You can check a land record in West Bengal online on the Banglarbhumi portal, which shows the record of rights for a plot or a khatian once you select the district, block and mouza. Registered deeds can be checked through the registration department's online search. An online copy is useful for information and for preparing papers, but a certified copy obtained from the office is what stands as legal proof of the record.
What you can check online and what you cannot
Online checking in West Bengal covers two large things: the record of rights, which is the State's record of who holds a plot and on what terms, and the index of registered deeds, which shows what transfers have been registered. Beyond these, the underlying papers — the old survey records, the maps, the mutation files and the registered deed itself — sit in the block and district offices and the registration office, and have to be inspected or copied in person or through a representative.
So the online step answers the first question, whether a plot exists in the record and in whose name, and points you to the office that holds the paper trail for everything else. It does not, by itself, give you a title that a court or a bank will accept without a certified copy.
Checking the record of rights on Banglarbhumi
The Banglarbhumi portal is the online land records service of the land and land reforms administration of West Bengal, and the record of rights it displays is drawn from the records maintained under the West Bengal Land Reforms Act, 1955. The steps are the same whether you are checking your own land or someone else's:
- Open the Banglarbhumi portal and choose the search for the record of rights or the plot information.
- Select the district from the list, then the block or the area within it, and then the mouza or village.
- Enter the khatian number if you have it, or the plot (dag) number, or use the general search for the mouza where you do not.
- The portal returns the matching entry, showing the holder, the area, the classification of the land and the rent or revenue details.
- Note the khatian number, the plot number and the mouza, because every follow-up step needs them.
- If the entry is the one you need, apply at the office for a certified copy rather than relying on the print-out alone.
Which source to use for which question
| What you want to check | Where to check online | What you need ready |
|---|---|---|
| Who is recorded as the holder of a plot | Banglarbhumi record of rights search | District, block, mouza and the khatian or plot number |
| The details of a registered sale, gift or mortgage | Registration department's online deed search, e-Nathikaran | Name of the person who executed the deed and an approximate year |
| The status of a mutation applied for | The land records service, or enquiry at the block office | Mutation case number, or the plot and khatian number |
| Urban property held within a municipality or the KMC area | The municipal assessment and mutation records | Holding number or the owner's name and the ward |
Reading the record of rights correctly
A record of rights is not a single line. Read it as a set of columns, and check each one against what you already know. The holder column tells you who is recorded and in what capacity — as an owner, as a co-sharer, as a tenant, or as a person holding under some other arrangement. The area column gives the extent, which should agree with the deed where the land was purchased. The classification column records the nature of the land, whether it is agricultural or otherwise, and the rent or revenue column shows what is payable.
Watch the names carefully. If the entry is in the name of a person who died years ago, the record has simply not been updated by a mutation. If several names appear, the holding is joint. If the plot you expected is missing, the description you were given may be wrong, or the land may lie in an adjoining mouza, or the area may have been carved out into smaller plots in a later settlement operation. Every one of these is a reason to check the next layer of documents rather than to conclude that the land does not exist.
Checking a registered deed online
The registration department's online service, e-Nathikaran, supports both registration of documents and a search of what is already registered. A search is normally made by the name of the person who executed the deed, together with the nature of the document — sale, gift, mortgage, lease, partition, power of attorney — and an approximate period, because the indexes are kept party-wise and year-wise. Deeds are registered at the office of the District Registrar or the Additional District Sub-Registrar for the district where the property lies.
Where the online index does not reach far enough back, the same search can be requested at the registration office, which keeps the older index books and registers. Once the entry is located, a certified copy of it is issued by the registering officer under Section 57 of the Registration Act, 1908, and that is the copy worth holding. A search result seen on screen only tells you that a document exists and what it broadly is; it does not give you the terms.
Urban holdings: KMC and municipal records
Where the property is a house or flat inside the Kolkata Municipal Corporation area or a municipality, the land record of rights is not the whole picture. Urban property is assessed for tax and is mutated in the municipal records against a holding number, and ownership changes are reflected there after a transfer. Checking a Kolkata holding therefore means looking at the assessment or mutation entry for the holding number, in addition to the Banglarbhumi record for the plot beneath it. For flats in a complex, the apartment owner's position rests on the registered conveyance and the society or association records as much as on the land record.
Is the online record legally valid
The online view is convenient, but it is a public-information facility and is not a substitute for the certified copy. For a sale, a partition, a bank loan, a mutation application or any court proceeding, obtain the certified copy of the record of rights from the office that keeps it, by quoting the khatian number, the plot number and the mouza. Keep the certified copy, and where the matter is likely to be litigated, also keep the older records — the previous record of rights and the deeds — so that the chain of title can be shown and not merely the current position.
Do not treat two certificates issued at different times as interchangeable. If a mutation has been recorded in between, the later copy differs from the earlier one, and a court will want to see how and when the change was made. For the wider search methods, see how to find a land record in West Bengal by name.
When the portal shows no record
- The plot number or khatian number you entered belongs to a different mouza, or the village name is spelled differently on the portal.
- The holding is recorded under a name other than the one you searched, often an ancestor's.
- The land was acquired recently and the mutation has not yet been completed, so the record still shows the earlier holder.
- The record is an older settlement entry not yet brought into the current digitised set, which means the paper record at the block office must be checked.
- The property is urban and the relevant entry is in the municipal holding record rather than the rural record of rights.
None of these means the land does not exist. Each one points to a specific office or a specific document, and the block land and land reforms office is the usual place to start when the online search runs dry. If you need the older records, see how to find old land records in West Bengal.
Getting help
For a simple check, checking the record of rights online and then applying for a certified copy is enough. Help becomes useful when the record is in dispute, when the name does not match the deeds, when a mutation has been refused or is lying undecided, or when the online record and the paper record disagree and a transaction or a partition is about to take place. In those situations the record of rights, the registered deeds and the mutation file have to be read together before any money changes hands.
Advocate Panchanand Shaw, practising at the Calcutta High Court from chambers at 14 Hare Street, Kolkata, assists with land record checks, mutation, partition and title-related proceedings in West Bengal. You can review the legal services offered or book a free consultation.