How to Check if Your Survey Number Is on the Section 22A Prohibited List
3 min read
How to Check if Your Survey Number Is on the Section 22A Prohibited List
A software engineer in Nizampet paid a token advance, cleared the papers, booked his slot at the Sub-Registrar office. On the morning of registration, the deed was refused at the counter. The survey number sat on the state's Section 22A prohibited list.
Everything he did was what a careful buyer does. A two-minute free check, run days earlier, would have told him the same thing.
Here's how to run it.
What Section 22A actually does
Section 22A of the Registration Act, 1908 lets the state bar specific parcels from registration. Once a survey number is on that list, the Sub-Registrar is legally bound to refuse the sale deed, gift deed, or mortgage. No discretion. No workaround.
The categories covered:
Government land
Assigned land — given to landless poor families for cultivation, not sellable
Endowment and Waqf property
Ceiling surplus land
Court-disputed parcels
Land notified as opposed to public policy
On assigned land specifically: when a broker says "konukondi, tharvatha regularize cheskovachu", understand what's being promised. Regularisation is a government decision, not a formality. Until it happens, you hold no registrable title and no legal recourse against the seller who took your money.
The check: both portals, same day
This is the part most guides get wrong.
Agricultural land → bhubharati.telangana.gov.in Urban and non-agricultural plots → registration.telangana.gov.in (IGRS)
But run both, regardless. A survey number can show clear on one portal and prohibited on the other, because the two systems don't always sync at the same rate. Buyers who checked only one have been refused at the SRO.
A note on your script's instruction: Dharani has been superseded by Bhu Bharati for land records. Use Bhu Bharati.
Step by step
Get the survey number in writing from the seller — not verbally, not from a brochure
Cross-check it against the pattadar passbook so you're searching the right parcel
Open Bhu Bharati → Prohibited Properties search → District → Mandal → Village → Survey Number
Open IGRS → Prohibited Property search → same details
Save dated screenshots of both results
If either shows "Govt Land," "Wakf," "Assigned," or any 22A entry — stop
Treat the result as perishable
The list is updated continuously by the Inspector General of Registration through government orders. A result from last month tells you almost nothing.
Run the check again in the days immediately before registration. Not weeks before. Days.
What happens if it's listed
You cannot register the sale deed. Legal ownership never passes to you. Banks conduct their own title checks and will reject a home loan outright on a flagged property.
If you've already paid an advance, you're now chasing a refund from someone who knew.
The other side: wrongly flagged land
This is worth knowing, because it cuts both ways.
The 2017-18 Land Records Updation Programme and the 2020 Dharani rollout incorrectly flagged large numbers of genuine private patta lands. In August 2025 the government formed a high-level committee to review a prohibited list covering over one crore acres.
The Telangana High Court has also found that some revenue authorities added land to the list without specifying the clause, the date of inclusion, or the procedure followed — violations of Rules 238 to 241 of the Telangana Registration Rules, 2016.
If your own land is wrongly listed: an entry with no clear date, clause and procedure may be legally challengeable. The correction route is the Bhu Bharati ROR Corrections module → grievance relating to inclusion in the prohibited properties list, with your title documents uploaded as evidence.
Registration stays blocked until the flag is formally removed. Track the portal.
Red flags before you even search
Signal | Why it matters |
|---|---|
Price well below the area rate | The most reliable indicator of a title problem |
"Regularize cheskovachu tharvatha" | A promise about a government decision the seller doesn't control |
Seller won't give the survey number in writing | The check takes two minutes and is free. Refusal is the answer |
Land in an old government allotment colony | Assigned-land history is common here |
Parcel near a temple complex or Waqf institution | Endowment land flags cluster here |
Where this sits in your sequence
The 22A check is fast, free, and disqualifying, so run it early:
22A check on both portals ← start here
Bhu Bharati GIS map and land details
Encumbrance Certificate, 30 years
Certified Tippan and licensed survey
Layout approval and NALA
Legal opinion on the title chain
Most bad parcels fail at step one, in under two minutes, at zero cost.
Bottom line
Cheap land with a 22A flag is not an investment at a discount. It is a legal liability you paid for.
Get the survey number in writing. Check both portals. Screenshot both results. Check again before registration.
Entha cheap ga ostunna — 22A list lo unte, adhi investment kaadu.
Plot it — HMDA-approved land, verified before it's listed. @plotit.hyd | plotit.in
Telangana land administration has changed substantially since April 2025 and the prohibited list is under active review. Verify current status with the MRO or a property lawyer before acting on a specific parcel.
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