Record of Rights (Khatian) in West Bengal
The revenue department register recording who is shown in possession of a survey number, the extent, the classification of the land and the crops or tenancy noted against it.
The khatian is the holding record and the plot or dag number identifies the parcel. Both are needed; a khatian number alone does not identify land.
Issued through Banglarbhumi · WB Registration (e-Nathikaran).
What it proves
- Who the revenue authority currently records as the holder of the survey number
- The extent and the classification of the land — patta, government, assigned, inam or forest
- The sequence of mutation entries by which the revenue record moved from one name to another
What it does not prove
- Ownership. In most of India the record of rights is presumptive evidence of possession for revenue purposes and is expressly not a document of title
- That the registered deed chain agrees with it. Revenue records and registration records are maintained by different departments and routinely disagree
- That the land can be sold to you. Classification as assigned, inam or government land can bar transfer regardless of whose name appears
How to obtain it
- Look the survey number up on the state land-records portal, or obtain a certified extract from the village or taluk revenue office
- Pull the mutation register alongside it — the current entry alone hides how the name got there
- Match the extent and boundaries against the sale deed and against the cadastral map before relying on any of it
Where people get caught
- The land-nature or classification column is the one that decides whether a sale is even possible. Assigned and government land can carry a permanent or long-period alienation bar, and a clean-looking holder name does not cure it
- Digitised records inherit the errors of the manual registers they were keyed from. A name, extent or classification can be wrong in the portal and right in the physical register, or the reverse
- Subdivision lags reality. One survey number in the record may be several plots on the ground, and the extent shown may be the parent extent, not what you are buying