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Every plot I have seen go wrong went wrong at one of six checks, and every one of those checks costs less than a day. This is the order I do them in, before anyone pays a token, in Ayodhya, Lucknow or Gorakhpur alike.
The six checks, in order
- Khatauni. The seller's name, the exact khasra number, the area, and the land category.
- Map. The khasra on the village map matches the plot you walked.
- Encumbrance. No loan, mortgage, attachment or pending sale against it at the sub-registrar's office.
- Mutation. The last transfer is already recorded in the revenue record.
- Land use. What the master plan says the land is for.
- RERA. If it is a plotted development, the project's registration number and layout.
1. Khatauni: who owns it, and what kind of land it is
The khatauni is the record of rights for a village. It is kept by the revenue department and it is what a court will look at first. Get it in two ways: the online copy from UP Bhulekh for a first look, and a certified copy from the tehsil for the file.
Read four things on it. The name: it must be the seller's, not a father's, a brother's or a company's, and if there are several names, every one of them has to sign. The khasra number and area: the plot you are being sold must be a khasra, or a defined share of one, and the area on the record must be the area in the agreement. The category: the column that says what kind of land it is. Words like Gram Sabha, banjar, charagah, talab, ceiling surplus or forest mean the land cannot be sold to you at all; the separate guide on what you cannot buy goes through each. And the remarks, where a pending case, a mortgage or a restriction on transfer sometimes shows up.
2. The map: the same plot on paper and on the ground
The khasra number is a number on the village map (the bhu-naksha). Pull the map, find the number, and walk the boundaries with the seller. Plots get sold from the wrong side of a road, from the neighbouring khasra, or as a whole when the seller holds a share. In Ayodhya this matters most on the roads that have been widened, because the record and the ground can differ by the width of the new road.
3. Encumbrance: what is registered against it
Every registered deed on a property is on file at the sub-registrar's office of that tehsil: sales, mortgages, agreements to sell, court attachments. A search for the last twelve to thirteen years shows what has been registered against the khasra. Ask for the search yourself or through a lawyer; do not rely on the seller's copy. IGRSUP's online index helps you find deeds by name and village, but the office search is the one to rely on.
What you are looking for is anything you were not told about: a loan still secured on the land, an earlier agreement to sell to someone else, a partition among heirs that was never completed.
4. Mutation: the record has caught up with the last sale
A registered sale deed transfers ownership. The revenue record does not update itself; the buyer applies for mutation (dakhil-kharij) at the tehsil, and the khatauni changes after notice and objections. Until that happens, the khatauni still shows the previous owner.
If your seller bought the plot and never mutated it, you are buying from someone the record does not know. Make the seller complete mutation before you sign. It is their application and their delay to bear, not yours.
5. Land use: what the plot is allowed to be
The khatauni says what the land is in the revenue record. The master plan says what the development authority will let you build. A plot can be recorded as agricultural and be inside the residential zone of the master plan, or be sold as residential and sit in a green belt. In Ayodhya the reference is the ADA master plan; in Lucknow, LDA's; in Gorakhpur, GDA's. Each locality page on this site lists the land use we found, with its source, for example Faizabad Road:
- ₹12,000 per sq m
- Residential
- ₹24,000 per sq m
- Commercial
- ₹45,00,000 per hectare
- Agricultural
Agricultural land recorded as such needs a declaration under Section 80 of the UP Revenue Code before it can be used for a house. The conversion guide covers who can apply and what it costs.
6. RERA: if it is a plotted development
A layout above 500 square metres or with more than eight plots needs UP RERA registration before it is marketed. Ask for the number, check it on the UP RERA site, and match the plot number to the approved layout. A "colony" without a number is being sold outside the law, however nice the gate.
What safe looks like
Same name on the khatauni, the map and the agreement. A category that can be transferred. A clean search. Mutation done. Land use that matches what you want to build. A RERA number if there is a layout. When all six line up, the plot is as safe as a plot in UP gets; the rest is price. Civil Lines, for instance, is 2.7 km from the airport and sits in a higher band than Faizabad Road, and the checks are identical for both.
If any one of the six does not line up, you can still buy, sometimes, but you buy with the problem priced in and fixed in writing before the deed. Send us the khasra number and we will tell you which case you are in.
Questions people ask
- Where do I see the khatauni online?
- On UP Bhulekh (upbhulekh.gov.in): pick the district, tehsil and village, then search by khasra number or by the owner's name. The online copy is for checking; ask for a certified copy from the tehsil before you sign.
- What is the difference between khatauni and khasra?
- The khasra is the plot number on the village map. The khatauni is the record of rights that lists who holds which khasra numbers, under which category and with what area. You check both: the number on the map and the name against it.
- How far back should the encumbrance search go?
- Twelve to thirteen years is the usual search period at the sub-registrar's office, covering the limitation period for most claims. Longer if the chain of title has gaps.
- The seller says mutation is pending but the sale can go ahead. Is that fine?
- No. If the last transfer is not yet recorded in the khatauni, the revenue record still shows the previous owner. Ask the seller to complete mutation first; it is their application, not yours.
