Legal concerns for tea estates: Assam tea companies seek clarity on amended Land Ceiling Act; Warn of potential financial and legal complications

Guwahati: Tea companies have urged the Assam government to address financial and legal implications for estate owners for the implementation of the amended Land Ceiling Act, under which land rights will be granted to workers to build houses within the garden areas, planters said.

The tea garden owners welcomed the government initiative but sought discussion to "iron out difficulties that may arise in granting land ownership to labourers within estates", an industry source said.

The garden owners are not opposed to transferring the labour quarters' land to the workers, but the apprehensions and legal challenges have to be addressed, he said.

"The government should discuss the issues that have been brought to the fore by tea companies for implementing the new law. That is our only request," the planter said.

The Consultative Committee of Plantation Associations (CCPA), an umbrella body of tea producers' organisations, has already written to the state government over the challenges in providing land rights within the estate areas to the workers on a permanent basis.

CCPA member Tea Association of India (TAI) president Sandeep Singhania has also stressed on the discussion with the companies over the issues concerning the new law.

The state assembly had, in November, passed the Assam Fixation of Ceiling of Land Holdings (Amendment) Act, 2025, which will enable the government to distribute land in tea estates' labour lines among the workers for housing.

Assam has 825 tea estates, and the area under labour colonies is around 2,18,553 bighas (72,248 acres), with over 14 lakh people to be benefited by the Act.

The CCPA, in a letter to the Assam chief secretary, pointed out that employers are obligated to provide housing facilities to the tea garden workers legally, and till such time that this provision exists, land in labour lines will have to be retained by the management.

It said that the construction of PMAY houses in labour lines is allowed through a no-objection certificate (NOC) provided by the garden management, but it does not entail the transfer of ownership.

The association added that the NOC was prepared by the state's labour department in close coordination with the tea industry in accordance with decisions of a meeting in December 2017.

The CCPA also mentioned that at the time of the introduction of the Assam Panchayat Act in Tea Gardens in 1994, the state government had considered the "significance of contiguity and compactness of tea garden lands and thus judiciously left this aspect undisturbed".

The planters' body also underlined that in many cases, the standing assets on tea garden lands are mortgaged with the banks, and as such, concurrence of the banks concerned is necessary for any dilution of the mortgaged security.

Distribution of 'patta' will confer "heritable and transferable rights by the dint of which sale or purchase of such lands cannot be prevented, which could lead to various problems in the future", the CCPA said.

The association had sought that for implementing the new act, management of tea gardens must be "appropriately compensated for the land, and that it be absolved from any responsibility of providing welfare facilities" in the areas to be acquired for distribution of 'patta'.

Singhania, in his speech at the 50th Biennial General Meeting of the planters' body, had also pointed out that for the majority of the companies, tea garden land is pledged as collateral to banks, and "any transfer of this land would create financial and legal complications".

He also said that the Land Ceiling Act pertains to land, not structures, and compensation for company-built assets, such as labour quarters, etc., would need to be addressed separately.

"The tea estate management needs to be adequately compensated under the provisions of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013," he added.

The TAI president also mentioned that the Plantations Labour Act 1951, which is now subsumed into the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, a central law, mandates to provide houses and other amenities to workers.

"The state-level action on land distribution does not absolve management from these statutory obligations. Unless the present Act is amended, managements would remain responsible for housing, even after the land is transferred," he maintained.

Singhania urged the Assam government to address these issues before going ahead with implementing the amended Land Ceiling Act in the tea garden areas.

On Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's warning to tea garden owners that incentives given to them by the state government could be withdrawn if they oppose granting land rights to their workers, the industry source said it would be "wrong to link the two".

"The incentives are under different schemes, duly notified by the state government. We don't see how the Land Ceiling Act can be linked with it if the tea gardens fulfil the eligibility requirements to get the benefits," he added.

Sarma, during a press interaction on New Year's Day, had said that the state government gives incentives of around Rs 150 crore annually to the gardens, and "we will definitely reconsider this if they think of going to court or create hurdles along the way".

The CM claimed that the land acquisition process had begun and the labourers would be given ownership rights.