SRINAGAR: The Jammu Kashmir government has said that the long-pending implementation of the policy on Gair Mumkin Khad — lands recorded as water bodies in revenue records — remains under process, with the crucial delineation and demarcation exercise yet to begin formally, as a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with national agencies is still under finalisation.
In a written reply to an unstarred question (No. 330) by legislator Sham Lal Sharma, the Revenue Department said that the issue of Gair Mumkin Khad lands has remained entangled in legal and procedural complexities since 2014, when the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, in Balbir Singh vs State and Others, ordered an interim stay on construction activity over water bodies and lands recorded as Khad. The case was disposed of in February 2016, with directions to the government to frame a comprehensive water policy.
The Jammu Kashmir Water Policy and Plan was subsequently notified through SRO 456 on October 25, 2017. Clause 5.2 of the policy required the segregation of Khads that are part of active watercourses from those that are not, assigning the responsibility for delineation and demarcation to the Irrigation & Flood Control Department and the Revenue Department.
Following these directions, the government, through Administrative Council Decision No. 171/11/2022 dated January 29, 2022, issued a detailed procedure for demarcating lands that are recorded as Gair Mumkin Khad, Gair Mumkin Darya, or Gair Mumkin Nallah but do not actually form part of any natural watercourse. The Revenue Department constituted a three-tier committee structure — at the Union Territory, divisional, and district levels — to supervise the process under Government Order No. 18-JK(Rev) of 2022 dated February 4, 2022.
However, given the slow pace of progress, the government issued a revised order in August 2024 (Government Order No. 102-JK(Rev) of 2024) delegating powers for delineation and demarcation to Deputy Commissioners and Divisional Commissioners for quicker disposal of cases. This decision followed the Administrative Council’s approval under Decision No. 98/16/2024 dated July 25, 2024.
As part of this process, the government decided that delineation and mapping will be carried out by expert agencies — the National Institute of Hydrology (NIH) and the Survey of India. The Revenue Department said the MoU between the Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, and these national institutions is “under active consideration”, and that once it is signed, the delineation will be completed “in a time-bound manner”.
The department said the delineation process will be followed by the correction of revenue records, after which relevant rules will be applied to allow appropriate land use under prescribed norms.
In addition, the government issued a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on August 14, 2024, through the Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, to standardise the process across districts.
To further examine unresolved issues linked with Gair Mumkin Khads, the government has recently constituted a high-level subcommittee vide Government Order No. 1203-JK(GAD) of 2025 dated September 15, 2025. The committee is chaired by Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Kumar Chowdhary, with ministers Javed Ahmed Dar and Javed Ahmed Rana as members. The panel has been asked to submit its recommendations within three months.
According to official data, the extent of land recorded as Gair Mumkin Khad in Jammu division stands at 3,21,779 kanals in Jammu district, 1,78,495 kanals in Samba, and 5,10,841 kanals in Kathua — a combined total of nearly 10.1 lakh kanals across the three districts.
Officials said that the delineation exercise, once initiated, would clearly separate genuine water bodies from misclassified lands, enabling both conservation of natural streams and legitimate use of non-watercourse land for development activities. The government maintains that the process is being implemented “in letter and spirit” through the committees and expert agencies once formalities are completed.
