How a legal plot is born

The sequence

क्रम

A field does not become a plot because someone drew lines on it and put up a board. There is a sequence, and every step leaves a document.

1. Clear title in the khatedari holding — the whole of Level 2.
2. Zoning permits the use — the master plan shows the parcel in a zone consistent with what is proposed.
3. Conversion to the relevant use category, under the applicable provision.
4. Layout plan approval by the competent authority — the drawing showing plots, roads, open space and reserved areas, approved with conditions.
5. Development obligations — internal roads, drainage, water, electricity and other services as required, together with any land to be handed over.
6. Patta or title document issued for individual plots.
7. Registration of the transfer to each plot purchaser, with stamp duty paid.
8. Mutation and municipal or authority records updated.

A plot missing any of steps two to six is not a plot in the legal sense, however convincing the site looks. Boundary walls, a gate, a plotted layout on a signboard and neighbours who have already built are evidence of activity, not of approval.

What layout approval is

ले-आउट मंज़ूरी क्या है

Layout approval is the authority's sanction of the subdivision plan. It fixes how the parcel is divided: the size and position of each plot, the internal road network and widths, open space, and land reserved for facilities or handed over to the authority.

It matters to a plot buyer for reasons that are not obvious:

• Your plot exists on the approved drawing — or it does not. A plot sold from an unapproved sub-layout, or carved out of open space, has no standing.
• Road widths are fixed. Building rules relate to road width. A narrow internal road limits what you can build.
• Reserved areas are not sellable. Land shown as open space or handed over cannot be sold as plots, and layouts where it has been are a known problem.
• Conditions attach to the approval, including development obligations. Where these were never performed, the buyer inherits a colony without services.

What a patta is

पट्टा क्या है

A पट्टा is a grant of rights over a plot, issued by the competent body. In the village context, the gram panchayat issues pattas for abadi plots. In an authority area, the development authority or the municipal body issues pattas for plots in approved layouts.

Two points that cause repeated confusion.

Tenure type varies. Pattas have historically been issued on different bases, and freehold and leasehold arrangements both exist, with routes to convert between them in some cases. What a specific patta grants must be read from the patta itself. Do not assume.

An issuing body cannot grant what it has no power to grant. Level 1, Lesson 6 covered this: a gram panchayat cannot convert agricultural land, and a panchayat patta purporting to create a residential plot on an agricultural khasra does not do so. The document looks official. That is precisely why it is dangerous.

Approved or unapproved — how to tell

मंज़ूरशुदा है या नहीं

Regularisation

नियमन

The state has periodically run campaigns under which unapproved colonies and unauthorised holdings could be regularised and pattas issued, on payment and on conditions. These drives are real and have benefited large numbers of people.

They are not, however, a purchase plan. Whether a scheme is currently open, what it covers, what it costs and what conditions apply all change, and not every defect is regularisable. Buying an unapproved plot on the expectation that a future drive will cure it is a bet on a policy decision that has not been made. Check the current position with the authority, and price what exists today rather than what may be announced.

Buying a plot — the checklist

प्लॉट खरीदने से पहले

• Title chain of the parent land, not just the plot. Level 2 applies in full.
• Zoning consistent with residential or the intended use.
• Conversion order, read for category, area and conditions.
• Approved layout plan, with your plot identifiable on it.
• Patta or title document, read for what it actually grants.
• Encumbrance search on the parent land — a mortgage over the whole affects your plot.
• Road width serving your plot and what it permits you to build.
• Registered sale deed, and mutation applied for immediately afterwards.
• Advocate's opinion before any substantial payment.

An agent who runs this list is doing the client's diligence for them and can say so. An agent who does not is relying on the developer's brochure, which is not a document.