The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh is considering bringing a special law to give statutory backing to action against those identified as “bhu mafia” (land mafia), on the lines of the Gangsters Act or the Goonda Act, or alternatively incorporating a full dedicated chapter on land grabbers in any of the related existing special laws, officials in the know of the development said.
The move follows the Allahabad high court questioning the legal basis for the state branding individuals as “bhu mafia” in the absence of any specific statutory provision authorising such a designation.
The State Law Commission is now believed to be working on the contours of a legal framework that would define the term “bhu mafia” and specify the circumstances and procedure under which a person could be so designated and legally proceeded against.
Sources said a series of meetings involving senior officials of the revenue, law and prosecution departments and chaired by the chief secretary have been held on the issue since the high court order in February this year.
The last meeting at the end of July reached a broad agreement on the need for a specific legal framework. At present, around 1500 individuals are listed in official records as “bhu mafia” in Uttar Pradesh with the administration taking legal action to get encroached land freed from their possession, according to a senior revenue department official. “The proposed legislation could determine the legal consequences of such identification and lay down safeguards and procedures for action against them,” he said.
Principal secretary (law) Udai Pratap Singh, acknowledged that the state government was working with the State Law Commission to provide a legal definition to the term “bhu mafia”.
{{/usCountry}}Principal secretary (law) Udai Pratap Singh, acknowledged that the state government was working with the State Law Commission to provide a legal definition to the term “bhu mafia”.
{{/usCountry}}“The state government, along with the state law commission, is working to define the term ‘bhu mafia’. We will define bhu mafia in our context, as the court has questioned how the government declares a person as ‘bhu mafia’ without the term being defined in the law,” he said.
The issue came into sharp focus in February this year when the Allahabad high court stayed the declaration of a petitioner, Banvari Lal, as ‘bhu mafia’ and sought an explanation from the state on the legal framework backing such a classification.
In Banvari Lal vs State of UP and Others, a division bench of Justice Ashwini Kumar Mishra and Justice Donadi Ramesh noted that the petitioner had challenged his classification despite the encroachment proceedings against him having been closed in 2020. The petitioner also questioned the statutory basis of the May 1, 2017 government order under which the Anti-Bhu Mafia Task Force was set up. The court directed the state to file a counter-affidavit explaining the legal basis for declaring an individual as “bhu mafia”.
Director-general, prosecution, Lalit Mudgal said, “A clear definition of the term ‘bhu mafia’ will certainly help the government identify land grabbers and successfully prosecute them in courts.”He believed that inserting a separate chapter on ‘bhu mafia’ in any of the relevant existing Acts could suffice.