Land records glossary भूमि शब्दावली
Every term you will meet in an Uttarakhand khatauni, deed or tehsil office - explained the way a helpful neighbour would, not the way an act of 1950 would.
Documents & Records
Khasraखसरा
The plot number of a piece of land, and the register that describes each plot.
Every field or plot in a village has a khasra number - think of it as the land's roll number on the village map. The khasra register records, plot by plot, the area, the soil/land type, who is cultivating it and what crop was grown each season. When someone says 'khasra number 234', they mean plot no. 234 on the village map.
Khatauniखतौनी
The record of rights: who holds which plots in a village, grouped by holder.
While the khasra is organised plot-by-plot, the khatauni is organised person-by-person. Your khatauni entry lists all the khasra numbers you hold, their total area, and the kind of right you have over them. This is the document people mean by 'land records' - in Uttarakhand you can view it online on the Bhulekh portal or get a certified copy (nakal) from the tehsil.
Khewatखेवट
An older ownership register grouping land by owner/share (mostly historical now).
The khewat listed owners (or co-sharing families) and their shares in the village land, each given a khewat number. After zamindari was abolished the khatauni became the main record of rights, but you will still see khewat numbers quoted in old deeds and in some searches of the registration office.
Jamabandiजमाबंदी
Another name for the record of rights, used in some states; in UP/UK usage it's effectively the khatauni.
In Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan the record of rights is called the jamabandi. In the UP/Uttarakhand system the equivalent document is the khatauni. If a lawyer or an old paper mentions jamabandi, read it as 'the official record of who holds the land'.
Fardफर्द
A certified extract (copy) of the land record for a holding.
A fard is simply an official copy of the relevant khatauni/khasra entries for a piece of land, issued by the revenue office. Banks ask for a fard before giving a loan against land; buyers should ask for a fresh fard before agreeing to purchase.
Nakalनक़ल
A certified copy of any revenue record.
Nakal literally means 'copy'. A khatauni nakal is the certified copy of your record-of-rights entry, available from the tehsil or online via Bhulekh. Courts and registrars want certified nakals, not screenshots.
Shajra / Sajraशजरा
The village cadastral map showing every plot with its khasra number.
The shajra (village map) is a large sheet showing the boundary of every plot in the village, each labelled with its khasra number. The patwari keeps a cloth copy called the shajra kishtwar. When boundaries are disputed, the shajra plus a field measurement is how they are settled.
Bhulekhभूलेख
Uttarakhand's online land-records portal (bhulekh.uk.gov.in).
Bhulekh ('land writings') is the state portal where you can look up khatauni entries by village, khasra number or name - free, without visiting the tehsil. The online copy is for information; for legal use you still need a certified copy.
Bhu-Nakshaभू-नक्शा
The online village map service that shows plot boundaries digitally.
Bhu-Naksha is the digital version of the shajra: an online map where you can click a plot and see its khasra number and area. Coverage and uptime vary by district.
Jildजिल्द
The bound volume in the registrar's office where your deed is copied.
Every registered deed is copied into numbered volumes (jild) at the sub-registrar's office, with page numbers. 'Jild No: 639, Pages 211-222' on a record tells you exactly which physical book and pages hold the copy of that deed - useful when ordering a certified copy years later.
Gataगाटा
Another word for a survey plot number - same idea as khasra number.
In UP/Uttarakhand revenue language a 'gata number' is the plot number in the current records. In practice khasra number and gata number refer to the same thing; older papers say khasra, newer computerised records often say gata.
People & Offices
Patwari / Lekhpalपटवारी / लेखपाल
The village-level revenue official who maintains land records.
The patwari (called lekhpal in UP; in Uttarakhand hills the patwari also has police powers in many areas) keeps the khasra, khatauni and village map up to date, records crops, and reports mutations. Any land process - mutation, correction, demarcation - starts with the patwari's report.
Kanungoक़ानूनगो
Supervisor of patwaris; checks and verifies their records.
A kanungo (registrar kanungo / supervisor kanungo) oversees a circle of patwaris, verifies their entries and countersigns records. If a patwari's entry is disputed, the kanungo's verification is the next step up.
Tehsildarतहसीलदार
The revenue officer in charge of a tehsil; decides mutations and disputes.
The tehsildar (with naib-tehsildars under them) heads the tehsil revenue staff. Mutation orders, record corrections, demarcation orders and many small land disputes are decided at the tehsildar's court before anything goes to higher courts.
Tehsilतहसील
The revenue subdivision of a district; your land 'belongs' to one tehsil.
Districts are divided into tehsils (Kotdwar, Vikasnagar, etc.). Land records are maintained tehsil-wise, and that is where you get certified copies, file mutation applications and attend revenue-court hearings. Development 'blocks' are a separate, parallel division used for schemes - a village is in both a tehsil and a block.
Parganaपरगना
A historical revenue unit between tehsil and village, still printed on records.
Parganas are Mughal-era groupings of villages that survived into British and modern records. Your khatauni header still shows the pargana name. It matters mostly for locating old records and understanding old deeds.
SRO (Sub-Registrar Office)उप-निबंधक कार्यालय
The office where deeds are registered and copied into the record.
Every area falls under a Sub-Registrar Office (SRO) - Kotdwar, Dehradun, Vikasnagar and so on. Sale deeds, gift deeds and leases must be presented here, stamp duty is checked, biometrics/photos taken, and the deed is copied into the jild volumes. The e-search portal lets you search an SRO's registered deeds online.
Mauzaमौज़ा
The revenue village - the unit for which records and maps are kept.
A mauza is a village as the revenue department sees it: one map, one set of khasra numbers, one khatauni. A single inhabited 'village' on the ground may contain several revenue mauzas, or several hamlets (tok) may share one mauza.
Tokतोक
A hamlet or named cluster of fields within a hill village.
Kumaon and Garhwal villages are scattered; a tok is a named hamlet or field cluster within the village. Deeds and khatauni entries in the hills often mention the tok name to locate the land precisely.
Land Types & Tenure
Bhumidharभूमिधर
The strongest form of land right - effectively full ownership.
After zamindari abolition, cultivators became bhumidhars. A 'bhumidhar with transferable rights' can sell, gift and mortgage the land (within the law's limits). A 'bhumidhar with non-transferable rights' holds and farms the land but cannot freely sell it - typically land granted by the government, for a set period.
Sirdarसीरदार
A historical tenure below bhumidhar - could farm but not sell; mostly upgraded now.
Sirdars held land from the state with hereditary cultivation rights but no right to transfer. Over the decades most sirdari holdings were upgraded to bhumidhari by paying a multiple of land revenue. You will still meet the term in old khataunis and case law.
Asamiअसामी
The weakest tenure - a tenant of gaon sabha or of special-category land.
An asami is a non-hereditary tenant, usually of village-community land (like pasture temporarily let for cultivation). Asami rights are limited and can be ended; asami land cannot be sold.
ZA & LR Actजमींदारी विनाश अधिनियम
The 1950 law that abolished landlords and created today's tenure system.
The UP Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act, 1950 (adapted by Uttarakhand) ended the zamindari system, made cultivators direct holders under the state, and defined bhumidhar/sirdar/asami rights. Key sections people quote: Section 143 (declaring agricultural land as non-agricultural/abadi) and Section 154 (limits on who may buy agricultural land and how much).
BhumidharSection 143 (Land-use change)Section 154 (Purchase limits)
Section 143 (Land-use change)धारा 143
The process that converts farm land into 'abadi' so it can be used for housing.
Agricultural land legally stays agricultural until the SDM declares under Section 143 that it is now abadi (non-agricultural). Only after a 143 declaration can you safely build a house or sell plots for housing. Buying 'agricultural' land for a cottage without 143 conversion is a classic mistake.
Section 154 (Purchase limits)धारा 154
The rule limiting how much agricultural land a non-farmer/outsider can buy.
Section 154 of the ZA & LR Act restricts purchases of agricultural land - the base rule caps any transferee's holding at 12.5 acres (5.0586 ha). Uttarakhand added tighter limits for buyers from outside the state: a 500 sq m ceiling (2003), then 250 sq m once-per-family for residential use (2007), and the 2025 amendment which bars outsiders from buying agricultural/horticultural land in 11 of 13 districts (only Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar are exempt), with transactions tracked on a state portal. Always check the current rule before any purchase - this is the most-changed part of Uttarakhand land law.
Abadiआबादी
Village residential land - the settled, built-up part of a village.
Abadi land is where houses stand, as opposed to fields. It is outside normal agricultural-tenure rules: it is not entered in the khatauni the same way, and building on it is lawful. Section 143 is how farmland officially becomes abadi.
Banjarबंजर
Uncultivated / barren land in the records.
Khasra entries classify land by use: cultivated, orchard, banjar (uncultivated), etc. 'Banjar kadim' means long-uncultivated. Classification matters - it affects valuation, what can be built, and whether the gaon sabha has claims.
Gaon Sabha / Gram Samaj landगांव सभा
Village common land vested in the village body - ponds, paths, pasture.
At zamindari abolition, common lands (ponds, grazing land, paths, wasteland) vested in the gaon sabha for community use. This land cannot be privately sold; encroachments can be evicted. Some may be allotted to landless villagers by proper process, held as asami.
Van Panchayatवन पंचायत
Community-managed forest, unique to the Uttarakhand hills.
Since the 1930s, Kumaon and Garhwal villages have managed community forests through elected van panchayats - a system found almost nowhere else in India. Van panchayat land is forest for the village's use (fuel, fodder); it is not private property and cannot be bought.
Benap / Nayabadबेनाप / नयाबाद
Hill land outside the measured village records (benap = 'unmeasured').
In the hills, old settlements measured only cultivated land; the slopes beyond were left unmeasured (benap) and were declared state property back in 1893. Nayabad is newly broken-in cultivation on such land - regulated in Kumaon by the Kumaun Nayabad and Waste Lands Act, 1948, which required permission to extend fields onto adjoining unmeasured land. Occupation of benap land does not by itself create ownership - a frequent source of hill land disputes.
Measurements
Naliनाली
The standard hill land unit in Kumaon/Garhwal - 16 muthi; about 200 sq m.
Hill land is quoted in nali: 1 nali = 16 muthi = 2,160 sq ft (240 sq yards ≈ 200.7 sq metres), so roughly 20 nali make an acre and about 50 nali a hectare. A 'muthi' is literally a handful - the area sown with one handful of seed. A few Garhwal tehsils use a slightly different nali (2,025-2,250 sq ft), so for deals in Pauri, Almora or Tehri always reconcile with the khatauni's hectare figure.
Muthi / Mutthiमुट्ठी
One-sixteenth of a nali - the smallest customary hill unit (~12.5 sq m).
Muthi means 'a handful (of seed)'. Sixteen muthi make one nali, so a muthi is about 12.5 sq metres. Old hill deeds may describe a field as 'X nali Y muthi'.
Bigha & Biswaबीघा / बिस्वा
Plains units used in Haridwar/US Nagar; 1 bigha = 20 biswa (size varies!).
In the Uttarakhand plains land is quoted in bigha and biswa: 1 bigha = 20 biswa, and 1 biswa is commonly 45 sq yards, making a bigha about 900 sq yards (~750 sq m) - but district practice ranges from roughly 756 to 900 sq yards. Never assume a bigha's size; convert via the khatauni's hectare figure, which is the legal one.
Hectare (official unit)हेक्टेयर
What the khatauni actually records - 10,000 sq m ≈ 2.47 acres.
Modern records keep area in hectares (often to four decimals, e.g. 0.0220 ha = 220 sq m). Deals happen in nali or bigha, records in hectares - most confusion is just unit conversion. 1 hectare ≈ 2.47 acres ≈ 50 nali ≈ 4 pucca bigha (approx).
Paimaish (measurement/demarcation)पैमाइश
Official measurement of a plot's boundaries by revenue staff.
Paimaish is the formal survey of a plot against the shajra map, done by the patwari/kanungo on the tehsildar's order, usually because of a boundary dispute or before construction. Get a paimaish done before buying land whose fencing looks 'approximate'.
Transactions
Sale Deed (Bainama)बैनामा / विक्रय विलेख
The registered document that actually transfers ownership.
A sale deed (bainama) is executed on stamp paper, signed by both parties and two witnesses, and registered at the SRO. Only registration transfers title - an agreement to sell (ikrarnama) or a notarised paper does not. After registration, apply for mutation so the khatauni catches up.
Mutation (Dakhil-Kharij)Stamp DutySRO (Sub-Registrar Office)
Mutation (Dakhil-Kharij)दाखिल-खारिज
Updating the khatauni after a sale, gift or inheritance.
Registration changes ownership; mutation changes the record. Dakhil-kharij ('enter-remove') is the process where the tehsil enters the buyer's name and removes the seller's in the khatauni after verifying the deed. Skipping mutation is how families end up with land still recorded in a grandfather's name.
Virasat (inheritance mutation)विरासत
Mutation of land records after the holder's death.
When a recorded holder dies, heirs apply for virasat - the tehsil records the legal heirs in the khatauni, based on the patwari's report and family evidence. Doing this promptly avoids decades-later succession tangles.
Stamp Dutyस्टाम्प शुल्क
The state tax paid on a deed's value before registration.
Stamp duty in Uttarakhand is charged on the deed value or the circle-rate value, whichever is higher - currently 5% for men and 3.75% for women buyers, plus a registration fee of 2% (capped at ₹25,000) as of 2025. It is paid via e-stamp; the SRO verifies it at registration. Under-stamping is penalised heavily and can void enforcement of the deed.
E-Stampingई-स्टाम्प
The electronic way stamp duty is paid today (replacing physical stamp paper).
Instead of buying physical stamp paper, you pay duty and receive an e-stamp certificate with a unique number, verifiable online. Uttarakhand deeds today are almost always on e-stamps.
Circle Rateसर्किल रेट
The government's minimum land value for an area, used to compute stamp duty.
The district administration fixes minimum per-unit land values by area, road access and land type - the circle rate. Stamp duty is charged on the higher of the actual price or the circle-rate value. On this site's records, 'market value' is the circle-rate-based value and 'transaction value' is the declared price.
Gift Deed (Danpatra)दानपत्र
Transferring land without payment - still needs stamps and registration.
A gift of immovable property must be by registered gift deed, accepted by the recipient during the donor's lifetime. Family gifts often carry concessional stamp duty. Once registered and mutated, it is as final as a sale.
Will (Vasiyat)वसीयत
A document directing who gets the land after death; takes effect only then.
A will needs two witnesses; registration is optional but adds credibility. Unlike a gift deed it can be changed anytime and transfers nothing while the maker lives. After death, heirs use it in the virasat/mutation process.
Power of Attorney (Mukhtarnama)मुख्तारनामा
Authorising someone to act for you - NOT a transfer of ownership.
A PoA lets an agent sign or manage property matters for you. Buying land 'on power of attorney' instead of a registered sale deed gives you no ownership - courts have repeatedly struck this down. Use PoA for convenience (e.g., an NRI authorising a relative to appear at the SRO), never as a substitute for a deed.
Mortgage (Rehan / Bandhak)रेहन / बंधक
Pledging land as loan security; noted in the records.
A mortgage deed pledges land against a loan and is registered; banks also get a charge noted in the khatauni. Before buying, check the records and an SRO search for subsisting mortgages.
Calendar & History
Fasli Yearफ़सली वर्ष
The revenue calendar year, tied to harvests - runs 1 July to 30 June.
Land records don't use the January-December year; they use the fasli ('harvest') year, a Mughal-era revenue calendar. In UP/Uttarakhand the fasli year runs 1 July to 30 June, and equals the Gregorian year minus 592 (for July-December dates) or minus 593 (January-June). So fasli 1433 began on 1 July 2025. Khatauni cycles are labelled in fasli years.
Kharif & Rabiख़रीफ़ / रबी
The two crop seasons the khasra records each year.
Kharif is the monsoon sowing (June-October: paddy, mandua), rabi the winter sowing (October-April: wheat, mustard). The patwari's crop inspection (padtal) records what grew on each plot in each season - evidence of possession that matters in disputes.
Zamindariज़मींदारी
The pre-1950s landlord system, whose abolition created today's records.
Under zamindari, intermediaries collected rent between cultivators and the state. The 1950 ZA & LR Act abolished it, making tillers direct holders. Much of today's record structure - and much old litigation - dates from that transition. (Large parts of the Kumaon hills were never zamindari; cultivators there always held directly from the state.)
Malguzari / Lagaanमालगुज़ारी / लगान
Land revenue - the old land tax; tiny amounts still appear in records.
Lagaan or malguzari was the annual land revenue paid to the state, once the government's main income. The khatauni still shows a small revenue figure per holding. Multiples of this figure were historically used to price tenure upgrades (e.g., sirdar to bhumidhar).
Bandobast (Settlement)बंदोबस्त
The periodic grand survey that created/revised all village records.
A settlement (bandobast) was the operation of surveying every village, fixing boundaries, classifying soils and writing the records - in the hills, famous settlements are attached to officers' names (Traill, Beckett). Today's khasra numbers descend from the last settlement's maps, which is why old settlement records still matter in court.
Drawn from the classic references on the region's land system - V.A. Stowell's Manual of the Land Tenures of the Kumaun Division (1907), G.W. Traill's Kumaon settlement records (1820s), B.H. Baden-Powell's Land-Systems of British India(1892) - and the UP Zamindari Abolition & Land Reforms Act, 1950 as adapted by Uttarakhand, including the 2025 amendment. Simplified for readability; not legal advice - confirm current rules at the tehsil or with a lawyer before acting.