When the UP Revenue Code, 2006 (U.P. Act No. 8 of 2012) came into force on 11 February 2016, it consolidated the State's land-tenure law and collapsed the old hierarchy of tenures into four classes under Section 74. At the apex sit the two grades of bhumidhar - with transferable and with non-transferable rights - who together hold the bulk of agricultural land in Uttar Pradesh. The bhumidhar is not an absolute owner: the corpus of the soil remains with the State and what vests in the holder is a permanent, heritable usufruct hedged by statutory rights and liabilities. This article maps those rights and liabilities provision-by-provision, from exclusive possession under Section 79 to devolution under Section 108, with verified case law throughout. For the foundational tenure scheme, read alongside the definitions of land, bhumidhar and asami and the UP Revenue Code hub.
The Two Classes of Bhumidhar
Section 74 of the Code recognises only four classes of tenure holder: bhumidhar with transferable rights, bhumidhar with non-transferable rights, asami, and Government lessee. The first two are the only grades that carry the dignity of bhumidhari. Section 75 declares that a person is a bhumidhar with transferable rights if he was such immediately before the commencement of the Code, or acquires those rights afterwards under the Code or any other law in force - and that he "shall have all the rights and be subject to all the liabilities conferred or imposed upon such bhumidhar by or under this Code." Section 76 defines the inferior grade, the bhumidhar with non-transferable rights, by reference to five classes: pre-existing non-transferable holders; persons admitted by the Bhumi Prabandhak Samiti; allottees under the UP Bhoodan Yagna Act, 1952; allottees under the UP Imposition of Ceiling on Land Holdings Act, 1960; and persons otherwise acquiring such rights under any law. The practical significance of the divide is captured by the formula repeated in both sections - identical rights and identical liabilities except the power of transfer, which Section 88 confers on the transferable bhumidhar alone. For how these terms are statutorily fixed, see the definitions article.
Upgrading: From Non-Transferable to Transferable Rights
The Code does not freeze the inferior grade permanently; it provides an automatic ladder upward. Section 76(2) declares that a person who was a bhumidhar with non-transferable rights immediately before the commencement of the Code, and had held that status for ten years or more, became a bhumidhar with transferable rights on the very commencement of the Code. Section 76(3) carries the principle forward: every non-transferable bhumidhar at or after commencement ripens into a transferable bhumidhar on the expiry of the prescribed period of holding. The ten-year qualifying period is the load-bearing figure - aspirants should resist the common error (repeated in some commercial guides) that the period is five years. Section 76(4) attaches a penalty to abuse of this upgrade: a holder who, having become a transferable bhumidhar, sells the land thereby acquired forfeits eligibility for any future lease of land vested in the Gram Sabha, the State Government, or surplus land under the 1960 Ceiling Act. The upgrade thus rewards genuine cultivation while denying the land-flipper a second bite at State largesse.
Right to Exclusive Possession and Use
The cardinal right of a bhumidhar is exclusive possession. Section 79(1) gives the transferable bhumidhar "the right to exclusive possession of all land of which he is such a bhumidhar and to use it for any purpose whatsoever" - agriculture, residence, industry or otherwise. Section 79(2) is narrower for the non-transferable bhumidhar: his exclusive possession is confined to use "for any purpose connected with agriculture." This distinction is not cosmetic. Section 85(1) makes a non-transferable bhumidhar who uses his holding in contravention of Section 79 liable to ejectment on the suit of the Gram Sabha, and Section 86 extinguishes all his rights, interest and improvements in the holding on such ejectment. The transferable bhumidhar enjoys the wider liberty because the Code treats his estate as the most secure form of holding, in which only the usufruct - not the corpus, which remains with the State - is vested in him. The asami, by contrast, gets exclusive possession under Section 84 but solely for agricultural purposes and never over land set apart for taungya plantation.
Declaring Land for Non-Agricultural Use
A transferable bhumidhar who wishes to put his land to industrial, commercial or residential use must regularise it. Section 80 empowers the Sub-Divisional Officer, suo motu or on the bhumidhar's application, to declare that a holding (or a demarcated part) is used for a purpose unconnected with agriculture, horticulture or animal husbandry - the last expression expressly including pisciculture and poultry farming. Section 80(4) bars the declaration where the proposed use is likely to cause a public nuisance, or adversely affect public order, health, safety or convenience, or run against the master plan. The consequences in Section 81 are sweeping: all transfer restrictions in Chapter IX cease to apply; the land is exempted from land revenue from the next agricultural year; and - critically - the bhumidhar's devolution is thereafter governed by his personal law rather than the Code's statutory order of succession in Section 108. Section 82 allows the SDO to cancel the declaration if the land reverts to agricultural use, whereupon revenue liability, transfer restrictions and statutory devolution all revive. Section 83 requires every declaration or cancellation to be entered in the record of rights.
Transferability of Interest and the Ceiling Limit
Section 88(1) declares the interest of a transferable bhumidhar to be transferable, subject to the Code; Section 88(2) declares the interest of a non-transferable bhumidhar or an asami to be non-transferable save where the Code expressly provides otherwise. The central fetter on the transferable bhumidhar is the ceiling. Section 89(2) prohibits any person from acquiring by purchase or gift any holding from a transferable bhumidhar where, as a result, the transferee's family holding would exceed 5.04 hectares in Uttar Pradesh. Section 89(3) carves out a public-interest exception: the State Government may, by general or special order, authorise acquisition above the ceiling for a charitable or industrial purpose in favour of a registered society, company, corporation, or educational or charitable institution, in which case the 1960 Ceiling Act will not apply. Section 90 adds a nationality bar - no person other than an Indian citizen may acquire land by sale, gift or any transfer of possession without the State Government's prior written permission, the Explanation extending "Indian citizen" to bodies substantially owned or controlled by citizens. Section 93 deems any transfer of possession to secure a loan or interest to be a sale, attracting Section 89.
Lease, Mortgage and Exchange
The Code is restrictive on letting. Section 94 bars any bhumidhar or asami from leasing his holding except as permitted by Sections 95 or 96, or to a recognised educational institution imparting instruction in agriculture. Section 95 is the disability exception: a bhumidhar or asami holding from a Gram Sabha may lease for up to three years at a time if he is disabled - the enumerated classes including the mentally ill or retarded, the physically infirm, a deity or waqf, a widow or unmarried woman, a deserted or judicially separated married woman, a minor, a student below 25, a serviceman, a government servant, or a detenu. Section 96 lets a disabled co-sharer lease his own share. Section 97 requires a lease exceeding one year to be made by registered instrument or in the prescribed manner. On mortgage, Section 91 prohibits any usufructuary mortgage by a bhumidhar - no mortgage in which possession passes to the mortgagee. Section 92 permits the non-transferable bhumidhar a simple (without-possession) mortgage to secure a loan from the State, a bank, a co-operative society, the U.P. State Agro Industrial Corporation, or a State-controlled financial institution. Exchange is governed by Section 101: no bhumidhar may exchange land with another bhumidhar or with Gram-Sabha land without the SDO's prior written permission, which Section 101(2) requires the SDO to refuse where the exchange is not needed for consolidation or cultivation convenience, where valuations differ by more than ten per cent or areas by more than twenty-five per cent, or where the land lies in a non-adjacent village.
Special Restrictions on Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Bhumidhars
To prevent distress alienation, the Code fetters transfers by bhumidhars belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Section 98(1) provides that no Scheduled Caste bhumidhar may transfer land outside the limits of a development authority - by sale, gift, mortgage or lease - to a person not belonging to a Scheduled Caste "except with the previous permission of the Collector in writing," with a proviso barring permission where the transferor would be left holding less than 1.265 hectares in Uttar Pradesh. Section 99 imposes a stricter, near-absolute bar on Scheduled Tribe bhumidhars transferring to non-tribals. Section 100 carves out a narrow facility: an SC or ST bhumidhar or asami may, notwithstanding any other provision, create a mortgage without possession to secure a loan from the State Government or an institution referred to in Section 92. In Omwati v. District Collector, Pilibhit, 2022 SCC OnLine All 764, the Allahabad High Court held that the grounds on which a Collector may grant or refuse permission under Section 98 are exhaustively fixed by the proviso to Section 98(1) read with Rule 99(8) of the U.P. Revenue Code Rules, 2016; importing extraneous conditions, such as a Gram Pradhan's certificate, rendered the exercise of discretion ultra vires and invalid, and the matter was remitted for a fresh order on the statutory criteria alone.
Lands Where Bhumidhari Rights Cannot Accrue
Section 77 is a vital negative limit on the very acquisition of bhumidhari rights. Notwithstanding anything in the Code or any other law, no person can acquire the rights of a bhumidhar in certain lands: a khaliyan, manure pit, pasture land, or land normally used as a burial or cremation ground; land covered by water and used to grow singhara; land in a riverbed used for casual cultivation; notified tracts of shifting cultivation; land set apart for taungya plantation; land entrusted to a Gram Sabha or local authority under Section 59; sullage farms and trenching grounds; land held for a public purpose or work of public utility; and land covered by a pond, tank, lake, embankment, bandh or bhita. The Explanation widens "public purpose" to include military camping grounds, railway and canal land, and land reserved by a Gram Sabha for public utility. The Supreme Court reaffirmed this principle for the cognate provision in Babu Singh v. Consolidation Officer, 2026 INSC 395, holding that Section 132 of the UP Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act, 1950 - the predecessor of Section 77 - expressly prohibits conferment of bhumidhari rights on public utility lands such as pasture land and khalihan, and that administrative reclassification cannot circumvent that legislative bar, rendering any pattas granted on such land void from inception.
Liabilities: Consequences of Transfer in Contravention
The bhumidhar's liabilities crystallise most sharply where he transgresses the transfer restrictions. Section 104 makes every transfer of interest made by a bhumidhar or asami in contravention of the Code void, except as saved by Section 103. The saving in Section 103 governs unlawful leases: a lessee under a lease contravening Sections 94 to 96 (or Section 99) becomes a bhumidhar with non-transferable rights if his total family holding does not exceed 5.04 hectares, but is treated as a purchaser - attracting Section 89 - if it exceeds that ceiling. Where Section 103 does not save the transaction, Section 105 imposes the harshest liability: on a void transfer by a bhumidhar, the subject land, together with trees, crops, wells and improvements, vests in the State Government free of all encumbrances; the interests of both transferor and transferee are extinguished; and any asami holding under the transferor loses his interest too. Section 105(2) empowers the Collector to evict occupants of the vested land, using such force as necessary. For an asami, Section 106 visits the milder consequence of liability to ejectment on the suit of the Gram Sabha or land holder. Section 87 separately provides that while a bhumidhar may make improvements for cultivation, he cannot remove or appropriate them once his interest is extinguished under the Code.
Devolution: Bequest and Statutory Succession
The bhumidhar's interest is heritable, and the Code governs its transmission on death. Section 107(1) permits a transferable bhumidhar to bequeath his interest by will, but Section 107(2) subjects an SC or ST transferable bhumidhar's bequest to the same Sections 98 and 99 restrictions that apply to lifetime transfers - so the curbs on distress alienation cannot be defeated by testament. Section 107(3) requires every such will to be in writing, attested by two witnesses and registered, overriding any contrary custom or usage. Crucially, Section 107(4) denies the power of testamentary disposition altogether to a non-transferable bhumidhar or an asami, and Section 107(5) makes any bequest in contravention void. Where there is no valid will, Section 108 lays down the statutory order of succession to a male bhumidhar or asami: heirs in any one clause take simultaneously and in equal shares, heirs in a preceding clause exclude those in succeeding clauses, multiple widows together take a single share, and the enumerated relatives descend through a defined hierarchy. The one escape from the statutory order is the Section 80 declaration: once land is declared for non-agricultural use, Section 81(c) substitutes the holder's personal law for the Code's order of devolution. See also the treatment of how such changes reach the village papers through mutation procedure.
Liabilities for Land Revenue and on Default
Beyond transfer, the bhumidhar's standing liability is to pay land revenue, and the Code attaches graded penalties to its avoidance and to inaction. Where a bhumidhar with transferable rights, or one with non-transferable rights, fails to file a suit for ejectment of a trespasser under Section 134 within limitation - or fails to execute a decree so obtained - Section 135 visits a penalty on the holding: the person taking or retaining possession of a transferable bhumidhar's land becomes a bhumidhar with non-transferable rights, and in the case of a non-transferable bhumidhar's land becomes a like non-transferable bhumidhar, in each case liable to pay land revenue at double the pre-existing rate. The doubling of revenue is the Code's device to discourage passive tolerance of encroachment. Read together, Sections 134 and 135 show that bhumidhari rights are not merely defensive entitlements but carry an affirmative duty to protect possession; a bhumidhar who sleeps on his remedy may find both his grade downgraded in the encroacher and his revenue burden raised. These liabilities operate against the wider machinery of assessment and collection administered by the revenue officers under the Code.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a bhumidhar with transferable rights and one with non-transferable rights?
Both have identical rights and liabilities under Sections 75 and 76 except the power of transfer. Under Section 79, a transferable bhumidhar may use the land for any purpose whatsoever and may transfer it under Section 88(1), while a non-transferable bhumidhar may use the land only for agriculture and his interest is non-transferable under Section 88(2).
How does a bhumidhar with non-transferable rights become a bhumidhar with transferable rights?
Under Section 76(2), a person who held non-transferable rights for ten years or more immediately before the Code's commencement became a transferable bhumidhar on commencement (11 February 2016); Section 76(3) extends the same upgrade on completion of the qualifying period. The period is ten years, not five. Section 76(4) bars a holder who then sells from claiming future Gram-Sabha or surplus-land leases.
Can a Scheduled Caste bhumidhar sell his land to a non-Scheduled Caste person?
Only with the Collector's previous written permission under Section 98(1), and never if it would leave the transferor with less than 1.265 hectares. In Omwati v. District Collector, Pilibhit, 2022 SCC OnLine All 764, the Allahabad High Court held that the grounds for permission are exhaustively fixed by the proviso to Section 98(1) read with Rule 99(8), and importing extraneous conditions is ultra vires.
Can bhumidhari rights be acquired over pasture land or a cremation ground?
No. Section 77 bars acquisition of bhumidhari rights in khaliyan, manure pits, pasture land, burial or cremation grounds, public-utility land and similar categories. In Babu Singh v. Consolidation Officer, 2026 INSC 395, the Supreme Court held under the cognate Section 132 of the UPZALR Act, 1950 that such public-utility lands cannot be converted by administrative reclassification, and pattas granted on them are void from inception.
Can a bhumidhar mortgage his holding?
Section 91 prohibits any usufructuary mortgage by a bhumidhar - one where possession passes to the mortgagee. Section 92 allows a non-transferable bhumidhar a simple mortgage to secure a loan from the State, a bank, a co-operative society or specified institutions, and Section 100 extends a similar without-possession mortgage facility to SC/ST bhumidhars and asamis. Section 93 deems a transfer of possession to secure a loan to be a sale.
What happens if a bhumidhar transfers land in contravention of the Code?
Section 104 makes the transfer void (except as saved by Section 103 for certain leases). Under Section 105 the land, with its trees, crops, wells and improvements, vests in the State Government free of encumbrances, the interests of transferor, transferee and any asami under them are extinguished, and the Collector may evict occupants. An asami making a void transfer is liable to ejectment under Section 106.