Learn · Maharashtra
How do you read a 7/12 (satbara utara)?
A 7/12 (satbara utara) is Maharashtra’s record of rights for one parcel: who holds it, on what tenure, its area, what is recorded against it, and what grows on it, season by season. It is a record, not proof of ownership. Read it column by column, with the ferfar register behind it, before you pay a token.
Is a 7/12 proof of ownership?
No. The law presumes an entry on it true until the contrary is proved, and the Supreme Court has held that revenue entries confer no title. Title comes from the deeds and the ferfar chain behind the entry, so a buyer reads both.
Maharashtra Land Revenue Code 1966, s.157; Jitendra Singh v. State of Madhya Pradesh (Supreme Court, 6 Sep 2021) · checked 26 Oct 2026
The 7/12, column by column
The upper half is Village Form VII, the record of rights; the lower half is Village Form XII, the crop record. Headings in Marathi as they appear on the extract.
| Column | What it records | What to check | The law, and when we checked it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Village, survey or gat number, hissaगाव, भूमापन / गट क्रमांक, हिस्सा क्रमांक | The parcel’s identity in every record: the village, the survey (or gat) number the revenue survey gave it, and the sub-division. | The same number on the deed, the map and the seller’s papers. Vassoka never publishes it until a buyer has signed a viewing undertaking. | — |
| Tenure: occupancy classभूधारणा पद्धती: भोगवटादार वर्ग 1 / वर्ग 2 | On what terms the land is held: Class I, held freely, or Class II, held with restrictions. | Class II land is held with restrictions on transfer; usually the Collector’s previous sanction is needed before a sale, and a sale without it is invalid. Read the class here and again in the last ferfar. | Class II: restrictions on transfer (MLRC 1966 s.29(3), s.36(1)); land a tenant bought: Collector’s previous sanction (MTALA 1948 s.43).Checked 26 Oct 2026 Converting Class II land to non-agricultural use does not change its class: Class II stays Class II.Mah. Act LVII of 2025, in force 31 Dec 2025 · checked 26 Oct 2026 |
| Holdersभोगवटादाराचे नाव | Who holds the land now. Several names mean several signatures. | Every holder signs. Read Form 8-A too: every parcel each holder has in the village. | — |
| Area, assessment, pot-kharabक्षेत्र, आकारणी, पोट खराबा | The area in hectares and ares, the land revenue on it, and the pot-kharab: the part that is rock, pit or road and never cultivated. | On this coast the pot-kharab can be most of the parcel. Price the usable area, not the total. | A rural plot below the standard area (20 R dry, 10 R irrigated land on the southern Konkan coast, under the August 2023 notification), cut out of a survey number outside a non-farm zone, cannot simply be sold: the Fragmentation Act makes that transfer void (ss.8 and 9).Maharashtra Fragmentation Act 1947; secondary source for the figures · checked 26 Oct 2026 |
| Tenantकुळाचे नाव | A tenant’s name, if one is recorded against the land. | Ask why the name is there and whether the tenancy was ever ended on the record. A recorded tenant may claim to have bought the land by law, and on the southern Konkan coast twelve years of uninterrupted cultivation can make someone a deemed tenant; only the Mamlatdar decides who is a tenant. | Deemed purchase on 1 April 1957 (s.32); later tenants may buy within a year (s.32-O); deemed tenant (s.4, and s.4(2) for twelve years’ cultivation on this coast); Mamlatdar decides, civil courts barred (ss.70, 85). Maharashtra Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act 1948.Checked 26 Oct 2026 |
| Other rightsइतर अधिकार | Loans, liens, a bank’s charge, a right of way: anything recorded against the land. | Each one is discharged, in writing, before the deed. A recorded charge can follow the land to a buyer. | A co-operative society’s loan charge is entered in the record, and a sale before it is repaid is void (Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act 1960, s.48); unpaid land revenue is a paramount charge (MLRC s.72); a charge binds a buyer who knew of it or should have found it (Transfer of Property Act 1882, ss.3 and 100).Checked 26 Oct 2026 |
| Mutation numbersफेरफार क्रमांक | The entries in the ferfar (mutation register) that made the record what it is: every change of holder, and why. | Pull every ferfar back to the root. A chain with a gap is a title with a gap. If the class on the 7/12 and the class in the last ferfar disagree, stop. | — |
| Form XII: the crop recordगाव नमुना बारा: हंगाम, पीक, क्षेत्र, जलसिंचन | The lower half of the 7/12: what grew, season by season, the area under each crop, the source of irrigation, and land not available for cultivation. | Read it with the tenure and the NA position: together they tell you whether you are buying agricultural land, which decides who may buy it. | A non-agriculturist needs the Collector’s prior permission to buy agricultural land; land earmarked in a Development or Regional Plan is carved out.Section 63, Maharashtra Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act 1948; Mah. Act 1 of 2016 · checked 26 Oct 2026 Where the plan allows the use, conversion needs no separate NA order: a one-time premium, then the 7/12 is changed.Mah. Act LVII of 2025, in force 31 Dec 2025 · checked 26 Oct 2026 An NRI or OCI may not acquire agricultural land, plantation property or a farmhouse; inheritance is allowed.FEMA NDI Rules 2019, Rule 24 · checked 26 Oct 2026 |
Checked 26 Oct 2026: every legal line above, from the Vassoka law register. A guide, not legal advice; your advocate confirms against the parcel.
Read next
The glossary’s 7/12 entry, and every guide on Learn. Or send a 7/12 to Arya on WhatsApp: the reply says what to pull next.