Karnataka Sections 79A and 79B: Who Can Legally Buy Agricultural Land

For decades, Karnataka answered the question "can I buy agricultural land here?" with another question: how much do you earn, and are you a farmer?

Sections 79A and 79B of the Karnataka Land Reforms Act, 1961 restricted agricultural land purchase to people below a non-agricultural income ceiling, and barred certain categories of entity from acquiring it at all. Both were repealed in 2020. Buyers still encounter the old rules constantly -- in advice from brokers, in older blog posts, and in the instincts of people who last transacted a decade ago.

Here is where the law actually stands, and what still constrains you.

What Section 79A did

Section 79A imposed an income test. A person whose non-agricultural income exceeded a statutory ceiling was disqualified from acquiring agricultural land in Karnataka. The threshold was raised over the years and was last set at ₹25 lakh of average annual non-agricultural income over five years before the amendment.

The practical effect was that salaried professionals, business owners and most urban buyers were formally ineligible. The section generated a large grey market of benami holdings, agreements to sell held unregistered for years, and purchases made in the names of agriculturist relatives -- arrangements that produce exactly the broken chains of title discussed in tracing ownership backwards.

What Section 79B did

Section 79B barred acquisition by entities that were not agriculturists -- including companies, associations, and institutions -- subject to specific exemptions for industrial use, educational and religious institutions, and land acquired by banks in recovery.

What the 2020 amendment changed

The Karnataka Land Reforms (Amendment) Act, 2020 -- preceded by an ordinance in July 2020 -- repealed Sections 79A, 79B and 79C outright. This was not a relaxation of the tests. The sections were removed.

The headline effect: the non-agricultural income test no longer disqualifies an individual buyer, and any Indian citizen may purchase agricultural land in Karnataka regardless of occupation or non-agricultural income. The repeal of 79B extended the opening to entities that the section had barred.

This was a genuine liberalisation, and it is why the market around Bangalore, Mysore and the Mandya-Mysore corridor changed character after 2020.

The position is politically contested, and that matters to a buyer. In September 2024 the state government announced an intention to restore Sections 79A and 79B. As of this writing no reinstating legislation has been enacted, so the open position still stands -- but it is not guaranteed to stay open, and anyone planning a purchase on a long timeline should confirm the current statutory position before committing rather than relying on the 2020 repeal holding indefinitely.

It also had a retrospective dimension for pending proceedings, which mattered enormously to buyers who had transacted in breach of the old sections and were facing land-grabbing or resumption proceedings. If you are buying land with a history of such proceedings, this is a question for a lawyer with the specific file in front of them, not for general reading.

What did not change

The amendment did not make Karnataka agricultural land unrestricted. Several constraints survive and they catch buyers who read only the headline.

Ceiling limits still apply. The Act continues to cap how much agricultural land a person or family unit may hold. The ceiling is expressed in standard acres and varies with land class and irrigation, and the 2020 amendment raised the limits rather than removing them. Holdings above the ceiling are liable to be declared surplus. See land ceiling limits by state for how this works in practice.

Grant land restrictions still apply. Land originally granted to members of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes remains subject to the PTCL Act, which restricts alienation and has been used to unwind sales long after the fact. A government grant in the mother deed is a stop-and-get-advice signal regardless of what the Land Reforms Act says.

Tenancy protections still apply. Recorded tenancy under the Act's earlier provisions is not extinguished by the repeal. This is why the cultivator and tenancy entries on the RTC remain among the most important fields on the document.

FEMA still applies to NRIs. The Karnataka amendment is state law about who is an eligible purchaser under state land reform legislation. It does not touch the central foreign exchange framework, which independently bars NRIs and OCI cardholders from purchasing agricultural land anywhere in India. An NRI is no more able to buy Karnataka farmland after 2020 than before. See what FEMA permits for NRIs.

Land use rules still apply. Being allowed to own agricultural land is not permission to build on it. That still requires NA conversion.

What this means for a buyer today

If you are a resident Indian individual with non-agricultural income, you can buy agricultural land in Karnataka. The old workarounds -- buying in a relative's name, holding on an unregistered agreement, delaying registration -- are now unnecessary, and they were always expensive in title risk.

If you are acquiring through a company, a trust or an institution, take advice on your specific entity type before committing. The repeal of Section 79B removed the bar that section imposed, but entity purchases still interact with ceiling limits, with the rules on what the land may be used for, and with the restoration question above.

If you are buying land that was transacted before 2020 in circumstances that would have breached the old sections, get the history examined. The amendment helps, but the condition of the title depends on what proceedings were initiated and where they stand.

One caution. Land law changes, and state amendments are litigated. Everything here describes the position as amended in 2020; confirm the current text and any subsequent amendment or judicial ruling with a Karnataka property lawyer before you transact. This guide orients you -- it does not replace an opinion on your specific parcel.

Next steps

Work the verification sequence in order: the RTC, the Encumbrance Certificate, the chain of title, then stamp duty and registration.

The practical walkthrough is the Karnataka farmland buying guide, and the wider documentation picture is in understanding land titles in India.

Browse eligible listings: farmland near Mysore, agricultural land around Belgaum, or farmland near Shimoga.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Land laws and eligibility rules vary by Indian state and change over time -- verify current requirements with a local property lawyer before making any purchase decision.