PANAJI
The controversial law which empowers the State government to take over immovable property (land) which are owner-less or whose dead owners have left behind no heirs has been notified and become law.
The legislation passed in the July-August monsoon session of the Goa legislative assembly had recently got the assent from the Governor and has gone through the technicality of being notified in the official gazette.
The Goa Escheats, Forfeiture and Bona Vacantia Act, 2024, which has been notified on Friday, enables the State government to take over properties of persons who die without legal heirs and those having no rightful owner.
Unlike the 1964 law on evacuee property which only allows for administration and not sale of these properties belonging to families who evacuated from Goa at the time of the December 1961 Liberation, the present law permits sale of properties escheated to the government a minimum of 10 years after they were taken over.
To take over such heirless land, the law mandates a procedure the government will have to follow such as issuing a public notice and permitting a one-year period to elapse during which anyone can file claims of ownership or other rights to that particular property.
Another provision in the law states that in the first 10 years after it has taken over the heirless property, the State government will be permitted to take charge of it, including manage, administer and supervise it.
The law was enacted after it was recommended by the commission that went into the massive number of cases of land grab in the State.
Meanwhile the ordinance banning beneficiaries of Comunidade land allotments from changing the purpose for which the land was originally given was also notified by the government on Friday.
‘Article 31-A’, has been introduced through the ordinance which will debar a grantee, purchaser, or licencee of comunidade land from altering the use of the land and using it for purposes other than for which it was originally granted.
The ordinance was promulgated in the face of the controversy surrounding the recent disposal of vast tracts of land at Zuarinagar as real estate by the Birla-owned Zuari Agro Chemicals. The land of the Sancoale Comunidade had been allotted back in the 1960s for industrial purpose.
The ordinance was promulgated by the Governor of Goa on Oct 6, 2024 and has been notified today.
