High Court imposes ban on NRIs from purchasing residential property in India.

The High Court of Madras proposed that non-resident Indians should be banned from buying homes in India, speculative sales should be prohibited, and a 100% additional stamp duty on purchases of second homes should be imposed.

As party respondents, the Court itself impleaded the Union housing and finance ministries. We also asked questions about the number of families with basic housing amenities of housing in India and in Tamil Nadu and about the population of people and housing ratio in the country and in the state when the central government plan ‘Housing for All’ will be accomplished.

The division bank of Justice N Kirubakaran and Justice Abdul Quddhos wondered “why the government has not considered imposing such restrictions in order to control the escalation of house prices and provide every family’s home in the country.”

The bench also requested details on the number of families owning more than one house by notifying the authorities to inform if the central and the state to have special arrangements for housing for those areas that are marginalized and economically weak, including SC/ST communities.

“Why don’t governments prohibit the purchase/possession of more than one housing unit/apartment/plot before “Housing for all” Life comes true? Why doesn’t the government charge 100% more or an extra stamp duty to prevent a family from buying more than one house when it buys a second house? Why not allow families to buy more than one house on condition that the family pays 100% extra-statutory duties such as property taxes, electricity charges, water and sewerage on the second property???” the bench said.

In addition, the court also wanted to make it clear to the authorities why it should not ban NRIs from buying homes in India from reducing housing costs.

Justifying its directions the court said that “lakhs and lakhs of people live without proper shelters and essential amenities and security and are living on platforms, roads, cement pipes, slums, under the trees and on the banks of water bodies.”

Clearly, the Center has agreed to provide every family with a housing unit. The court said it should be done as soon as possible and added that if people holding more than one housing unit are restricted it could prove fruitful.

The Court ordered against the acquisition of around 369 acres of private land in Thudiyalur and Vellakinar areas of Coimbatore, in the context of an application brought by the Tamil Nadu Housing Board challenging a single judge order.