LARR Act, 2013

In 2013, Parliament replaced a 119-year-old colonial land law with one basic idea: pay people fairly, and tell them why. In September 2026, the Supreme Court was still using that same idea to fix old, unfair compensation deals.

What Does the LARR Act, 2013 Actually Replace?

India acquired land under a single colonial-era law for over a century. That changed on 1 January 2014.

• Its full name is the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. Most people just call it LARR. It took effect on 1 January 2014.
• LARR replaced the Land Acquisition Act, 1894. That colonial-era law gave the state broad power to take land. It offered weak compensation, and no duty to rehabilitate anyone.
• LARR now requires a mandatory Social Impact Assessment (SIA) before any large land deal. It studies who will be displaced, and how badly.

What Compensation and Consent Does LARR Guarantee?

LARR’s biggest change was simple: pay people more, and ask them first. It set fixed multipliers and consent thresholds for the first time.

• LARR sets fair compensation at up to 4 times market value in rural areas, and up to 2 times in urban areas.
• For purely private projects, the Act needs 80% consent from affected landowners. For public-private partnership (PPP) projects, it needs 70% consent.
• Beyond cash, LARR also requires Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) support. This means new housing, job or livelihood help, and infrastructure at the new site.

When Does Section 24 Make an Old Land Award Lapse?

LARR didn’t just look forward. Section 24 reaches back into old, unfinished acquisitions too.

• Section 24 gives LARR retrospective reach. An old acquisition can lapse under two conditions, both required together.
• First, the award must be 5 or more years old, counted before LARR’s 1 January 2014 start date.
• Second, either compensation stayed unpaid, or the state never took physical possession of the land.
• If both conditions hold, the acquisition lapses. It must restart from scratch, under LARR’s own, more generous terms. This has made Section 24 one of India’s most heavily litigated land provisions.

Which Laws Were Exempted From LARR, and What Happened to Them?

LARR didn’t apply to every acquisition from day one. Thirteen older laws kept their own, often weaker, rules.

• At first, 13 other laws stayed exempt from LARR. These included the National Highways Act, 1956, and the Railways Act, 1989.
• A 2015 notification brought those 13 laws’ compensation and R&R terms in line with LARR. On paper, landowners under any of them now get similar benefits.
• If acquired land stays unused for 5 years, LARR requires it to return to the original owners, or to a land bank.
• A separate 2015 Amendment Bill tried to ease LARR’s consent and SIA rules for some project types. It stalled in the Rajya Sabha and was allowed to lapse.
• The government also issued three ordinances: in December 2014, April 2015, and May 2015. Each let five project categories skip SIA and consent rules. Parliament never passed any of them into law. All three lapsed by August 2015.

Can a State Bypass LARR Using Its Own Older Laws?

Land sits on the Concurrent List, so both Parliament and state legislatures can make land laws. That opened a real route around LARR.

• Article 254(2) of the Constitution covers a Concurrent List subject like land. It lets a state law override a central law there, once the President gives assent.
• Gujarat, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu are among the states that used this route. They exempted projects like industrial corridors and defence land from LARR’s own consent and SIA rules.
• In June 2021, the Supreme Court upheld Tamil Nadu’s move to revive its own older land laws this way. The Court held that once presidential assent is obtained, any conflict with LARR is cured, and the state law stands.
• This ruling matters for every state doing the same. With the President’s assent, a state can use its own, often less generous, rules instead of LARR’s.

Is the Right to Property a Fundamental Right in India?

LARR’s whole compensation duty rests on one constitutional guarantee. That guarantee is not what most people assume.

• Since the 44th Amendment, 1978, the right to property is not a fundamental right in India. It is a legal right, under Article 300A.
• Article 300A applies to any person, not just citizens. The state can still take property, but only through a fair legal process, and with compensation.
• LARR’s whole compensation and rehabilitation structure exists to carry out this Article 300A duty. A question may wrongly call it a “fundamental right” instead. That’s the trap.

What Has the Supreme Court Ruled on Land Compensation in 2026?

2026 brought two separate rulings, both reinforcing LARR’s core idea. Pay fairly, no matter which old law acquired the land.

• On 25 March 2026, the Supreme Court dismissed a review petition in the long-running Tarsem Singh case. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had filed it. It had earlier ruled on landowners whose land was taken under the National Highways Act, between 1997 and 2015. They were owed solatium and interest. The Act itself had denied them both.
• On 29 September 2026, the Court ruled on a case called Surinder Ahuja v. State of Punjab. Land across six villages in Fazilka district, Punjab, had been taken for the Aspal Extension Drain. The Court restored a uniform market value of ₹5,00,000 per acre for all of it. It also revived severance charges at 50% of the remaining unacquired land’s value. This reversed a lower, graded rate set earlier by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
• Neither ruling applied LARR directly. Both acquisitions ran under older, separate laws. But both show courts holding every land law to LARR-style fair-compensation standards.