Advocate Pawan Shukla
Uttar Pradesh’s Rural Population Records Bill, 2025, simplifies property documentation by decentralising updates and corrections. The reform aims to reduce disputes, strengthen law and order, and integrate with the state’s expanding digital land records system.
In many villages of Uttar Pradesh, ownership of homes and small plots has always been more than just a matter of bricks and soil. For years, families have lived in houses built by their fathers or grandfathers, yet the records in the tehsil office still carried the names of ancestors long gone. Whenever someone tried to update those records—after a death in the family, a sale, or even to fix a clerical error—the journey was long and exhausting. Queues at government offices stretched endlessly, middlemen demanded their share, and weeks of waiting often ended without results. Families who knew the property was theirs lived with the anxiety that on paper, their rights were unclear.
Such situations were common despite the government’s effort through the SVAMITVA scheme, launched in 2020, to use drones and digital mapping to provide villagers with gharauni—official ownership cards for their homes and plots. Over 1.06 crore gharauni have already been prepared in Uttar Pradesh, and more than 1.01 crore have been distributed, giving millions of villagers their first written proof of ownership. Yet a gap remained. The initial mapping solved the problem of identifying land parcels, but when life events required changes—inheritance, court orders, or corrections—the system slowed to a crawl.
The new Rural Population Records Bill, 2025, seeks to close that gap. Passed by the state cabinet earlier this year, it gives authority to local officers—revenue inspectors, tehsildars, and naib-tehsildars—to make corrections and updates in rural property documents. Where earlier villagers might wait months for a spelling correction or an inheritance entry, they can now approach the local office and have it resolved in days. This is more than an administrative reform; it reduces conflict within families and communities by ensuring that official records keep pace with reality.
Consider a family in central Uttar Pradesh where the eldest son took responsibility for maintaining the ancestral house after his father’s passing. Though the entire village accepted his role, the official document still carried the name of the grandfather, opening the door for distant relatives to question his right. For years, his applications for correction moved slowly through bureaucratic channels. Under the new Bill, he was finally able to present a death certificate and simple proof of inheritance at the local tehsil, and within weeks the record reflected the truth. For him, it was not just a matter of paperwork but of recognition and peace of mind. These changes illustrate how laws can touch the daily lives of people who rarely feature in policy debates.
Officials argue that the reform will also strengthen law and order. Property disputes are one of the biggest sources of rural tension, often escalating into prolonged litigation or even violence. When every household has access to an accurate, updated gharauni, those disputes lose their foundation. Villagers with clear documents can also access loans, government benefits, and services more easily, linking property security with economic opportunity.
The Bill complements the technological infrastructure already built under SVAMITVA. Drone mapping, digital registers, and unique parcel identification numbers have created a modern database. Online platforms now allow people to view their khatauni or lodge complaints against land encroachment. But technology needed a bridge to local realities, and the Bill provides that by ensuring records can be updated quickly without dependence on distant authorities.
Challenges remain. Not all villages have been fully surveyed, and awareness about the new procedures is uneven. Some rural areas still struggle with internet connectivity, and ensuring that local officers act transparently will require monitoring and training. There is also the risk of small-scale corruption shifting to the local level if accountability mechanisms are weak. Nonetheless, the direction is clear: bringing governance closer to the people is better than keeping it locked in files at district headquarters.
For rural families across Uttar Pradesh, the Bill represents something deeper than administrative efficiency. It brings dignity, security, and the assurance that their home—the place where generations have lived and worked—is legally recognised as theirs. Instead of fearing disputes or exploitation, they can now hold a document that reflects both tradition and the present.
The Rural Population Records Bill, 2025, may appear technical on the surface, but in reality it is a law about everyday justice. By removing uncertainty, speeding up corrections, and giving villagers direct access to updated records, it changes the story of rural property from one of conflict to one of clarity. Quietly, without fanfare, it is reshaping the relationship between law and the lives of ordinary people, ensuring that the foundation of every home rests not just on bricks and earth, but on rights securely recorded.
(The author is a State Law Officer at the High Court, Lucknow, and writes regularly on law, governance, and society)