UNLOCKING THE LAND MARKETS IN INDIA : A STEP TOWARDS BETTER CREDIT CULTURE AND URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE

A constitution as voluminous as ours surprisingly refers to land only fleetingly. Spread over 395 articles in 22 parts and eight schedules, the subject of land comes up in only four parts.

- Rishi Prakash

Introduction

One of the important provisions was The Right to Property, a fundamental right under Article 19 and Article 31 of the Indian Constitution. This article guaranteed the citizens right to acquire, hold and dispose of the property. However this fundamental right was changed to a constitutional right by the 44th constitutional amendment act, 1978. Property is an institution governing the control over scarce resources in the hands of the individual. Citizens have the right to own and possess the property and also to put the property into use for credit dispensations. In most countries, lenders prefer land as a collateral for the four characteristics -Easy locatibility, Easy Identification, Easy Valuation and High Liquidity. Land, as per the Seventh schedule of the cosdtitution is pre dominantly a state subject. The Indian land market, is therefore a series of state land markets with varying levels of land administration rules, laws, revenue and usages.

Land as a collateral in India