Procedure note · Land

How a record of rights correction proceeds under the Bhu Bharati Act, 2025

The Act of 2025 replaced the portal-based framework introduced in 2020 and restored a graded revenue remedy, so that an error in the record is first taken to the revenue authorities rather than straight to a civil court.

1. What the record of rights is

The record of rights is the State’s register of interests in land. For each survey number and subdivision it records the extent of the holding, the classification of the land, the name of the pattadar and of the occupant, and the nature of the interest held. It is maintained by the revenue administration and is the record from which the pattadar passbook and title deed are issued, and from which the land records portal draws.

The record is presumptive, not conclusive. An entry is evidence of possession and of the revenue administration’s understanding of the holding; it does not by itself confer or extinguish title. A dispute about title is decided by a civil court, and a correction to the record does not decide that dispute. That distinction governs which of the two routes described below is the right one in any given case.

2. Why errors arise

Most errors have ordinary causes: a name, extent or survey number wrongly transcribed; a subdivision not carried into the record after a partition; a succession not mutated after a death; a mismatch between the registered document and the earlier pahani or adangal entries; or a holding shown in the disputed part of the register while a proceeding remains undisposed.

A structural cause underlies many of them. There has been no comprehensive resurvey of land in the Telangana region since the survey and settlement operations of the early 1930s — commonly given as 1931. Boundaries, extents and subdivisions have since been recorded by successive transcriptions from that survey rather than by fresh measurement on the ground, so a discrepancy between the recorded extent and the extent actually enjoyed is common and is not, in itself, evidence of wrongdoing by anyone.

3. What changed in 2025

Under the framework introduced in 2020, corrections were made through the Dharani portal, and the graded revenue appeal that had existed under the earlier record-of-rights legislation was not available. A person aggrieved by an entry, or by a refusal to alter one, was in practice left to institute a civil suit — disproportionate to a clerical error.

The Bhu Bharati Act, 2025 replaced that framework and reinstated a hierarchy of revenue remedies. An application now lies to a revenue officer at first instance, with an appeal and a revision above it, and land tribunals to deal with the categories the Act assigns to them. The civil court remains available for questions of title; the revenue route is for the record.

4. Which authority hears what

• Tahsildar. The authority of first instance for the ordinary run of applications — correction of a name, extent or classification, mutation on a registered transfer, and succession entries within the mandal.
• Revenue Divisional Officer. Takes the categories of application the Act and the rules assign to that level, and hears appeals from the Tahsildar in the classes provided.
• District Collector. The appellate authority above, and the forum for the matters reserved to the district level.
• Chief Commissioner of Land Administration. Exercises revisional power over orders of the subordinate revenue authorities.
• Land tribunals. Deal with the disputes the Act refers to them, including categories which previously had no forum short of a civil suit.

Which authority is competent depends on the category of the application and on the extent involved. That allocation is set by the Act and by the rules made under it, and is worth confirming before an application is filed, because an application to the wrong authority is returned and the time is lost.

5. What is ordinarily filed

The papers vary with the nature of the entry in issue. An application is ordinarily accompanied by:

• the current record-of-rights extract for the survey number, and the pattadar passbook where one has issued;
• the earlier pahani or adangal entries relied upon, for a continuous run of years;
• the registered document of title — sale, gift, settlement, partition or release deed — or, on a succession, the death certificate and the legal heir or succession certificate;
• an encumbrance certificate for the relevant period;
• the survey, subdivision or field measurement record where extent or boundary is in issue;
• proof of identity and of the applicant’s interest; and
• the prescribed application form and the prescribed fee, in the manner the rules in force require.

6. How the application proceeds

The application is filed with the competent authority and acknowledged. Notice issues to the recorded holder and to any person likely to be affected, and in the ordinary course a public notice is published in the village. Objections are received and the parties are heard. The authority may call for the village records, may direct a local inspection or a measurement by the survey staff, and must record reasons before an entry is altered. An entry cannot be changed behind the back of the person in whose name it stands — an order made without notice is open to challenge on that ground alone.

7. Appeal and revision

An order altering or refusing to alter an entry is appealable to the authority above, within the period the Act prescribes. The appeal is on the record and on the reasons given; fresh material is admitted only in the limited circumstances the law allows. Above the appeal lies the revisional power of the Chief Commissioner of Land Administration, which is exercised on the legality and propriety of the order rather than as a further rehearing on the facts.

Where the revenue remedies are exhausted, or where the order is assailed as having been passed without jurisdiction or in breach of natural justice, it may be questioned in the writ jurisdiction of the High Court, which will ordinarily require the statutory remedy to have been taken first: see the note on the writ jurisdiction of the High Court for the State of Telangana.

8. Two points that recur

First, a correction to the record is not a declaration of title. Where two parties each claim to be the owner, the revenue authority is not the forum to decide between them; the record follows the civil court’s decree, not the other way round.

Second, an entry in the disputed part of the register, or a prohibitory listing, will block a transaction whatever the state of the record of rights. Those are separate questions, dealt with in the note on section 22A prohibited property lists and sada bainama regularisation.

Related

Land, title and revenue records — areas of practice