The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment received a petition from voters in Lam Dong province with the content:
Voters reflect the situation of contradictions and confusions in the application of law between court agencies and local administrative agencies between "land disputes" and "land-related disputes" (such as inheritance, civil transactions), leading to refusal of dossiers for issuing Certificates of Land Use Rights in violation of regulations, causing great damage to the people.
To overcome this, voters proposed that the Government direct the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment to coordinate with the Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Court and the Chief Procurator of the Supreme People's Procuracy to consider issuing a Joint Circular to clearly distinguish these two concepts; and at the same time stipulate that dossiers are only allowed to be rejected when there is an official acceptance document on land disputes from a competent authority. In particular, voters proposed that it is necessary to establish legal responsibility and strict discipline for officials and heads of agencies that falsely confirm the dispute situation, causing obstruction to the legitimate rights of citizens”.
Regarding this proposal, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment reports to the National Assembly Delegation and voters of Lam Dong province as follows:
1. Regarding land disputes and other disputes related to land:
1. 1. Land law regulations:
- Clause 47, Article 3 of the 2024 Land Law stipulates: "Land disputes are disputes over the rights and obligations of land users between two or more parties in land relations".
- Article 235 of the 2024 Land Law stipulates:
“1. The State encourages land dispute parties to reconcile themselves, reconcile at the grassroots level in accordance with the law on reconciliation at the grassroots level, reconcile in accordance with the law on commercial reconciliation or other reconciliation mechanisms in accordance with the law.
2. Before a competent state agency resolves a land dispute specified in Article 236 of this Law, the disputing parties must carry out mediation at the commune-level People's Committee where the disputed land is located...".
1. 2. Regulations of civil law:
Clause 2, Article 3 of Resolution 04/2017/NQ-HĐTP dated May 5, 2017 of the Council of Judges of the Supreme People's Court guiding a number of regulations in Clause 1 and Clause 3, Article 192 of the Civil Procedure Code No. 92/2015/QH13 on returning lawsuits, the right to file lawsuits again has stipulated: (i) For disputes over who is the person with land use rights but has not been reconciled at the People's Committee of the commune or ward where the land is disputed according to the provisions of Article 202 of the 2013 Land Law (now Article 235 of the 2024 Land Law), it is determined that they do not have sufficient conditions to sue as prescribed in point b, Clause 1, Article 192 of the 2015 Civil Procedure Code. (ii) For other disputes related to land use rights such as: disputes over transactions related to land use rights, disputes over inheritance of land use rights, division of common property of husband and wife that is land use rights... then the conciliation procedure at the People's Committee of the commune
Thus, according to the above regulations, there is no situation of contradiction and confusion in the application of law between court agencies and local administrative agencies between "land disputes" and "land-related disputes".
2. The refusal or suspension of administrative procedures related to land has been stipulated in Clause 2, Article 19 of Decree 101/2024/ND-CP dated July 29, 2024 of the Government and in Article 15 of Decree 49/2026/ND-CP dated January 31, 2026 of the Government, which stipulates assigning the Provincial People's Committee to regulate the order and procedures for administrative procedures and in the period before promulgating regulations on order and administrative procedures for land specified in this clause, the Provincial People's Committee shall decide on the application of order and administrative procedures for land according to the provisions of law before the effective date of this Decree or decide on the order and administrative procedures for land for each specific case.
3. The handling of people who violate the law in land management when performing official duties has been stipulated in Article 240 of the 2024 Land Law and Article 109 of Decree 102/2024/ND-CP CP dated July 29, 2024 of the Government, which stipulates violations of the land law when performing official duties in the field of land.
