Kargil procession protests Nautor land rules, revives concerns over land rights after 2020 law repeal

Kargil, KNT: A procession was taken out in Kargil on Wednesday against the proposed framework for regularization of Nautor land, bringing renewed focus on land rights in Ladakh and concerns over the long-term implications of changes made to the region’s land laws after it became a Union Territory.

The protest came amid public consultations on the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils (Nautor Regularization) Rules, 2026, under which the administration has proposed a mechanism for granting proprietary rights to eligible Nautor land holders and leasehold rights for land beyond the proposed ownership ceiling.

The draft rules state that more than 60,000 acres of land in Ladakh are recorded in revenue records as Mustaqil and Gair Mustaqil Nautor holdings. The administration says the framework is intended to provide legal certainty to genuine historical occupants and create a uniform process for regularization.

Under the proposed framework, eligible Nautor holders as per the news agency Kashmir News Trust may receive proprietary rights for holdings up to 10 acres, while land beyond that ceiling may be allotted on leasehold basis. The draft also provides for field verification, market-rate payments and restrictions on transfer and use of regularized land.

The rules use October 27, 2020, as the cut-off date for determining eligibility. The date corresponds to the repeal of the Jammu and Kashmir Tenancy Act, 1980, under the Union Territory’s adaptation of laws framework. The Tenancy Act was repealed as a whole in the 2020 order.

The repeal created a legal transition for Nautor holdings, with the new framework now seeking to provide a mechanism for regularizing eligible historical occupation. The draft rules themselves state that the absence of a clear and uniform framework had left holders of such land without a mechanism for securing legal certainty over their holdings.

The Kargil protest reflects apprehensions among sections of the population over what the new framework could mean for control and future use of land in the Union Territory. Critics, including the Kargil Democratic Alliance, have opposed major changes to Nautor and other land arrangements without wider democratic consultation and have warned that changes could eventually facilitate the entry of outside and corporate interests into Ladakh’s land market. These are concerns expressed by the critics and are not established consequences of the draft rules.

The administration, however, has maintained that the framework does not envisage monetization of Nautor land and is aimed at resolving long-pending tenancy and ownership issues involving genuine historical occupants. The Chief Secretary has said the final rules have not yet been notified and that valid suggestions from stakeholders would be considered before finalization.

The controversy has also revived discussion about the contrasting reactions to Ladakh’s creation as a Union Territory in 2019. Contemporary reports recorded celebrations in Leh following the August 5 announcement, while Kargil witnessed protests and opposition to the bifurcation and the loss of Jammu and Kashmir’s special constitutional arrangement.

In subsequent years, concerns over land, employment and political representation increasingly emerged in both Leh and Kargil, with the Leh Apex Body and Kargil Democratic Alliance eventually joining broader campaigns for constitutional safeguards and greater political powers for Ladakh.

The present Nautor dispute therefore goes beyond the question of regularizing individual land holdings. It has reopened a wider debate in Ladakh over who should control land, how historical rights should be protected and whether major changes to land policy should be finalized before an elected representative body for the Union Territory is established.

In Kargil, the administration has meanwhile begun village-level awareness camps on the draft rules. A public notice issued by the Tehsildar Kargil has scheduled 25 camps across 10 days from September 22 to October 2, inviting Nautor holders and other concerned villagers to submit questions and suggestions before the rules are finalized. [KNT]