by reserve plots and betterment charges	Full compensation payable up front
Owner’s share of uplift	Yes, through the serviced final plot	No, except through the multiplier and R&R
Resistance and litigation	Lower, though valuation disputes arise	Higher
Best suited to	Greenfield and peri-urban areas with many small owners	Linear projects and sites where owners must be displaced
Limits	Needs a statute, technical capacity and owner support; slow; a poor fit for built-up areas	Costly; R&R burden; consent rules for private projects

Arithmetic. Final plot area = original area × (1 − total deduction fraction). With a 40 per cent total deduction a 2,500 m² plot returns 1,500 m². The owner gains if the value per m² rises by more than 1 ÷ (1 − 0.40) = 1.67 times, the break-even uplift. At scheme level, for a 200 ha scheme in which roads take 20 per cent, open space and amenities 14 per cent and reserve plots 16 per cent, owners receive the remaining 100 − 50 = 50 per cent, which is 100 ha.

⚠️ A smaller plot is not a loss

The contribution is a percentage of each owner’s original plot, not a fixed area, and the final plot is placed as near as practicable to the original site. A 40 per cent deduction does not mean a 40 per cent loss of wealth: compare value before (original area × old rate) with value after (final area × new rate). Reserve plots are sold to fund the works; they are not a gift to the authority.

4. Land records, title, mutation and the cadastre

Registration of deeds (Registration Act, 1908) records a transaction such as a sale deed in a public register. It gives public notice and evidentiary value but does not guarantee the seller’s title, because a deed can only pass what the seller had. India therefore has presumptive title, tested by tracing the chain of earlier deeds. A title registration system (the Torrens system, from South Australia, 1858) registers the title itself, which the State guarantees, usually with an assurance fund; it is conclusive, and conclusive titling is the long-term aim of India’s land-records reform.

Mutation (dakhil-kharij) changes the name in the revenue or municipal record after a sale, inheritance, gift or partition. It serves fiscal purposes, land revenue or property tax, and gives presumptive evidence of possession; it neither creates nor extinguishes title. The record of rights (RoR) is the textual register of a parcel (owner, area, tenure, crops, liabilities) and has many names: the 7/12 extract in Maharashtra and Gujarat, khasra–khatauni in northern States, patta–chitta in Tamil Nadu.

A survey number (khasra number, or plot number on the cadastral map) identifies each parcel, with sub-divisions (hissa) when it is divided among heirs. A cadastre is the official register of parcels, with boundaries, area, owner and use, and a cadastral map shows each parcel. A fiscal cadastre supports tax, a legal cadastre supports rights and a multipurpose cadastre links parcels to planning, utilities and services. Cadastral maps are large-scale village plans, once surveyed by chain and plane table and now by total station, GNSS and drone imagery. Map area = (map length × scale denominator) × (map breadth × scale denominator): on a 1:4,000 map a parcel of 2.5 cm × 3 cm is 100 m × 120 m = 12,000 m² = 1.2 ha.

In most States the textual RoR (revenue department), the map (survey department) and the registered deed (registration department) are held separately and drift apart: a registered sale may not be mutated, and a sub-division may not appear on the map. A land information system (LIS) joins the spatial layer (parcel maps) and the attribute layer (owner, area, use, encumbrance) through a parcel identifier. The Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme, begun in 2008 as the National Land Records Modernization Programme, funds computerised RoR, digitised cadastral maps, computerised registration and their integration, and introduced a unique land parcel identification number (ULPIN).

Four things people confuse
Item	What it does	What it does not do
Deed registration	Records the transaction and gives public notice	Guarantee the seller’s title
Mutation	Updates the revenue or tax record to the new holder	Create or cancel ownership
Property-tax assessment	Fixes who pays tax and how much	Prove ownership
Cadastral map	Shows parcel shape, size and number	Establish title by itself

⚠️ Records show possession and tax, not proof of title

Because India has presumptive title, a clean mutation entry, a tax receipt or a parcel on the map each supports a claim but none guarantees it. Under a Torrens-type system the register itself is conclusive. In an exam, ask which document the option claims to prove title, and whether it records a transaction, a possession, a tax or a shape.

5. Institutions of urban governance and local self-government

Urban governance has four layers: the Union (the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, TCPO, funding missions); the State (urban development and town planning departments, State Finance Commission, State Election Commission); the district or metropolitan planning level (DPC, MPC); and the urban local body (ULB). Under the 74th Amendment the ULB is a municipal corporation for a larger urban area, a municipal council for a smaller one and a Nagar Panchayat for a transitional area. Cantonments are run by cantonment boards under the Cantonments Act, 2006.

A municipality has a deliberative wing, the elected council of ward councillors with seats reserved for SC, ST and women, headed by a mayor or chairperson, and an executive wing led by a Municipal Commissioner or chief officer appointed by the State. In the commissioner system (as in Mumbai) executive power rests with the Commissioner while the council deliberates and approves; in the mayor-in-council system (as in Kolkata) it rests with a committee headed by the mayor. In most States the mayor is elected by the councillors, in a few directly by voters. Standing committees (finance, works, health and so on) scrutinise the budget and proposals, and wards committees bring the council closer to residents in cities of three lakh or more.

Functions and money. Obligatory functions usually include water supply, sewerage and drainage, solid waste, roads and street lighting, public health, birth and death registration and burial grounds; discretionary ones include parks, libraries, housing, markets and welfare. Own revenue is mainly property tax, fees and user charges, with grants on the recommendations of the State and Central Finance Commissions. Reservation arithmetic: SC and ST seats are in proportion to population; women must hold not less than one-third of all seats, counting the women’s seats within the SC and ST seats, and one-third of the SC and ST seats are for women. In a 60-ward council with 9 SC seats and no ST seats, women hold at least 20 seats, of which 3 are SC women’s seats, so at least 17 women’s seats fall among the unreserved seats.

Statutory institutions and parastatals are created by law, mostly State law, for a purpose and a territory: development authorities (the Delhi Development Authority, set up in 1957; the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority), improvement trusts (the Bombay City Improvement Trust, the Calcutta Improvement Trust and the Delhi Improvement Trust, which preceded the DDA), housing boards, water and sewerage boards, slum boards, pollution control boards and the National Capital Region Planning Board (a Central statutory body). Their boards are mostly nominated, they raise money from land sales, loans and user charges, and they answer to the State government, not to the city’s voters.

Urban local body against parastatal
Feature	Urban local body	Parastatal or development authority
Basis	Part IXA and the State municipal Act	A State Act or order for a specific purpose
Leadership	Elected council and mayor, with an appointed commissioner	Nominated board, often headed by an official or minister
Accountable to	Voters and the council	The State government
Typical functions	Wide civic services: water, waste, roads, health, local planning	Narrow: master planning, land development, housing, bulk water
Main revenue	Property tax, fees, grants	Land sales, loans, user charges

⚠️ The parallel-body problem

When a development authority plans and builds while the corporation maintains, responsibility is split and accountability blurs: the body that decides is not elected, and the body that is elected does not decide. The 74th Amendment aimed to make the ULB the main agency, with planning committees to coordinate, yet in many cities parastatals still hold planning and land development. That is a governance criticism, not a constitutional bar: Entry 5 of the State List itself names improvement trusts.

6. Urban reforms and good governance

Good governance is usually described by participation, the rule of law, transparency, responsiveness, consensus orientation, equity and inclusiveness, effectiveness and efficiency, and accountability. Transparency is openness: information on budgets, tenders, plans and decisions is public and accessible. Accountability is answerability with consequences: officials and members explain their actions to the council, auditors and citizens, and can be corrected or sanctioned.

JNNURM, State-level reforms: implement the 74th Amendment (devolve Twelfth Schedule functions and constitute planning committees), repeal the urban land ceiling law, reform rent control, rationalise stamp duty, and enact public disclosure and community participation laws.
JNNURM, ULB-level reforms: accrual-based double-entry accounting, e-governance in municipal functions, property-tax reform with GIS-based mapping, user charges to recover operation and maintenance costs, and earmarking of funds for basic services to the urban poor.
Later missions: AMRUT carried a reform agenda (e-governance, double-entry accounting, municipal bonds, credit rating, GIS-based master plans); Smart Cities stressed citizen engagement and data-driven management; service-level benchmarks for water, sewerage, waste and storm-water give measurable indicators.

E-governance moves municipal services online: property-tax payment, trade licences, birth and death registration, building-plan approval, water and sewer connections, grievance redress and e-procurement. The “e-Governance in Municipalities” mission mode project under the National e-Governance Plan (2006), and later online building-permission systems, pushed this; the gain is speed, less discretion and a record of every transaction. Transparency tools complement it: the Right to Information Act, 2005 (a reply within 30 days), public disclosure of budgets, citizens’ charters with service times, social audit, and the council’s own scrutiny through standing committees and annual audit.

⚠️ Transparency is not accountability

Publishing a budget online is transparency; it does not by itself make anyone answerable. Accountability needs audit, grievance redress with timelines and consequences, and an elected council with real powers. Likewise e-governance reduces discretion and delay but does not repair weak capacity or devolve functions; reform missions tied money to those deeper changes.

7. Participatory planning and the use of technology

Participation is not all alike. Arnstein’s ladder of citizen participation (Sherry Arnstein, 1969) has eight rungs in three bands, climbing from no real influence to citizen control.

Arnstein’s ladder
Band	Rungs	In a planning setting
Nonparticipation	1 Manipulation; 2 Therapy	Citizens are placed on committees or ‘educated’ so that they can be steered; no real influence
Tokenism	3 Informing; 4 Consultation; 5 Placation	Citizens hear and are heard, but the power-holders keep the decision; a hearing on a draft plan whose outcome is fixed is consultation
Citizen power	6 Partnership; 7 Delegated power; 8 Citizen control	Power is shared, delegated or held by citizens; for example a wards committee with its own budget

A charrette is an intensive, multi-day workshop in which planners, designers, officials and residents draw and revise proposals together with continuous feedback, so that conflicts surface early and a shared concept emerges. Other methods are public meetings and exhibitions, household and focus-group surveys, community mapping, participatory budgeting, wards committees and area sabhas, and the statutory step of publishing a draft plan and inviting objections. In the master-plan process participation is statutory but often tokenistic: notice, objection, hearing and then the authority’s decision.

Technology widens reach and sharpens analysis: web and mobile portals for feedback and grievances, public-participation GIS and 3D models that let residents see proposals, open data and dashboards, and integrated command and control centres in smart cities. A municipal information system (MIS) is the backbone: linked databases of properties and tax, water and sewer connections, licences, birth and death records, building permissions, assets, accounts and grievances, ideally on a common GIS base and parcel identifier, so that one update serves every department and decisions rest on current data.

⚠️ Volume is not representation

A mobile app can collect thousands of responses and still miss the poor, the elderly, many women and migrants, the very groups a plan most affects. The digital divide skews who is heard, and personal data raise privacy duties. Technology should add to wards committees, charrettes and offline channels, not replace them.

🎯 Why participation improves plans

Residents hold local knowledge of floods, footpaths and informal livelihoods that surveys miss; a plan they helped shape has legitimacy and meets fewer objections at implementation. The cost is time and the risk of capture by organised groups, which is why the form of participation, and its rung on the ladder, should be chosen deliberately.

Key takeaways

Eminent domain is the power to take property for a public purpose with compensation under law; Article 300A makes property a constitutional right, and Concurrent Entry 42 gives the legislative basis for acquisition.
RFCTLARR 2013: consent of 80 per cent for private companies and 70 per cent for PPP, SIA with public hearing, compensation = market value × factor + assets, solatium 100 per cent of compensation, R&R, and return of land unused for five years.
Land pooling and the town planning scheme return smaller serviced plots, fund works from reserve plots and betterment charges, and share the uplift; final area = original × (1 − deduction), and the owner gains if value rises by more than 1/(1 − deduction).
Deed registration records a transaction and gives notice, mutation updates the fiscal record, neither guarantees title; a cadastre and land information system link maps, records and deeds through a parcel identifier.
ULBs (corporation, council, Nagar Panchayat) are elected and accountable to voters; parastatals such as development authorities and improvement trusts are State-created with nominated boards, and their parallel role is the standing governance criticism.
Good governance needs transparency and accountability, which are different; Arnstein’s ladder runs from manipulation to citizen control, with informing, consultation and placation as tokenism; technology and municipal information systems help but must not exclude those without access.

Practice questions (20)

Attempt each one before opening the answer. Every explanation names the tempting wrong option as well as the right one, because that is where marks are lost.

Which of the following best describes eminent domain?
1. The right of a person who has openly occupied land for a statutory period to become its owner
2. The State’s power to regulate land use by zoning, without paying compensation, in the interest of public health, safety and the general welfare of the community
3. The State’s sovereign power to take private property for a public purpose, on payment of compensation, under authority of law
4. The power of an authority to recover from owners a share of the rise in land value caused by public works
Show answer
Answer: C — The State’s sovereign power to take private property for a public purpose, on payment of compensation, under authority of law
Eminent domain is the sovereign power to take property for a public purpose with compensation and under a law; in India that law-making base is Concurrent Entry 42 and the limit is Article 300A. Zoning under the police power regulates use without taking the land, which is why it is the tempting alternative; adverse possession and the betterment levy are different ideas altogether.
A private company wants land for its own factory from 300 affected families, and 230 of them consent. Under the 2013 Act’s consent rule, which statement is correct?
1. Acquisition may proceed, because a simple majority of the affected families is enough for any project
2. Acquisition may proceed, because 70 per cent consent suffices for every project that is not the State’s own, including a private company’s factory
3. Acquisition may proceed, because the consent rule applies only when the land is irrigated or tribal
4. Acquisition cannot proceed on this consent, because a private company needs at least 80 per cent, which is 240 families
Show answer
Answer: D — Acquisition cannot proceed on this consent, because a private company needs at least 80 per cent, which is 240 families
For a private company the Act requires prior consent of at least 80 per cent of the affected families: 0.8 × 300 = 240, and 230 is only about 77 per cent. The 70 per cent threshold belongs to public–private partnership projects, which this is not; there is no simple-majority rule, and the consent rule is not tied to irrigated or tribal land.
Two parcels of equal area have the same reference market value. The first is in a remote rural area where the State has fixed the factor at 2; the second lies inside a town where the factor is 1. Taking compensation as market value × factor (no assets) and solatium as 100 per cent of that compensation, the ratio of the total award for the first parcel to that for the second is:
1. 3 : 2
2. 2 : 1
3. 1 : 1
4. 4 : 1
Show answer
Answer: B — 2 : 1
If the market value is M, the rural compensation is 2M and its solatium 2M, a total of 4M; the urban compensation is M and its solatium M, a total of 2M. The ratio is 2 : 1. A ratio of 3 : 2 comes from taking the solatium on the un-multiplied market value (2M + M against M + M), which is the usual slip; 4 : 1 would need the factor to be applied twice.
Why do States often prefer land readjustment (a town planning scheme) to acquisition for peri-urban greenfield land held by many small owners?
1. Owners keep a serviced reconstituted plot and share the uplift, so resistance and the authority’s cash outlay both fall
2. It needs no legal backing, because owners can be made to join the scheme by a municipal resolution alone, without any State law
3. Every owner is guaranteed a final plot larger in area than the original plot once the land has been serviced and regularised
4. It removes the need for any survey, valuation or public hearing before the scheme is sanctioned by the State Government
Show answer
Answer: A — Owners keep a serviced reconstituted plot and share the uplift, so resistance and the authority’s cash outlay both fall
The strength of readjustment is that owners retain land and share the uplift, and the authority pays for the works from reserve plots and betterment charges instead of paying compensation up front. It still rests on a statute and needs valuation and hearings, and the final plot is smaller than the original, not larger; the gain is in value, not in area.
A buyer registers a sale deed under the Registration Act, 1908. What does registration achieve?
1. It guarantees conclusive title to the buyer, backed by a State assurance fund against loss
2. It transfers ownership even where the seller had no title, because the registrar verifies the chain of title before registering the deed
3. It records the transaction and gives public notice, but does not by itself guarantee that the seller had good title
4. It replaces mutation, so the revenue and tax records never need to be updated
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Answer: C — It records the transaction and gives public notice, but does not by itself guarantee that the seller had good title
India registers deeds, not titles: registration records the transaction and gives notice, and a deed can pass only what the seller owned, so title stays presumptive. The guaranteed, assurance-fund version describes a Torrens-type title registration, which India has not adopted nationwide; registration also does not remove the need for mutation.
After inheriting a plot, an heir has the revenue record mutated in her name. In law, the mutation entry:
1. creates a title in the heir that overrides any earlier valid claim to the plot, since the revenue officer decides ownership
2. updates the fiscal record and is presumptive evidence of possession, but neither creates nor extinguishes title
3. is conclusive proof of title against the whole world, as in a Torrens register
4. converts the land from agricultural to non-agricultural use automatically, because the revenue record also shows land use
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Answer: B — updates the fiscal record and is presumptive evidence of possession, but neither creates nor extinguishes title
Mutation exists for fiscal purposes, land revenue or property tax, and records who is in possession; it neither creates nor cancels title, which flows from inheritance, sale or other lawful transfer. Treating it as conclusive proof confuses it with a title register, and a change of land use needs a separate conversion permission.
A State keeps ownership records with the revenue department, parcel maps with the survey department and sale deeds with the registration department, with no link between them. Which problem does this most directly cause, and what addresses it?
1. Parcels are measured twice by different departments, which raises land prices; the fix is to abolish the registration department altogether and rely on revenue records
2. Title becomes conclusive through the overlap of three records; the fix is to raise stamp duty so that fewer sales are registered each year
3. Every parcel loses its identifier because the departments use different formats; the fix is to renumber all survey numbers afresh every decade
4. The records drift apart (a registered sale never mutated, a sub-division missing on the map); the fix is a land information system linking them by a parcel identifier
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Answer: D — The records drift apart (a registered sale never mutated, a sub-division missing on the map); the fix is a land information system linking them by a parcel identifier
With separate custodians, a registered sale may never reach the revenue record and a sub-division may never reach the map, so the three versions diverge. A land information system links the spatial and textual layers through a unique parcel identifier, which is the integration the national land-records programme funds. Nothing here makes title conclusive, and renumbering would worsen the mismatch.
Which of the following are features of a Gujarat-style town planning scheme?
1. Original plots are reconstituted into smaller final plots, with land deducted for roads and public purposes
2. Some land is set aside as reserve plots whose sale meets the cost of the works
3. A betterment charge recovers a share of the increase in value of the final plots
4. The authority must first acquire every plot for cash before the scheme can begin
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Answer: A — Original plots are reconstituted into smaller final plots, with land deducted for roads and public purposes; B — Some land is set aside as reserve plots whose sale meets the cost of the works; C — A betterment charge recovers a share of the increase in value of the final plots
Reconstituted smaller plots, reserve plots sold to fund the works, and a betterment charge on the increment are the core of the scheme. Prior cash acquisition of every plot is the opposite of the idea, which is to assemble land without acquiring it.
Which of the following pairings of law and subject are correct?
1. Registration Act, 1908: registration of documents affecting immovable property
2. Transfer of Property Act, 1882: acquisition of land for public purposes with compensation
3. Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, 1976: ceiling on vacant land in urban agglomerations, later repealed through a 1999 Central Act
4. RFCTLARR Act, 2013: acquisition with consent safeguards, social impact assessment, compensation and R&R
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Answer: A — Registration Act, 1908: registration of documents affecting immovable property; C — Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, 1976: ceiling on vacant land in urban agglomerations, later repealed through a 1999 Central Act; D — RFCTLARR Act, 2013: acquisition with consent safeguards, social impact assessment, compensation and R&R
The Registration Act, the land-ceiling law and its repeal, and the 2013 acquisition Act are matched correctly. The Transfer of Property Act governs transfers between private persons, such as sale, mortgage and lease; acquisition by the State is the subject of the acquisition Act.
A rural parcel of 2 ha is acquired. Its market value is ₹40 lakh per hectare, the factor applied is 1.5 and the attached assets are valued at ₹10 lakh. Compensation = market value × factor + value of assets, and the solatium is 100 per cent of the compensation. The total award, in ₹ lakh, is ____.
Numerical answer — type the value.
Show answer
Answer: 260
Land at market value = 2 × 40 = 80 lakh; × 1.5 = 120 lakh; plus assets 10 lakh gives compensation 130 lakh. Solatium = 130 lakh. Total award = 130 + 130 = 260 lakh. Applying the solatium to the land alone (120) would give 250, and ignoring the factor would give 180.
A town planning scheme covers 160 ha. Roads take 22 per cent of the area, open space and amenities 13 per cent, housing for the economically weaker sections 5 per cent and reserve plots for sale 15 per cent; the remaining land is returned to owners as final plots. The area returned to owners, in ha, is ____.
Numerical answer — type the value.
Show answer
Answer: 72
Deductions = 22 + 13 + 5 + 15 = 55 per cent, so owners receive 100 − 55 = 45 per cent of 160 ha = 72 ha. Forgetting the reserve plots (taking 40 per cent deducted) would give 96 ha, which is wrong because their sale funds the works and they are not returned to owners.
Under a land readjustment scheme an owner’s original plot of 2,500 m² is reconstituted into a final plot after a total deduction of 40 per cent. Land is worth ₹8,000 per m² before the scheme and ₹20,000 per m² after servicing. The owner’s net gain in the value of land held, in ₹ lakh, is ____.
Numerical answer — type the value.
Show answer
Answer: 100
Final plot = 2,500 × 0.6 = 1,500 m². Value after = 1,500 × 20,000 = 3,00,00,000 = 300 lakh. Value before = 2,500 × 8,000 = 2,00,00,000 = 200 lakh. Net gain = 300 − 200 = 100 lakh. The uplift of 2.5 times exceeds the break-even 1/0.6 = 1.67, so the owner gains although the plot is smaller.
On a cadastral map drawn at a scale of 1:2,500, a parcel measures 4 cm × 3 cm. Its actual area, in hectares, is ____.
Numerical answer — type the value.
Show answer
Answer: 0.75
Ground lengths: 4 cm × 2,500 = 10,000 cm = 100 m and 3 cm × 2,500 = 7,500 cm = 75 m. Area = 100 × 75 = 7,500 m² = 0.75 ha (1 ha = 10,000 m²). Multiplying the map area by the scale once, instead of squaring it, is the usual slip.
Wards Committees under Article 243S are required in municipalities with a population of:
1. three lakh or more
2. one lakh or more
3. five lakh or more
4. ten lakh or more
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Answer: A — three lakh or more
Article 243S requires Wards Committees in municipalities with a population of three lakh or more. Ten lakh is the threshold for a metropolitan area under Article 243ZE, and the two figures are often confused.
In a city, a development authority with a nominated board prepares the master plan, acquires land and builds housing, while the elected municipal corporation maintains roads, water and drains. The criticism most directly raised by this arrangement is that:
1. it is unconstitutional, because Article 243W bars a State from creating any urban planning body other than a municipality, even for a metropolitan region
2. the corporation loses its constitutional status as soon as any planning function is shared with another body, since Part IXA requires exclusive powers
3. the authority’s plans have no legal force, because only an elected municipal council can sanction a development plan under the Constitution
4. parallel agencies answerable to the State, not to city voters, fragment responsibility and weaken the 74th Amendment’s aim of strong local bodies
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Answer: D — parallel agencies answerable to the State, not to city voters, fragment responsibility and weaken the 74th Amendment’s aim of strong local bodies
The criticism is about accountability and fragmentation: the body that decides is nominated and answers to the State, while the elected body does not decide. It is not a constitutional bar, since Article 243W only permits devolution and Entry 5 of the State List itself names improvement trusts, and State planning Acts give the authority’s sanctioned plans legal force.
Which pairing correctly distinguishes transparency from accountability in urban governance?
1. Transparency: officials answering to auditors and the council, with consequences for lapses. Accountability: publishing the budget and tenders online for citizens to see at any time
2. Transparency: holding municipal elections every five years. Accountability: running an e-procurement portal
3. Transparency: publishing the budget and tenders for citizens to see. Accountability: officials answering to audit, grievance redress and the council, with consequences
4. The two are the same idea, differing only in whether the information is held online or on paper
Show answer
Answer: C — Transparency: publishing the budget and tenders for citizens to see. Accountability: officials answering to audit, grievance redress and the council, with consequences
Transparency is openness of information; accountability is answerability with consequences through audit, redress and the council. The reversed pairing is the tempting error, and the two are distinct: a published budget does not by itself make anyone answerable.
A city seeks public views on its draft master plan only through a mobile app. What is the most important weakness of this design for participation?
1. The digital divide may exclude the poor, the elderly, many women and migrants, so the responses do not represent those affected
2. A mobile app cannot lawfully receive objections to a draft plan, so the statutory hearing becomes impossible to hold under the State Act
3. An app gives residents too much power, moving the process to citizen control, the top rung of Arnstein’s ladder, which planners must avoid
4. Digital feedback cannot be linked to a GIS base, so the plan’s proposals cannot be mapped
Show answer
Answer: A — The digital divide may exclude the poor, the elderly, many women and migrants, so the responses do not represent those affected
The main weakness is representation: a self-selected, connected sample can be large yet skewed away from the groups a plan affects most. A well-designed app can collect objections and link them to a GIS base, and collecting views does not by itself move the process up Arnstein’s ladder, since the authority still decides.
Which of the following are rungs in the tokenism band of Arnstein’s ladder of citizen participation?
1. Placation
2. Informing
3. Partnership
4. Consultation
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Answer: A — Placation; B — Informing; D — Consultation
Informing, consultation and placation are the three tokenism rungs: citizens are told, asked or soothed, but power-holders keep the decision. Partnership belongs to the citizen-power band, where power is genuinely shared.
Which of the following were among the reforms linked to JNNURM grants?
1. Handing over all municipal water supply to private operators
2. Repeal of the urban land ceiling law
3. Adoption of accrual-based double-entry accounting by urban local bodies
4. Enactment of a public disclosure law and a community participation law
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Answer: B — Repeal of the urban land ceiling law; C — Adoption of accrual-based double-entry accounting by urban local bodies; D — Enactment of a public disclosure law and a community participation law
The reform list included repeal of the land ceiling law, accrual accounting, and public disclosure and community participation laws, along with e-governance, property-tax reform and user charges. Compulsory privatisation of all water supply was never a mission condition; the user-charge reform concerned cost recovery, not who operates the service.
A municipal corporation has 150 directly elected seats. SC seats are 18 and ST seats are 6, reserved in proportion to population, and one-third of each of those is reserved for women of that category. Not less than one-third of all seats, counting those SC and ST women’s seats, must be reserved for women. The minimum number of women’s seats among the remaining (unreserved) seats is ____.
Numerical answer — type the value.
Show answer
Answer: 42
Women must hold at least 150/3 = 50 seats, counting the SC and ST women’s seats. SC women’s seats = 18/3 = 6 and ST women’s seats = 6/3 = 2, so 8 are already inside the SC and ST seats. The remaining women’s seats among the unreserved ones = 50 − 8 = 42. If the SC and ST women’s seats were not counted towards the one-third, 50 seats outside them would be needed instead.