Title search in Buldhana and Khamgaon: farm land, ferfar and Vidarbha tenancy limits

Visit our Khamgaon office for property anywhere in Buldhana district

Visit our Buldhana office at 1st Floor, Shubham Karoti Complex, Nandura Road, Opp. Civil Court, Khamgaon, Buldhana, Maharashtra. Please make an appointment first by calling +91 8291849797 or +91 9167710454 or writing to info@vivs.in.

If you live in Pune, Mumbai or overseas and are buying family or farm land here, send scans by email and we can talk on a video call. Our head office is in Sanpada-Vashi, Navi Mumbai. Adv. Ashok Ingle (B.A. LL.B) and Adv. Swanand Pandit (BLS, LL.B, LL.M, PGDBM, JAIIB; Advocate, High Court of Bombay) read the file.

What does a title search in Buldhana district mainly look at?

Buldhana has 13 tehsils: Buldhana, Chikhli, Mehkar, Lonar, Deulgaon Raja, Sindkhed Raja, Motala, Malkapur, Nandura, Khamgaon, Shegaon, Jalgaon Jamod and Sangrampur. Outside the town limits, a purchase is usually a purchase of agricultural land, known by its gat number and recorded on the 7/12 extract. So the questions differ from a city flat purchase:

• Does the family named on the 7/12 really hold the whole gat, and has every heir been recorded?
• Are you legally allowed to buy this land at all?
• Is the piece being sold large enough to be sold separately?
• Does the seller hold it with full transfer rights, or as Class 2?
• Is the government about to take it for a dam, canal or railway?

The 7/12 is where this starts, but it is not the end. A revenue entry records who is treated as holder for revenue purposes, and it does not by itself create ownership. The mutation entries (ferfar) behind it show how each name got there: by sale, inheritance, a family partition or a court order. We read those entries against the deeds and the family tree, because an heir left out of a ferfar can still come forward with a claim.

Can a non-farmer buy land in Buldhana? The Vidarbha tenancy limits

Buldhana is in Vidarbha, so farm land here falls under the Maharashtra Tenancy and Agricultural Lands (Vidarbha Region) Act, 1958.

Section 89 makes a sale, gift, exchange or lease of land to a non-agriculturist invalid. The Collector or an authorised officer may permit a transfer in prescribed cases. The bar does not apply to land within a municipal council area, or to land allotted to non-agricultural use in a regional plan or town planning scheme, though that exemption carries its own conditions, including a period for starting the non-agricultural use.

Section 57 looks at the seller's side. Land a tenant bought under the Act cannot be sold, gifted, mortgaged or leased without the Collector's previous sanction. After ten years, the sanction can fall away if conditions are met: a nazarana is paid, the buyer is an agriculturist and within the ceiling, and the fragmentation law is not broken. A transfer against this section is invalid. It does not apply to land purchased by an occupancy tenant.

So we ask for your papers as well as the seller's. Before an agreement is signed, you should know whether you qualify as an agriculturist, and whether the land came to the seller's family as tenant-purchased land.

Records and offices for Buldhana and Khamgaon property

How to check whether a gat is being acquired

The Buldhana district website publishes land acquisition notices by taluka and village. Recent ones include these:

• Direct purchase of private land at Nimgaon, Nandura taluka, to resettle villages submerged by the Jigaon project
• Land at Mera Khurd, Chikhli taluka, for a lift irrigation scheme of the Khadakpurna project
• Agricultural land at Kanzara, Khamgaon taluka, in a 2025-26 acquisition case
• A case at Malkapur for electric traction work on the Pachora to Badnera railway line

A clean 7/12 may not yet show any of this. Search the district's land record notices by village and gat before you pay, and ask the seller in writing whether any notice has been received.

Lonar crater is a wildlife sanctuary and Ramsar site, and Melghat Tiger Reserve extends into Buldhana district. Land close to either should be compared with the notified limits.

Buying part of a gat: what tukde bandi still prevents

The Maharashtra Prevention of Fragmentation and Consolidation of Holdings Act, 1947 (tukde bandi) stops agricultural land from being split into plots below the standard area notified for that area. The 2025 amendment gave relief, but mainly in towns:

• Inside municipal council or corporation limits, and on land allotted to non-agricultural use in a regional plan, Section 8B now removes the restriction, without the earlier proviso.
• Past transfers: transfers or partitions made from 15 November 1965 up to 15 October 2024 are deemed regularised without premium, if the land is in a listed area such as a municipal council or nagar panchayat and is used, or meant to be used, for a genuine non-agricultural purpose.
• Ordinary village farm land outside those areas does not get this relief. A one or two guntha sale carved from a gat there can still be a problem.

Measure the piece, check the local standard area, and read how earlier sales from the same gat were recorded.

Class 2, tribal and non-agricultural status on Buldhana land

Class 2 land (bhogvatadar class 2)

Section 29 of the Land Revenue Code separates occupants into Class 1, who hold without transfer restrictions, and Class 2, who hold subject to restrictions. The 7/12 usually shows the class. Land allotted under the ceiling law to landless persons is one source. The Cabinet approved a revised premium for moving such land to Class 1 in April 2026, so ask to see any conversion order.

Land from a tribal holder

Section 36A attaches to the seller's status, wherever the land is. If a tribal occupant appears in the chain and the buyer was not tribal, the Collector's previous sanction should be on file, and a transfer without it can be declared invalid.

Change to non-agricultural use

Since the 2025 amendment, no Collector's permission is needed if a development or regional plan permits the use, and the planning authority collects a one-time premium. The amendment also says a building approval does not by itself change Class 2 status, so a house on the land does not cure the tenure.

Town property in Khamgaon, Shegaon and Buldhana

In the towns, the file looks closer to a city search: registered deeds, Index II, council tax, a sanctioned plan and an occupancy certificate. A property card is added where a city survey has been done.

Nazul land also exists in this district: a Buldhana notice under the Shegaon Development Plan describes land as Nazul Sheet No. 22C, Plot 5. Buldhana is in the Amravati division, so Section 37A of the Code applies, and a sale of such a plot needs the State Government's permission or approval as well as a deed.

A town development plan can also reserve land for public purposes, so check the plan before you buy. A layout or building project above the thresholds in Section 3 of the RERA Act should show up on MahaRERA. See our RERA complaints page if a project has stalled.

Working through a Buldhana file

1. Fix the land. From your scans, we note the gat or plot number, the area and the tenure class on the 7/12.
2. Build the family tree. Mutation entries and heirship papers are compared to find anyone with a share who has not signed.
3. Test your eligibility. Section 89 and the ceiling limit are checked against the buyer's own holding.
4. Search deeds. Roughly 30 years of Index II, online first, then in the sub-registrar's books.
5. Check government claims. Acquisition notices, Section 57 and 36A sanctions, fragmentation and any plan reservation.
6. Look for debts and cases. Lender charges, partition suits and revenue appeals.
7. Report. You receive a draft with each defect and what would cure it, and a final title certificate once these are resolved. A public notice goes out where the facts call for one.

Papers to request for a Buldhana purchase

• 7/12 and 8A, current and older extracts, and copies of every mutation entry
• Registered deeds with Index II, and any partition deed or court decree
• Heirship papers for any holder who has died
• Any sanction under Section 57 or Section 36A, or a Class 1 conversion order
• Buyer's own 7/12, showing agriculturist status, or the permission relied on
• Measurement record for a part sale, or a zone certificate for a town plot
• Written statement from the seller on acquisition notices and crop loans
• Tax receipts, and the nazul lease if the plot is on a nazul sheet

What affects timing and cost for a Buldhana title report?

The date depends on how long the chain runs and how old the records are, and on how quickly heirs can be traced. Once we have read the papers, we will give you a date.

Stamp duty under the Maharashtra Stamp Act, 1958 is separate. It is generally charged on the higher of the deal value and the ready reckoner value, and the rate differs between village and municipal areas. A deed that was not properly stamped can be impounded, so we check the old deeds too.

Prices published on our site

From Rs 18,000 each: agreement to sale with a title search report, sale deed with a title search report and commercial lease agreement with title search. For farm land or a whole building, we quote after reading the papers.

Warning signs on Buldhana farm land

• One sibling selling "the family land" alone. The other heirs may still hold shares even if the 7/12 is out of date.
• A notarised agreement with possession and no registered deed. This passes no title, and it may hide a fragmentation or Section 89 problem.
• Tenant's name in the other rights column, or an old entry showing purchase under the tenancy Act.
• A price well below neighbouring land near a canal or railway work. Check the acquisition notices for that village.
• Class 2 shown on the 7/12, "will be converted" in the agreement. Make conversion a condition before you pay the balance.

Other Vidarbha and Maharashtra title searches

For Amravati city and the Melghat talukas, see our page on title search in Amravati. We also have pages for Pune, Mumbai and Navi Mumbai. The property title search hub lists other cities, and our guide to title searches is a good place to begin if this is your first purchase. If the search leads to a dispute, see our property lawyers page.

This page is general information about title searches in Buldhana, not legal advice on a particular property.