Walk through the pols of Ahmedabad’s walled city and you may encounter a cloth merchant whose family has rented the same shop since before independence. Their rent is calculated based on property values from the year 1940. For them, the Gujarat Rents, Hotel and Lodging House Rates Control Act, 1947 (“the 1947 Act”) is far from an abstraction. Section 12, which bars eviction so long as a tenant pays the standard rent, is the reason they continues to occupy the shop.
On August 31, 2026, the State government published the Gujarat Rent Bill, 2026 (Gujarat Bill No. 22 of 2026) (“the 2026 Bill”). The 2026 Bill proposes to repeal the 1947 Act in its entirety.
The 2026 Bill has drawn sharp criticism from Gujarat’s legal fraternity. The central objection is that it shifts tenancy disputes out of civil courts and places them in the hands of revenue and municipal officers. A clause-by-clause reading of the 2026 Bill lends support to this concern.
Under the 1947 Act, “standard rent” [Section 5(10)] is fixed to the rent prevailing as of September 1940, making rent increases nearly impossible. A tenant who keeps paying that rent cannot ordinarily be evicted. The predictable result is frozen rents, crumbling buildings and owners who keep flats locked rather than rent them out.
The 2026 Bill's Statement of Objects and Reasons invokes the Central Government’s Model Tenancy Act, 2021, noting that older rental laws are heavily skewed in favour of tenants and leave millions of urban homes vacant. The 2026 Bill’s answer is a contract-based regime. Every new tenancy must be in writing and jointly reported to a Rent Authority [Gujarat Rent Bill, Section 30] within 2 months, which will issue a unique identification number and upload the details online. Section 30 provides that the State government shall, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint an officer, not below the rank of Deputy Collector or Assistant Municipal Commissioner, to be the Rent Authority [Gujarat Rent Bill, Section 30] within his jurisdiction. Rent will be whatever the parties agree in the tenancy agreement. Security deposits are capped at 3 months' rent and must be refunded within a month of vacant possession being handed back [Gujarat Rent Bill, Section 11].
The 2026 Bill also protects tenants. For instance, landlords can not cut off essential services like water, electricity, gas, etc. [Gujarat Rent Bill, explanation to Section 20]; Rent Authority can order interim restoration or compensation of up to 2 months' rent [Gujarat Rent Bill, Section 20 (3,4,5)], landlords must notify at least 24 hours in advance in writing before entry into rented premises [Gujarat Rent Bill, Section 36 (3(a))], a tenant whose landlord refuses necessary repairs may carry them out and deducts costs up to half a month's rent [Gujarat Rent Bill, Section 15(4)], and that no rent is payable while premises are uninhabitable because of flood, fire or earthquake [Gujarat Rent Bill, explanation to Section 15]. For the millions in Gujarat's informal rental market who have never held a written agreement, these are genuine gains.
The problem is not the destination. It is the road the 2026 Bill takes to get there.
Under the 2026 Bill, eviction applications go to a “Rent Court”. Despite the name, it is not a court in any ordinary sense. Section 33 provides that the Rent Court is an officer not below the Additional Collector or Deputy Municipal Commissioner. The Rent Authority, on the other hand, which handles registration, rent revision, deposits, repairs and essential services, will be an officer not below Deputy Collector or Assistant Municipal Commissioner. Neither position requires legal qualifications or judicial experience. Yet these officers are given formidable power.
The Rent Court will exercise the powers of a civil court under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, the powers of a first-class magistrate to recover fines and the power to execute its own orders as decrees, with police assistance. Its orders are final, subject only to appeal [Gujarat Rent Bill, Section 36 (1,9)]. Section 40 bars civil courts from entertaining any suit or proceeding relating to the 2026 Bill.
At present, in cities like Ahmedabad and Surat, rent disputes are tried by the Court of Small Causes, with an appeal to a bench of 2 judges of that court; at other places in Gujarat, by a Civil Judge, with an appeal to the District Court. Even the special fast-track procedure that the 1947 Act created for members of the armed forces required the “competent authority” to have held judicial office for 5 years or practiced as an advocate for 7 years. The 2026 Bill, for the far larger universe of ordinary eviction cases, asks for no legal qualification at all.
An eviction order is among the most consequential order the State can make, deciding whether a family keeps its home or a trader keeps his livelihood. The 2026 Bill does provide an appeal to a Rent Tribunal composed of a District Judge or Additional District Judge [Gujarat Rent Bill, Section 37]. But cases are usually won and lost on facts found at first instance, a stage now entrusted to officers who simultaneously carry land revenue, law-and-order and municipal responsibilities and who answer to the State.
Section 35 declares that the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 - India's criminal procedure code - shall not apply to Rent Courts and Tribunals and then applies that same criminal code for serving notices in what are purely civil disputes. Such drafting errors highlight a Bill rushed without adequate legislative vetting.
The second difficulty is the 2026 Bill's near-total silence on old tenancies. The repeal and saving clause, Section 46, preserves only cases already pending under the 1947 Act. It says nothing about the cloth merchant whose tenancy is not in litigation.
The new requirements of a written agreement and registration are framed for tenancies entered into after the 2026 Bill comes into force. But Section 4(6) provides that in the absence of a filed statement, neither landlord nor tenant is entitled to any relief under the 2026 Bill. And the 2026 Bill's definition of “tenant” expressly includes a person continuing in possession after termination, “whether before or after the commencement” of the 2026 Bill. Once the 1947 Act is repealed, what is the old tenant's rent? Does he have any protection against eviction? Must he execute and register a fresh agreement and on whose terms? The 2026 Bill is silent. Silence of this kind will only lead to litigation.
The 2026 Bill sets ambitious timelines. Rent Courts and Tribunals must dispose of matters within 60 days. Most eviction applications must be decided within 90 days and applications on sub-letting or misuse within 30 days. No party may have more than 3 adjournments and execution must be completed within 30 days [Gujarat Rent Bill, Sections 35(2), 35(7), 38]. Yet the Financial Memorandum states that existing staff will perform these functions and that the 2026 Bill involves no additional expenditure. Deadlines without judges, staff or budgets are aspirations, not reforms.
Two additional subtle changes also deserve attention. Under the 1947 Act, a landlord could recover possession where the tenant had given notice to vacate and the landlord had acted on it. The 2026 Bill's corresponding ground is triggered by the landlord's own notice to vacate, followed by a contract to sell [Gujarat Rent Bill, Section 21(2)]. And where a tenant is evicted for repairs or rebuilding, the 1947 Act let him elect to return and penalized landlords who failed to rebuild. However, under the 2026 Bill, he may return only if the landlord agrees to a new tenancy [Gujarat Rent Bill, Section 21, proviso to Sections 2(e)].
The fix is neither radical nor expensive in principle. The Rent Court should be a judicial forum, not an executive office. The 2026 Bill needs a transitional chapter for pre-existing tenancies - a phased path from standard rent to market rent, with particular care for elderly residents and small traders. The procedural references should be corrected so that civil disputes are governed by civil procedure. The promised timelines should come with a budget and sanctioned posts. And the 2026 Bill should be sent to a select committee, with the Bar, tenants' groups and landlords' associations heard before it is passed.
Gujarat undoubtedly needs a rental market fit for the 21st century. The cloth merchant in the walled city must eventually adapt to a fairer, market-aligned rent, just as his landlord deserves a swift, predictable remedy against default. Yet, speed cannot replace fairness. Whether the property in question is under ancestral shop or a modern apartment, both the landlord and the tenant deserve a dispute resolution mechanism anchored in judicial independence, legal precision and due procedural process.
About the authors: M. Arun Kumar is a Partner and Khushi Shah is an Associate at JSA Advocates & Solicitors.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s). The opinions presented do not necessarily reflect the views of Bar & Bench.
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