Buying Land in Mumbai

Who may buy agricultural land: Section 63 of the Maharashtra Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act makes a sale, gift, exchange or lease of agricultural land invalid in favour of a person who is not an agriculturist. It also bites where an agriculturist buyer would end up holding more than two-thirds of the ceiling area (Indian Kanoon text of section 63). The Collector, or an officer the State authorises, can permit a transaction on conditions, but not where the buyer would farm the land and has other income of Rs 12,000 a year or more, according to the same text. In Gundaji Satwaji Shinde v. Ramchandra Bhikaji Joshi (Supreme Court, December 1978) the Court held that whether a buyer is an agriculturist is for the Mamlatdar, not the civil court (Manupat case guide). On 8 July 2026 the Revenue Minister told the Assembly that only recognised farmers may buy agricultural land and that buyers must show proof of farmer status; IANS named no new statute (IANS, July 2026).

Where the bar does not apply: Maharashtra Act I of 2016 inserted sub-section (1C), which switches off the bar for land inside a Municipal Corporation, subject to conditions: non-agricultural use within a fixed time, with the Collector able to extend by up to five years (Acts of 2016 and 2018, PRS). Section 63-1A separately lets a buyer, farmer or not, take land for bona fide industrial use without prior Collector permission (Indian Kanoon text of section 63-1A). The Maharashtra Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Laws (Amendment) Act, 2026, effective 15 April 2026, narrows that route to occupancy class-I land, replaces the old non-agricultural assessment and nazarana with a one-time conversion premium under section 47 of the Land Revenue Code, and caps the penalty for late notice at five times that premium (JSA, June 2026). JSA describes no change to the general bar in section 63(1).

Tenant-purchased land and wills: Land a tenant bought under the Act cannot be sold, gifted, mortgaged or leased without the Collector’s prior sanction. After ten years the sanction falls away if the seller pays nazarana of forty times the assessment, the buyer is an agriculturist and the buyer stays within the ceiling (Indian Kanoon text of section 43). The 2026 amendment deletes the nazarana (JSA, June 2026). A will does not get round the bar: in Vinodchandra Sakarlal Kapadia v. State of Gujarat (15 June 2020) the Supreme Court read “assignment” in section 43 to include a bequest to a non-agriculturist (LiveLaw, June 2020; Supreme Court judgment). That appeal came from Gujarat, which applies the same 1948 statute, and the Court disapproved an earlier ruling under the separate Vidarbha Act. Marathwada and Vidarbha run on parallel Acts that the 2026 amendment also touches.

Fragmentation and minimum plot size: The Maharashtra Prevention of Fragmentation and Consolidation of Holdings Act, 1947 restricts sales of land below a notified standard area. A notification of 8 August 2023 set it, outside municipal corporation and council limits, at about a quarter acre for bagayat (irrigated) land and half an acre for jirayat (dry-crop) land, which is roughly 10 and 20 gunthas on our arithmetic of 40 gunthas to the acre (Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas via Conventus Law). The 2024 amendment moved the regularisation window to 15 October 2024 at a premium of up to 5%. A further Act notified on 31 December 2025, deemed in force from 3 November 2025, deletes the proviso to section 8B and adds section 9(4): past transfers and partitions from 15 November 1965 to 15 October 2024 are regularised without premium where the land is used for bona fide non-agricultural purposes inside listed urban, planning-authority, cantonment and regional-plan zones (TeamLease RegTech; Bill text, PRS). The bill did not change the standard area or the general restrictions. In July 2025 the Revenue Minister said plots up to one guntha subdivided before 1 January 2025 would be treated as legal, and a committee was set up the following week (The Week, July 2025; The Week, July 2025). Plain farm land outside those zones is still bound by the standard area.

Non-agricultural conversion: The Maharashtra Land Revenue Code (Second Amendment) Act, 2025, notified on 31 December 2025, substituted section 42. The Collector’s permission is no longer needed to use agricultural land for a purpose that a draft or final Development Plan or Regional Plan allows; the planning authority’s development permission or building plan approval is enough, and sections 42A to 42D, 44 to 46 and the old assessment chapter were deleted (JSA, March 2026). The yearly non-agricultural assessment gives way to a one-time premium under section 47 on the Ready Reckoner value: 0.1% up to 1,000 sq m, 0.25% from 1,000 to 4,000 sq m and 0.5% above 4,000 sq m. A government resolution of 10 February 2026 implements the change (Khaitan & Co, February 2026). Neither note says the reform alters section 63, so our reading is that a non-farmer still cannot buy agricultural land first and convert it afterwards.

Ceiling on holdings: The Maharashtra Agricultural Lands (Ceiling on Holdings) Act, 1961 caps what one family unit may hold, from 18 acres of assured-irrigation land to 54 acres of other dry-crop land in a 2011 summary (Bombay Chartered Accountant Journal, April 2011). Section 63 uses two-thirds of that ceiling as the test for a buyer who is already a farmer.

Tribal land: Where the seller belongs to a Scheduled Tribe, the sale also falls under the Land Revenue Code and the Restoration of Lands to Scheduled Tribes Act, 1974 (section 63-1A text). Ask for the seller’s status in writing.

Land records: Digitally signed 7/12 (record of rights), 8A (khata) and ferfar (mutation) extracts now carry legal validity under rules made under the Maharashtra Land Measurement and Record Keeping Act, 2025, with a QR code and a 16-digit verification number, no Talathi stamp and a fee of Rs 15 each (Free Press Journal, December 2025). About 2.57 crore signed 7/12 records existed by June 2024, and e-Mojani 2.0 handles measurement (Elets, February 2025). Read the occupancy class, the holder’s name and the land-use entry before paying a token.

NRI and OCI buyers: The Reserve Bank’s Master Direction lets NRIs and OCIs buy immovable assets in India but excludes agricultural land, plantation land and a farmhouse, and its inheritance paragraphs carry no such exclusion (RBI Master Direction FED 12/2015-16, updated to September 2022). A farmhouse plot is therefore out of reach by purchase, wherever it sits in Maharashtra. Anyone relying on a later circular should read it directly. We did not open the 2023 standard-area notification, the text of section 63A or the current ceiling schedule, so have an advocate check all three against the survey number.

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Status labels reflect sources read in October 2026. Government-announced timelines are not guaranteed; items marked reported rest on a single outlet.