The CS record of land is the record of rights prepared in the Cadastral Survey, the oldest of West Bengal's three survey settlements. To see it online you open the Banglarbhumi portal, choose Know Your Property, select the district, the block and the mouza and then the CS record type, and search by khatian or dag number. Where the old CS record has not been digitised, the usable copy is a certified one issued by the block land and land reforms office or the district records room.
What the CS record is, and why it still matters
West Bengal has surveyed and recorded rural land three times over, and each survey left behind its own set of khatians, plot numbers and maps. The CS or Cadastral Survey was the first of these, carried out district by district in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It produced the baseline record of who held each plot at the time and the first systematic mouza maps. That record is frozen: it has never been updated, and it does not show who holds the land today.
It still matters because it is the point from which a chain of title starts. Ancient partition deeds, old mortgages and family settlements from that period quote CS dag and khatian numbers. When title is in dispute, or when land has come down through generations without any registered transfer, the CS entry is often the only written trace of the original holding. A purchaser's lawyer in a large transaction will often ask for all three records, CS, RS and LR, so that the history can be read as one continuous line.
CS, RS and LR: the three generations of record
The three records are survey eras, not different qualities of the same document. Each was a fresh state-wide exercise that renumbered the plots, so one piece of land commonly carries a CS dag, an RS dag and an LR dag that do not match. The RS or Revisional Settlement followed in the 1950s and is connected in the districts with the West Bengal Estates Acquisition Act 1953. The LR record, prepared under the West Bengal Land Reforms Act 1955 and kept up to date since, is the current and operative record of rights maintained by the land and land reforms administration.
| Record | Era | Status today | What you read it for |
|---|---|---|---|
| CS (Cadastral Survey) | Late 19th to early 20th century | Historic, not updated | Oldest baseline; ancestral land and old partition deeds |
| RS (Revisional Settlement) | 1950s, with the Estates Acquisition Act 1953 | Historic reference | Intermediate link; new dag numbers created here |
| LR (Land Reforms) | Under the West Bengal Land Reforms Act 1955, kept current | Current and operative | Ownership, mutation, khajna, sale and loan today |
Searching the CS record online on Banglarbhumi
The Banglarbhumi portal is the online land records service of the West Bengal land and land reforms administration. Its Know Your Property search is location first: you pick the district, then the block, then the mouza, the revenue village, and then the record or khatian type. Within a mouza every parcel has a dag or plot number and every ownership account has a khatian number, so the search is either by khatian or by plot.
- Open the Banglarbhumi portal and choose Know Your Property.
- Select the district, the block and the mouza or its jurisdiction list number.
- Set the record type to CS, and repeat the search for RS and LR to compare.
- Search by khatian number or by plot or dag number, enter the captcha and view the entry.
The free view shows the recorded owner, the share, the plot area and the class of land. It is a viewing facility. A signed copy for use in a transaction or a proceeding is ordered separately through the portal's service delivery facility, and the application is tracked by a reference number so that it can be followed to issue.
Mouza, JL number, khatian and dag: the words you will meet
Four words recur whenever West Bengal land records are discussed, and reading them correctly saves a wasted search. A mouza is the revenue village, identified by a jurisdiction list or JL number, and because the same khatian or dag number can exist in another mouza, the mouza is what fixes the search. A khatian is the record of rights account and lists the persons recorded as holding the land and their shares. A dag or plot is the individual parcel on the ground, and one khatian can hold several dags while one dag can be shared across khatians. Khajna is the land revenue assessed on the holding, and its payment is recorded separately. Get any one of these wrong and the portal returns nothing, which is the commonest reason a search appears to fail.
Sabek dag to hal dag: matching old numbers to new
Because each survey renumbered the plots, linking an old number to the current one is part of the exercise. Banglarbhumi provides an RS to LR information facility that maps the old or sabek dag number to the current or hal dag number for a mouza. That mapping is the practical bridge between an old CS or RS entry quoted in a deed and the LR record in force today. Where the mapping does not resolve the parcel, the reconciliation has to be done from the mouza maps and the settlement records in the land records office, which is why old-title matters are settled at the office and not only on the screen.
Two clarifications help here. The RS to LR information does not convert a CS number directly; it bridges RS and LR, so an old CS dag is first traced through the RS entry for the mouza and only then matched to the current dag. And a number is only meaningful with its survey type and its mouza, because a bare dag number may point to several parcels across the state. Always write the survey type, the mouza and the number together in any application or deed.
Getting a certified copy of the CS record
For the older survey records the online view is often absent or incomplete, and the CS khatian and map come as certified copies. The application is made to the Block Land and Land Reforms Officer for the block where the land lies, or to the District Land and Land Reforms Officer, and the copy is issued from the records that office holds. In and around Kolkata the land records follow the corporation and municipal machinery as well, so the office that keeps the record for a locality is the office to approach.
A certified copy states that it is issued from the office's own records, and it is usually what is asked for where the matter is going before a court, a bank or a registering officer. An uncertified printout of a screen view is treated as information only. If the record cannot be traced at the office, a request under the Right to Information Act can be used to find out which office holds it, and an advocate can help frame the request so that it is answered rather than deflected.
What the CS record does not prove
The record of rights, on any of the three surveys, is a revenue record. It records who is entered as holding the land and what revenue or rent is assessed, and it is relevant evidence of possession and of the revenue arrangement. It is not, by itself, a document of title. Title is decided by the registered deeds and the law of succession, and the record of rights may be corrected through mutation when ownership changes.
- The CS and RS records are historic and do not show present ownership.
- The LR record shows the recorded owner, which is not necessarily the legal owner.
- Registered sale deeds and mortgages sit with the registration department, not in the record of rights.
- Court cases, encumbrances and disputes are not shown in the khatian.
That is why a proper title check reads the LR record together with the registered deeds and, for old land, the CS and RS entries. Each answers a different question, and a gap in one is not closed by the other.
When a lawyer is useful on an old record
For a look-up the portal is enough. For anything that will be acted upon, a sale, a partition, a mortgage, a mutation or a court case, the record has to be read as part of a title chain. A mismatch between the CS, RS and LR entries, a break in the chain, an entry in a dead person's name or a missing map are all common, and each needs a specific remedy, from a mutation application to a declaration suit. Because the land record and the registration record are two different sources, it also pays to read the registration department's records alongside the khatian before money changes hands. You can book a free consultation or see how a lawyer in Kolkata handles these checks.