Reading Maharashtra land records: the 7/12 extract, property card and mutation entries

Rules and rates as of 21 October 2026.

Anyone buying a plot, a bungalow or a flat in a new project on the edge of Pune will be handed a stack of land papers: a 7/12 extract, perhaps a property card, and a list of old mutation entries. These are Maharashtra's land records. They tell you a great deal about a piece of land, but they are not a title deed, and reading them as one is a common mistake.

What the law calls these records

Chapter X of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966 deals with land records. Section 148 provides for a record of rights, section 149 requires acquisitions of rights to be reported, section 150 sets up the register of mutations and the register of disputed cases, and section 157 gives entries a legal presumption of correctness.

The detail sits in two sets of rules:

• the Maharashtra Land Revenue Record of Rights and Registers (Preparation and Maintenance) Rules, 1971, which govern the village record and the mutation register; and
• the Maharashtra Land Revenue (Village, Town and City Survey) Rules, 1969, under which surveyed town and city land gets a property card.

In everyday language, the village record of rights for a survey number is the "7/12" or satbara extract, and the change entries are ferfar (mutation) entries.

The 7/12 extract: who holds the land, and what is attached to it

Rule 3 of the 1971 Rules requires a separate record for each survey number or sub-division. The specimen form lists the survey number and sub-division, the tenure, the occupant's name, the khata number, any tenant and rent, the cultivable area, the assessment, and boundary and survey marks.

When you read one, look for four things:

• The names in the occupant column. Every person whose name appears may need to sign the sale. A name you were not told about is a question for the seller's lawyer.
• The area. Check it against what you are being sold (see the worked example below).
• Tenure and other rights. Tenure tells you the kind of holding. Mortgages, tenants and other rights can appear against the land. A bank's charge noted here is a loan to be cleared.
• The mutation numbers. Entries refer to the ferfar entries that put them there. Ask for copies of those entries.

The property card: the town and city version

Where a town or city survey has been carried out, Rule 7 of the 1969 Rules records each parcel on a separate card in Form 'D', the property card. The form covers survey number, area, tenure, the assessment or rent payable to the government, easements, the holder "in origin of title (so far as traced)", any lessee and other encumbrances. Later changes are written in transaction columns: date, transaction, new holder, lessee or encumbrance, and the officer's attestation.

Both rule sets say a card or record kept on the software the Commissioner specifies is deemed to be the original. So a computerised extract counts as the record itself.

Mutation entries: how a change gets on the record

Under section 149, a person who acquires a right in land by succession, purchase, gift, lease, mortgage or otherwise must report it to the talathi within three months. The duty does not apply if the right came "by virtue of a registered document". In that case, section 154 makes the registering officer send an intimation to the village talathi and the taluka tahsildar.

Section 150 then sets the process:

1. The talathi enters the report or intimation in the register of mutations, posts a copy in the chavdi (village office) and informs interested persons in writing. Where records are computerised, intimation can go by SMS or email.
2. Anyone can object. The objection goes into the register of disputed cases, and the objector gets a written acknowledgement.
3. Rules 17 and 24 of the 1971 Rules give at least 15 days' notice before an entry is certified, and 15 days for objections after notice.
4. A revenue officer not below the rank of aval karkun (a circle inspector for undisputed entries) tests and certifies the entry. Only a certified entry moves into the record of rights. Disputes are to be decided, as far as possible, within a year.

So if the talathi's notice of your purchase goes out on 2 November 2026, the entry cannot be certified before 17 November 2026, and later if someone objects.

What these records do not prove

Section 157 says an entry in the record of rights, and a certified mutation entry, is presumed correct "until the contrary is proved" or a new entry is lawfully substituted. That is a presumption, not a guarantee.

The Supreme Court put the limit plainly in Jitendra Singh v. State of Madhya Pradesh (order of 6 September 2021): a "mutation entry does not confer any right, title or interest in favour of the person", and an entry in the revenue record "is only for the fiscal purpose". Someone claiming title has to go to a civil court. In a Mumbai dispute decided on 8 June 2026 (Amol Govind Mhatre v. Sharda Ganpat Sawant, Writ Petition 5806 of 2022), the Bombay High Court repeated that revenue authorities "cannot decide title where disputed questions of facts are involved".

For a buyer, that means the 7/12 or property card is one strand of evidence. Title comes from the chain of registered documents behind it. A lawyer's title search should reconcile the two, entry by entry.

Worked example: checking the area

A seller offers agricultural land on Pune's fringe as "one acre" for ₹1.2 crore. The 7/12 shows 0.36 hectares.

• 1 acre = 4,840 square yards = 4,840 × 0.9144² = 4,046.86 sq m.
• 0.36 hectare = 0.36 × 10,000 = 3,600 sq m, which is 3,600 ÷ 4,046.86 = 0.89 acre.
• Price per sq m on the seller's description: ₹1,20,00,000 ÷ 4,046.86 = ₹2,965.
• Price per sq m on the record: ₹1,20,00,000 ÷ 3,600 = ₹3,333.
• Shortfall: 4,046.86 − 3,600 = 446.86 sq m. At ₹2,965 a sq m that is about ₹13.25 lakh.

The figures are illustrative. If the record and the offer disagree, the next step is the survey office's measurement and a lawyer, not a negotiation over the phone.

Unit	Square metres	Square feet
1 are	100	1,076
1 acre	4,046.86	43,560
0.36 hectare (example)	3,600	38,750
1 hectare	10,000	1,07,639

Where to get copies

Maharashtra's land records department runs the Mahabhumi portal, which offers 7/12 extracts, property cards and the status of mutation applications online. Its fee and validity pages could not be checked for this article, so confirm on the portal, or at the tahsil or city survey office, which copy your lender and lawyer will accept.