Gauhati HC Directs District Commissioner to Decide Land-Transfer NOC Within 30 Days After Five-Month Delay

Gauhati High Court intervenes after a Section 21A NOC application for an inter-community land sale in Sribhumi sat unprocessed for over five months, breaching a statutory 30-day deadline.

The Gauhati High Court disposed of a writ petition on 22 July 2026 after finding that a No Objection Certificate application for the transfer of land in Sribhumi district, Assam, had remained unprocessed for more than five months — far exceeding the 30-day outer limit fixed by both Section 21A of the Registration Act, 1908, as amended in Assam, and a State-issued Standard Operating Procedure. Justice Manish Choudhury, sitting singly, directed the District Commissioner, Sribhumi, to bring the process to its conclusion within 30 days of the petitioners presenting a certified copy of the order at his office. The case turns on an unambiguous statutory deadline that the revenue authorities conceded had not been met.

The Land Sale and the NOC Requirement

The first two petitioners, Kartik Rabidas and Pannalal Rabidas, are the owners of a parcel of land covered by Dag nos. 705 and 703, Patta nos. 170 and 165, situated in Pargana – Prathapghar, Mouza – Rajabari, District Sribhumi, Assam. They agreed to sell a part of that land, measuring 8 Kathas, to the third petitioner, Abul Fayaz Md. Yehya, for an agreed consideration of Rs. 42,00,000.

Under Section 21A of the Registration Act, 1908, as amended by the Registration (Assam Amendment) Act, 2009 and further amended by the Registration (Assam Amendment) Act, 2021, no non-testamentary instrument relating to immovable property — subject to certain exceptions for houses, flats, and commercial structures — can be accepted for registration unless the jurisdictional Deputy Commissioner issues an NOC describing the property to be transferred. Other NOCs required under any law or executive instruction must also accompany the instrument.

The sale here involved buyers and sellers from different religious communities, which engaged the additional SOP procedure introduced by the Revenue and Disaster Management Department, Government of Assam, through a Notification dated 09.09.2025.

The Online Bar and the Offline Application

The petitioners attempted to file their NOC application through the SEWA SETU portal, the prescribed online route under the SOP. However, because an official survey operation for the concerned area had not yet been completed, the online facility was unavailable for that locality. The petitioners accordingly submitted a physical, offline application on 11.02.2026, receiving an acknowledgement recorded as Document no. 40A.

Both the Standing Counsel for the Revenue Department, Ms. N. Bordoloi, and the Junior Government Advocate, Mr. J. Handique, accepted before the Court that applications for that area must be submitted in offline mode given the online system's non-availability. There was no dispute about the validity of the offline submission.

The SOP for Inter-Religion Land Transfers

The Notification dated 09.09.2025 sets out a multi-step procedure specifically for land transfers where the buyer and seller belong to different religious communities. Under the SOP, the applicant files through the SEWA SETU portal with the District Commissioner. The District Commissioner collects a ground-level report from the concerned Circle Officer on the veracity of the details supplied. That report is forwarded to a Nodal Officer for Inter-Religion Land Sale Permission in the Revenue and Disaster Management Department.

The Nodal Officer then seeks a report from the Special Branch of Assam Police Headquarters on four specific points: whether the transfer could be under undue threat, coercion, or fraud; whether it has the propensity to disturb peace and communal harmony; whether it could pose a threat to national security; and the character and antecedent report of both buyer and seller. Once the Special Branch report reaches the Nodal Officer, it is forwarded to the District Commissioner, who then decides to issue the NOC, reject the proposal, or seek further clarification.

Clause 7 of the SOP mirrors the statutory provision: if an application is not disposed of within 30 days, the District Commissioner must issue a speaking order with reasons to the applicant within that same period.

The Statutory 30-Day Deadline

Section 21A, as it stands after the 2021 amendment, contains an explicit proviso requiring all NOCs to be issued within 30 days of receipt of the application. If an NOC is not issued within that period, the authority is obliged to issue a speaking order with reasons to the applicant — also within 30 days.

Justice Choudhury described this as a statutory mandate: the jurisdictional Deputy Commissioner must either grant the NOC or pass a reasoned speaking order within the prescribed window. Neither had been done. The application submitted on 11.02.2026 had not been processed to finality by the date of hearing — more than five months later. Both limbs of the statutory obligation had been left unfulfilled.

The Court observed that since the statutory prescription and the SOP both fix a 30-day outer limit, there was no basis to keep the writ petition pending. The appropriate course was to dispose of it with a clear direction rather than add the matter to the court's docket.

The Directions Issued

Justice Choudhury directed the District Commissioner, Sribhumi — the second respondent — to bring the entire NOC process to its conclusion in strict compliance with the statutory prescription, as expeditiously as possible, subject to an outer limit of 30 days from the date on which the petitioners submit a certified copy of this order at the District Commissioner's office.

The order also accounts for the possibility that the revenue authorities may find the application incomplete. If any further document is required from the petitioners, the District Commissioner must inform them in writing of the deficiency within 15 days of the certified copy being submitted. In that scenario, the 30-day period for final disposal is to be calculated from the date on which the petitioners supply the missing documents, not from the date of the order.

No costs were awarded.

Outcome

WP(C)/3735/2026 was disposed of on 22 July 2026. The District Commissioner, Sribhumi, is directed to finalise the NOC application filed on 11.02.2026 within 30 days of the petitioners producing a certified copy of the order. If documents are found deficient, a written deficiency notice must follow within 15 days, and the 30-day disposal clock then runs from the date those deficiencies are cured.