Chandigarh, May 6 -- In a move that could reshape how one of India's most planned cities rents its homes, the Chandigarh administration is preparing to replace a post-Independence rent control law with a framework modeled on the Assam Tenancy Act, 2021.

Approval from the Ministry of Home Affairs is expected as early as next week, according to officials familiar with the plan.

The shift would replace the East Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act, 1949 - designed for an era of acute housing scarcity - and introduce a system built on written contracts, market-linked rents and faster dispute resolution.

For decades, the older law has constrained how rent is set and when tenants can be evicted, protections that once stabilised vulnerable house...