Land Due Diligence in Karnataka: 12 Checks Before You Pay a Token Advance

Most land deals in Karnataka start with a token advance and a handshake, and most of the trouble starts there too. Once money has changed hands, every problem found later becomes a negotiation instead of a reason to walk away.

The difficulty is that no single record tells you whether a parcel is clean. Ownership sits in the revenue records, transactions in the registration records, permitted use in the planning records, and disputes in the courts. Due diligence is the work of reading all of them together and checking that they agree.

Here are the twelve checks we run on every parcel, in the order we run them.

First, collect the documents

Ask the seller for the survey number and hissa (sub-division) numbers, the current RTC, mutation extracts, every sale, partition, settlement or gift deed going back at least 30 years, the encumbrance certificate, any conversion order, the survey sketch, the khata or e-Swathu extract, recent tax receipts and a family tree certificate (vamshavruksha). A seller who cannot produce these quickly is telling you something.

The 12 checks

1. The RTC matches the seller. The RTC (also called the Pahani), available on the state’s Bhoomi land records portal, shows the owner, the extent, the type of land and any liabilities or tenancy. The names and extent should match the seller and the deal.
2. The mutation register explains how they got it. Every change of ownership (a sale, an inheritance, a partition, a grant) should appear in the mutation records and be backed by a document.
3. The title chain runs back at least 30 years without a gap. Lay the deeds end to end. Each one should pass the land from the previous owner to the next. A missing link, such as an inheritance that was never mutated, is the most common problem we find.
4. The encumbrance certificate is clean for the whole period. The EC from the Kaveri registration system lists registered transactions on the property: sales, mortgages, agreements to sell. In Karnataka it is issued in Form 15 when transactions are recorded and Form 16 when there are none. Older years may need a manual search at the sub-registrar’s office.
5. The land on the ground matches the records. Compare the survey sketch with the physical boundaries, ideally with a licensed surveyor. The state’s Dishank app is a quick first look. Kharab portions (land recorded as unfit for cultivation, sometimes belonging to the government) do not count as usable area.
6. It is not granted land sold without permission. Land granted by the government to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe families is protected by the Karnataka PTCL Act of 1978. Sales made without government permission are void and can be challenged many years later. Trace the original grant before anything else.
7. None of it is government, grazing or inam land. Check that no part of the parcel is recorded as government land, gomala (village grazing land) or other land with restrictions on transfer.
8. The land use is what you need. Agricultural land must be converted before it can be used for anything else, through a conversion order under the Karnataka Land Revenue Act. Since the 2020 amendments to the Land Reforms Act you no longer need to be a farmer to buy agricultural land, but the conversion requirement still applies.
9. The master plan allows your plan, and the buffers are mapped. The zoning for the area decides what can be built. Bengaluru’s planning rules also set no-build buffers around lakes and stormwater drains, and roads may be reserved for widening. A strip of buffer along one edge can change what a parcel is worth.
10. No acquisition is notified. Check whether a government agency has notified the land for acquisition: for an industrial area, a layout, a highway, the metro or a railway line. Notifications are published, but not in one place.
11. No court or revenue case is pending. Search the district courts and the High Court for the survey numbers and every owner’s name. Remember that many land disputes are heard in revenue courts, before the Tahsildar, Assistant Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner, rather than in civil courts.
12. Everyone who has a claim signs. On ancestral or joint family land, every legal heir must sign the sale or formally release their share, and that includes daughters. If someone is signing under a power of attorney, check that it is registered, covers a sale, and that the owner is alive. A power of attorney on its own does not transfer title.

The red flags that should stop a deal

Some findings can be fixed before registration: a missing mutation, a pending conversion, an old loan that needs closing. Others should stop the deal until they are resolved:

• granted land sold without government permission;
• a break in the title chain that no document explains;
• a notified acquisition over any part of the land;
• a live court case on the title;
• an heir or co-owner who will not sign;
• land on the ground that does not match the land in the records.

Who does what

An advocate reviews the file and gives the title opinion, and a surveyor confirms the boundaries. Most of the time, though, goes on the work in between: pulling records from several systems, cross-checking names and extents, searching cases and mapping buffers. That is the part our land due diligence report covers, before your advocate signs off.

This note is a practical checklist, not legal advice. Always have an advocate review the title before you buy.

Protect the token advance

Keep the token small until the checks are done, and make the agreement conditional on clear title, with a full refund if it is not. A good seller will accept that. You can see what a finished report looks like in the sample land check on our Enterprise page.