By Our Correspondent
JAIPUR: Rajasthan has become the second state, after Gujarat, to implement the controversial Disturbed Areas Law empowering the government to designate specific localities as “disturbed” to deal with distress sale of properties and demographic imbalance. The Bill was passed in the State Assembly on March 6 despite vociferous protests by the Opposition Congress MLAs.
Civil rights groups have raised a strong objection to the Bill, saying it is unconstitutional and is meant to serve the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s Hindutva agenda. Like in Gujarat, the law in Rajasthan is set to fracture the society and cause ghettoisation of Muslims in the urban areas, as it will regulate property transfers in communally sensitive regions.
The Bill, passed with a voice vote after a marathon debate lasting five hours in the Assembly, aims at preventing “improper clustering”, defined as the concentration of a single community due to coercive or distress-driven circumstances that may lead to communal tension. An area may be notified as disturbed for up to three years under the proposed legislation.
Assembly Speaker Vasudev Devnani declared the Bill as having been passed after rejecting the proposals to circulate it for eliciting public opinion and refer it to a Select Committee. The proposed legislation has been titled the Rajasthan Prohibition of Transfer of Immovable Property and Provisions for Protection of Tenants from Eviction from the Premises in Disturbed Areas Bill, 2026.
Replying to the debate in the House, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Jogaram Patel said the law would not violate the rights of any community and would only prevent the migration of people from mixed neighbourhoods during communal violence. “The Opposition parties have failed to point out any inconsistencies. The property transactions will be regulated strictly in accordance with the law,” he said.
Patel said the Bill, which would maintain “social balance and harmony”, had been drafted after considering specific circumstances and requirements of Rajasthan. No area would be declared as disturbed arbitrarily and the decision would be taken after examining facts, reports and administrative inputs, he said.
Under the provisions of the Bill, the identification of disturbed areas will be based on riots or mob violence or the possibility of clustering of people from a particular community in a manner that could disturb the demographic balance of the locality. The relevant District Collector can declare a locality as disturbed for up to three years based on specific criteria, including rioting, improper clustering, or threats to public order.
Any transfer of immovable property in such notified areas during the specified period will be considered null and void. Individuals intending to transfer property in a disturbed area will have to obtain prior sanction from a competent authority, who will conduct an inquiry to determine the factors of free consent, fair value and demographic balance.
Under the Bill’s punitive provisions, any person who disobeys or facilitates the violation of an order issued by the competent authority will face imprisonment ranging from three to five years and a fine of at least Rs.1 lakh or 10% of the fair value of the property, whichever is higher.
The legislation also provides protection to tenants in riot-affected areas. If a building is destroyed during riots, the landlord will be required to reconstruct it and provide accommodation to the tenant in the new building.
Participating in the debate on the Bill, Congress MLA and Pradesh Congress Committee president Govind Singh Dotasra said the BJP government was attempting to promote religious polarisation and curtail people’s fundamental rights through the legislation. “This law will be repealed if the Congress comes back to power,” he said.
Dotasra argued that labelling areas as disturbed would stigmatise neighbourhoods, ruin community relations, and impact social ties, including marriage prospects for residents.
“A Rent Control Act already exists in Rajasthan; what is the need for this Bill? It will destroy the composite culture of our state,” he argued.
While Dotasra alleged that the State government was trying to replicate the Gujarat model to disturb communal harmony and consolidate the votes of the majority community, Congress MLAs Rajendra Pareek and Rafiq Khan said the interference in the right to buy and sell property would promote corruption and disturb peaceful areas.
Veteran Congress leader and former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, though not present in the House, took to X to condemn the legislation. He described it as a divisive law brought in to hide political failures of the BJP. “It is extremely unfortunate that the BJP government wants to hurl a peaceful state like Rajasthan into the fire of hatred. Such a divisive law is reprehensible,” he said.
“The BJP’s core mantra remains ‘divide and rule’. They see neither the pain of the afflicted nor the needs of the poor and labourers. In their eyes, public welfare is not the goal; rather, the only goal is to divide society and seize power. The people in Rajasthan, who are watching this insensitivity, will give a fitting response when the time comes,” Gehlot said in a hard-hitting statement.
Civil rights groups in the state have strongly criticised the Bill, asking why it was being implemented in a peaceful State like Rajasthan to promote residential segregation by legal means. “The Bill is manifestly unconstitutional. It will lead to ghettoisation of minorities in urban areas,” the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) said in a statement.
PUCL president Kavita Srivastava said the rights groups would challenge the Bill, when it becomes an Act, in court on the grounds of its infringement of Article 19(1)(e) of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to reside and settle in any part of the country. Srivastava said the residential segregation would create suspicion and indifference for each other, undermining the constitutional principle of fraternity.
In Gujarat, the Muslim-dominated localities bordering Hindu-dominated areas are typically declared disturbed to prevent further inter-mixing via property transactions, as seen in its large cities, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, and Surat, and increasingly in smaller cities like Himmat Nagar, Khambhat, and Godhra, to name a few.
Muslims will especially be hit by this law, making it impossible for them to buy or sell land. They will be out of the property market, causing an economic blow to the community. The scenario of bureaucratic tape of getting sanction to sell, develop or even buy the property, will make it impossible for the ordinary people to make the transactions to meet their genuine needs.
