Indian title runs thirty years back, and every later deed inherits the earlier defects.

In the Gulf states and in most jurisdictions a platform works in, a registry records title and its record is the title: the state guarantees it, a purchaser relies on it, and diligence is a search. In India, registration records the deed and guarantees nothing about the title the deed purports to convey. The sub-registrar registers that a document was executed, by whom, on what date, with what stamp; whether the person who executed it owned what it conveyed is a question the registry does not answer. Title is proved by the chain of deeds, each conveying what its maker had, back through every transfer, succession, partition and encumbrance, for a period long enough that claims arising before it are barred or remote, which in practice is at least thirty years. Every later deed inherits the earlier defects: a flaw in a conveyance in the second decade is a flaw in the title today, whatever the deeds since say. The consequence for a platform is that the parcel's file, which on the land door holds seven items, holds in India a title report of a different order: a chain walked by counsel, a search in the sub-registrar's records for every encumbrance, the revenue records that show who the state believes holds the land, the succession position of every individual in the chain, and a litigation search in the courts whose jurisdiction the parcel sits in. The report is the asset's title, and a vehicle holds the parcel only when the report is clean or its defects are priced.

This note sets out why there is no guaranteed title, the chain and the period, the records that are searched and what each shows, where chains break, the revenue records and the deeds as two systems, the succession and the partition questions, the unregistered agreement, the litigation search, the report's form and its defects priced, title insurance and what it covers, the parcel company as the defect's container, the sequence with the report first, the lender's reading, a comparison, a worked report as a type, cases, what each party holds, the sequence, questions, terms and what to read.

Why there is no guaranteed title

India's registration law requires certain instruments affecting immovable property to be registered, and registration gives the instrument priority and evidentiary weight; it does not examine the transferor's title, and the state does not indemnify a purchaser who relied on a registered deed from a person with no title. The system is a record of documents, maintained at the sub-registrar's office for the area, with indexes by property and by person, and a search of it shows what was registered, not what was owned. Proposals for guaranteed title have been made and some states have begun pilots, and the working position for a platform is that title is proved by the chain, and the chain is read.

The chain and the period

The chain is every instrument by which the parcel passed from one holder to the next: sale deeds, gift deeds, partition deeds, wills and succession certificates, court decrees, government grants and allotments, leases and their surrenders, mortgages and their releases. Each conveys what its maker had, and the chain's strength is its weakest link. The period is at least thirty years because the limitation law bars most claims to immovable property after a period and a chain longer than it gives reasonable comfort that earlier claims are barred; a longer walk is taken where the parcel's history suggests it, and a chain that begins with a government grant or a court decree has a root the report can rest on.

Why the Gulf instinct fails

A Gulf platform's diligence habit is a registry search and a read of the encumbrances, because the Gulf registries guarantee what they record and the search is the title. In India the same habit produces a search of the last few registered deeds and a belief that the title is clean, and the belief lasts until a claimant arrives with a document from a decade the search did not reach. The habit fails because it assumes a registry that does not exist, and the correction is a different kind of file: longer, in several offices, read by counsel who practise where the parcel sits, and priced for what it finds. The land door's seven items become one item of a different order, and the sequence makes room for it.

The root of title

The chain is walked back to a root: an instrument from which the title can be traced with confidence, such as a government grant, an allotment by a development authority, a court decree, or a registered partition that the family's members all joined. A root within the period is a strong start; a chain that begins with a private sale whose maker's own title is unproved has no root, and the walk continues until one is found or the report says there is none. The root's quality is the report's first finding, and a parcel with a government root and a short clean chain is the parcel the Indian market prizes.

The power of attorney in the chain

Many Indian transfers are executed under powers of attorney, by an agent for a holder who is abroad, ill or a family's representative, and the power's validity, its registration where required, its scope, and whether it was revoked or the principal had died before the deed, are each a question about the deed executed under it. A chain with a power of attorney in it has a link whose strength is the power's, and the report obtains the power, reads it, and where the principal is alive obtains a confirmation. A power of attorney sale, used in some markets to avoid duty, is a transfer the courts have declined to treat as a conveyance, and a chain that rests on one has a break the report names.

The records searched

The sub-registrar's records, for every registered instrument affecting the parcel, indexed by property and by the names in the chain, in every office whose jurisdiction the parcel has fallen under as boundaries changed. The revenue records, the state's land records maintained by the revenue department, showing the holder, the tenure, the classification and the encumbrances as the state records them. The municipal or planning records, for the parcel's zoning, its approvals and any acquisition notice. The court records, for litigation affecting the parcel or the persons in the chain. The succession records, for probate, letters of administration or succession certificates for any deceased holder. And the physical survey, for the parcel's boundaries against the records and for possession. Each is a different office with its own indexes and its own delays, and the report assembles them.

Where chains break

Succession: land passed on a death without the documents that prove who inherited, in a family whose members, or whose members' heirs, may later claim. Partition: a joint family's land divided by an agreement that was never registered, so that the deeds show an undivided holding and the holders' shares are unproved. Revenue records that disagree with the deeds, because the two systems are kept separately and a transfer registered at the sub-registrar was never mutated in the revenue record, or the reverse. A prior sale agreement, unregistered, that binds the land in the seller's hands under the law's protection of a purchaser in possession. A power of attorney under which a deed was executed, whose validity or scope is doubtful. A minor's interest conveyed without the court's permission. A government acquisition notice the records carry and the seller did not mention. And on agricultural land, a conversion of tenure that was assumed rather than obtained. Each break is a defect the report names.

The revenue records and the deeds

The two systems record the same parcel for different purposes: the sub-registrar records instruments and the revenue department records holdings for the state's land administration. A sale registered at the sub-registrar is mutated in the revenue record on application, and a mutation not applied for leaves the revenue record showing the seller. The conversion authority, the planning authority and the courts work from the revenue record, and a parcel whose revenue entry names a person other than the deed's holder is a parcel whose every later application stalls on the mismatch. The report reads both and reconciles them, and a reconciliation the seller cannot complete is a defect.

Succession and partition

An Indian family's land passes on death under the personal law of the family's community, which differs, and the heirs are fixed by that law unless a will the law recognises provides otherwise. A chain that shows land held by a person who died and then conveyed by one heir shows a conveyance of one share or of a whole by someone who held a share, and the other heirs' claims survive. A joint family's property under the personal law is held jointly, and its partition is an event the deeds must show. The report identifies every deceased holder in the chain, the law that applied, the heirs it produced, and the documents that show their interests were conveyed or released, and a family member's release obtained for the transaction is a common cure for a common defect.

The unregistered agreement

An agreement to sell, unregistered, gives the purchaser under it a claim against the seller and, where the purchaser has possession and has performed its part, a defence against a later purchaser with notice. A seller that has agreed to sell to one person and then sells to the platform has created a claim the platform's title may face. The report searches for such agreements by enquiry, by the seller's declarations and warranties, by the possession survey, and by public notice in the local press inviting claims, which is the Indian practice for surfacing unregistered interests before a purchase.

The litigation search

Courts of several levels have jurisdiction over the parcel and the persons in the chain, and a suit affecting the parcel, for partition, for specific performance of an agreement, for a declaration of title, for an injunction against development, binds a purchaser with notice and in some cases without. The search is made in each court's records by the parcel's description and by the names, and a parcel in litigation is a parcel whose title is the suit's outcome. The search is repeated at completion, because a suit can be filed the day before.

The report and its defects priced

The report sets out the chain, the records searched, the defects found with their nature and their cure, the cures obtained, the residual defects and counsel's opinion on the title's marketability. A clean report is rare; a report whose defects are cured or priced is the asset. Pricing a defect means reducing the price for the risk, obtaining an indemnity from the seller with security for it, holding back part of the price against the defect's resolution, or excluding the parcel. A defect of a kind a purchaser at exit will not accept, an unresolved succession claim on a large share, is a defect that excludes the parcel whatever the price.

The regulator's project registration and the title

A residential project registered with the state's real estate regulator is registered with the promoter's title documents and counsel's title report, and the regulator's record carries the title's evidence for the buyers. The report the platform commissioned for its own purchase is the report the registration needs, and a platform that bought on a short search has a registration application that asks for a report it did not obtain. The buyers' protection under the regulator's regime begins with the promoter's title, and the regime's requirement is the same chain the platform's own diligence walks.

Title insurance

The Indian market offers title insurance for projects under the real estate regulator's regime and for transactions, on terms that cover defects in the chain the insurer's own diligence did not find, with exclusions for known defects and for matters the report disclosed. It is a price on the residual risk rather than a cure, and it is taken where the market offers it on terms the residual justifies. A platform that takes title insurance as a substitute for the report has insured a title nobody read, and the policy's exclusions are the defects the report would have found.

The parcel company as the container

Each parcel is held in its own company, so that a defect found later in one parcel's chain, a claim surfacing in year four, stays with that parcel and its company and does not reach the holding's other parcels. The container does not cure the defect; it limits it, and a purchaser of another parcel company diligences a chain that has nothing to do with the defective one. On Indian land the parcel-company rule of the land door has this reason in addition to its others.

The lender's reading

An Indian lender lends against the parcel on a title report by its own counsel, on the same chain, and its security is worth what the title is. A lender that finds a defect the platform's report priced requires the cure or the indemnity as a condition precedent, and a defect the lender will not accept is a parcel the lender will not finance, which changes the programme's funding. The lender's report and the platform's are compared before the facility, and the platform's report is written to the standard a lender's counsel will apply.

By record · by question	What it shows	Where it is kept	What a break looks like
Sub-registrar's index	Registered instruments by property and person	The sub-registrar's office for each area in the chain's period	An unregistered transfer; a deed by a person not in the chain
Revenue record	The state's holder, tenure, classification, encumbrances	The revenue department	A holder other than the deed's; an unconverted tenure
Succession documents	Who inherited from each deceased holder	Courts and the family	A conveyance by one heir of a whole
Partition deeds	How a joint holding was divided	The sub-registrar, or nowhere	An unregistered family arrangement
Court records	Suits affecting the parcel or the persons	Each court with jurisdiction	A pending partition or specific performance suit
Planning and acquisition records	Zoning, approvals, acquisition notices	The municipal and planning authorities	An acquisition notice the seller did not mention
Physical survey and possession	The boundaries and who is on the land	The site	A possessor who is not the seller
Public notice	Claims invited from the public	The local press	A claim under an unregistered agreement

A report, as a type

A platform's Indian company proposes to buy a parcel for a residential development. Counsel walks the chain thirty-five years back to a registered partition deed among a joint family, through three sales, one succession and one mortgage released. The succession shows a holder who died leaving four heirs under the applicable personal law, and the deed following it was executed by three; the fourth's release is obtained for the transaction. The revenue record names the current seller after a mutation applied for two years late and granted. The litigation search finds a boundary suit with a neighbour, disposed of, and a fresh search at completion finds nothing. The public notice produces no claim. The planning record shows no acquisition notice and a zoning the programme fits. The report names the heir's release as the cure obtained, the late mutation as a noted irregularity, and the title as marketable, and title insurance is taken on the residual. The parcel is bought into its own company on the report, and the lender's counsel, on the same chain, concurs.

The structure paper's page

The structure paper's India page carries the title report's standard: the chain's minimum period and the root, the records and offices, the succession and partition procedure, the public notice, the litigation search and its repetition, the defects' pricing rules, the insurance's place, the parcel company's container, and the lender's concurrence. The page is written before the first Indian parcel is identified, and it is the page the platform's Indian counsel is instructed from.

The second programme's reading

A manager's second Indian programme is raised on the first's title record: whether every parcel's chain was walked, whether a claimant ever arrived, whether the lender's counsel concurred, whether the purchasers at exit read clean reports. A first programme whose parcels held their titles for the programme's life is a programme whose holders accept the second's Indian land risk on the report's standard; one whose programme was stopped by a suit from the fourth decade is a programme whose holders ask for the standard before the seed. The report is the land door's Indian discipline, and it is first.

Four cases, as types

A platform buys a parcel on a search of the sub-registrar's records for the last ten years, finding a clean run of three sales. In year three a claimant produces a partition decree from the fourth decade back, never reflected in the deeds, under which the seller's predecessor held half; the platform's title is to half and the claimant's suit stops the programme.

A platform buys a parcel whose deed names the seller and whose revenue record names the seller's late father. The conversion application stalls on the mismatch, the mutation needs the father's heirs' consents, and two of them are abroad and unwilling.

A platform relies on title insurance and a short search. The claim that surfaces is one the insurer's exclusions cover, because the report the insurer required disclosed the defect the platform did not read.

A platform puts the report first on the sequence, walks the chain, searches every record, obtains the cures, prices the residual, takes insurance on it, holds the parcel in its own company and repeats the litigation search at completion. The title was what the report said, and the purchaser at exit read the same report.

What each party holds

The platform holds the sequence with the report first and the pricing of the residual.

Indian counsel holds the chain, the searches, the defects, the cures and the opinion.

The seller holds its declarations, warranties, indemnity and the cures it must obtain.

The insurer holds the residual on its policy's terms.

The lender holds its own report and its conditions precedent.

The parcel company holds the parcel and its defect, if any, alone.

Where it surfaces

It surfaces at the seller's first documents, which show ten years. It surfaces at the sub-registrar's office, when the earlier indexes are in another office whose boundaries changed. It surfaces at the revenue record, in the mismatch. It surfaces at the succession, in the heir who did not sign. It surfaces at the public notice, in the claim that arrives. It surfaces at the lender's counsel, in the defect the platform priced and the lender will not. And it surfaces years later, in the claimant at the gate.

The cost of getting it wrong

A defective title costs the parcel, in part or whole, the programme stopped by a suit, the lender's withdrawal, the purchaser at exit declining, and the years in court. The cost of the report is counsel's weeks and the offices' delays, before any commitment, and the cost of the cures is the releases and the price's adjustment. The comparison is the land door's plainest on Indian land, and the report is first on the sequence because the alternative is a conversation about a parcel that cannot be held.

The committee's reading

The committee reads each Indian parcel's title report before the option or the contract: the root, the chain, the defects, the cures obtained, the residual and its price, counsel's opinion, the insurance's terms, the revenue record's reconciliation and the litigation search's date. It reads the lender's counsel's concurrence where a facility is planned. And it reads the completion search. A committee that reads the report as the parcel's title reads the Indian programme's first risk in the document that answers it.

A timeline, as a type

In month one the parcel is identified and counsel is instructed to walk the chain before any terms. In month two the sub-registrar's indexes in two offices are searched thirty-five years back to a registered partition; the revenue record is obtained and shows a late mutation; the succession of one holder is traced to four heirs. In month three the fourth heir's release is negotiated and obtained, the public notice is published, and the litigation search is made. In month four the report issues with the title marketable on the cures, the residual priced and insurance obtained. In month five the option is taken on the report's terms. In month nine the parcel is bought into its own company, with the litigation search repeated the day before. In year six the purchaser at exit reads the same report and its counsel concurs.

The sequence

1. The title report is commissioned before the option, the valuation and the deck, with the chain walked at least thirty years.
2. Every record is searched: sub-registrar, revenue, succession, partition, courts, planning, survey, and the public notice is published.
3. The defects are named with their cures, the cures are obtained from the seller and the family, and the residual is priced or the parcel is excluded.
4. Title insurance is taken on the residual where the market offers it.
5. The parcel is bought into its own company, with the litigation search repeated at completion.
6. The report is kept as the parcel's title for the lender, the regulator and the purchaser at exit.

Questions a manager asks

Is thirty years enough. It is the usual minimum for the limitation period's comfort; the report walks further where the chain's history suggests it, and a root in a government grant or a decree is the best start.

How long does the report take. Weeks to months, by the number of offices and the chain's complexity; the sequence allows for it before any commitment.

Can the seller's own report be relied on. It is read, and the platform's counsel walks the chain itself; a seller's report is the seller's.

What does the public notice do. It invites claims under unregistered interests before the purchase and is evidence of the platform's diligence if a claim surfaces later.

Are revenue records online. In many states, and the online record is checked against the office's, because the two may differ.

What if the family's heirs are many and scattered. Releases from each, or a court's declaration, or a price that reflects the claims; a parcel with unreleased heirs on a large share is excluded.

Terms used

Chain of title: the sequence of instruments by which the parcel passed from holder to holder.

Sub-registrar: the office that registers instruments affecting immovable property in its area.

Revenue record: the state's land record of holders, tenure and classification, kept separately from the deeds.

Mutation: the updating of the revenue record after a transfer.

Release: a family member's or heir's written surrender of a claim, obtained as a cure.

Public notice: the published invitation for claims against the parcel before purchase.

What to read

The registration law and the limitation law as they bear on title; the state's revenue records system; the personal laws of succession; the court records' search procedure; the title insurance terms the market offers; the real estate regulator's requirements for title in registered projects. On this site, the land and lexicon rooms under the development estate and the access room under Land.