Karnataka Land Reforms 2025: What Happened to the ₹25 Lakh Income Rule?

No. The ₹25 lakh income limit under Section 79A was removed when Karnataka repealed Sections 79A, 79B and 79C in 2020, and the Karnataka land reforms 2025 amendment did not bring it back.

This matters because many websites still repeat the old rule. If you have read that anyone earning more than ₹25 lakh from non-agricultural sources cannot buy farmland, that guidance is simply out of date. The agricultural land purchase rules in Karnataka now look very different, and the land-buying guide for Karnataka reflects the post-2020 position.

Under the Karnataka Land Reforms Act, Sections 79A and 79B, added in 1974, an individual or family with a large non-agricultural income could not acquire agricultural land, and non-cultivators, institutions, trusts and companies faced their own bar on holding it.

The income threshold changed over time. A 2015 amendment raised it from ₹2 lakh to ₹25 lakh. In 2020, the sections were repealed altogether. The government argued the provisions had been widely misused and had produced tens of thousands of cases over decades, and a 2014 committee reportedly found they enabled corruption.

The Karnataka Land Reforms and Certain Other Law (Amendment) Bill, 2025 was passed by the Assembly in August 2025 and reported cleared by the Council days later. Check the Gazette for the exact notification date. As reported, it does four things:

Allows up to two acres of agricultural land to be used for new MSMEs without a formal conversion process.

Removes the conversion requirement for renewable energy installations, on payment of the prescribed fee.

Reduces the penalty for selling agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes without conversion, from three years' imprisonment and a ₹10,000 fine to a ₹1 lakh fine.

Drops the jail term for failing to declare landholdings under Section 66.

A lower penalty does not make an unconverted sale safe. Conversion and zoning rules still decide what you can build.

Who can buy agri land in Karnataka now includes non-farmers. Guides describe the position as follows.

Maybe, but not yet. In September 2024, the Chief Minister announced the government's intention to restore Sections 79A and 79B. As of the latest reporting reviewed, no legislation reinstating them has passed or received the Governor's assent, and the proposal was still being pushed politically into late 2026.

The idea is contested. Supporters say it protects farmers from speculators. Critics say the sections were misused and hurt farmers' ability to sell at a fair price. If a restoration passes, it would most likely apply to future purchases, so keep good records of the date and basis of your purchase.

Buying is easier now, but there are still things that need to be checked before purchase, and that responsibility falls on you. Before you pay for an agricultural land purchase in Karnataka:

Pull the RTC (record of rights) and confirm the owner, extent and land type.

Check whether the land is already converted, and whether conversion is needed for your use.

Confirm the zoning in the master plan and any restrictions on use.

Review the ownership history for prior transfers, including any land granted to SC or ST holders, which carries PTCL protections independent of the 79A/79B repeal.

Check the landholding ceiling for you and your family.

Get an encumbrance certificate and a legal opinion on title.

Loosened buying rules do not loosen the due diligence, and that is exactly where 1acre is built to help on the land side.

Verified listings across Karnataka. Every parcel passes a preliminary verification process, so you compare real, available land. Browse Karnataka, or narrow to rural Bengaluru and Hassan, where agricultural parcels are common.

Survey numbers on a map. You can view a parcel on satellite with survey-number and corridor layers on the 1acre map, which is the fastest way to confirm the RTC matches the land and to spot whether a plot sits in an acquisition corridor.

Guides for the legal checks. The guide to buying land in Karnataka covers RTC, conversion, zoning and encumbrance, the exact steps that a relaxed income rule does not remove.

Used together, the listings, the map and the guides turn "can I buy?" into a short, verifiable checklist.

The ₹25 lakh rule is history, and the 2025 amendment is about conversion and penalties, not buyer eligibility. So ignore any guide that still cites the ₹25 lakh limit as current, and confirm your own eligibility first, especially if you are an NRI, OCI or institution. Then do the work the eased rules did not remove: check the RTC, conversion status and landholding ceiling, treat the lower penalty as no excuse to skip conversion, and watch for any bill to restore Sections 79A and 79B. Above all, get a lawyer's title opinion before you pay an advance.