A Disturbing Act at Play

When Gujarat’s Disturbed Areas Act was legislated in 1986, the aim was to stop the distress sale of properties in areas that had witnessed communal violence.

- Jumana Shah

In fact, the Act’s full name—the Gujarat Prohibition of Transfer of Immovable Property and Provision for Protection of Tenants from Eviction from Premises in Disturbed Areas Act—promised as much. But social observers and those in the know say, over the years, the Act is being used as a tool by those seeking to divide Gujarat on religious lines.

Take the Muslim woman in Vadodara whose case played out widely in the media. The 44-year-old single mother was allotted a flat under the CM Awas Yojana in 2018, in a lowerincome group (LIG) society in the city. However, 33 of 462 residents of the society protested against the allotment, allegedly owing to her religion, claiming the allotment to be in violation of the Act. The protests, which first erupted in 2020, have prevented the woman from taking occupation of the flat even six years after the allotment. In a written complaint to the collector this June, the protesting residents cited possible “threat and nuisance due to her presence as she is the only Muslim allottee”. While the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) claims due process was followed in the allotment, sources told india today that the controversial allocation is indeed an oddity—considering the norm—and happened because the VMC failed to take note of details that would have acted as indicators of the woman’s religion, her name for example. The VMC has since said the issue needs to be resolved internally between the parties. Sources in the know say the woman neither wants to let go of her flat—the VMC is backing her for now—nor go to court. While the VMC allotting a flat to a