Jamabandi and fard in Punjab and Haryana

The rule

The Punjab Land-Revenue Act, 1887 is the base law in both states (each has amended it since; the text read is the India Code copy).

• Record of rights (s. 31): for each estate, statements of the landowners, tenants and assignees of land revenue, the nature and extent of their interests and liabilities, the rent and revenue payable, a statement of customs and a map.
• Annual record (s. 33): the Collector has the patwari prepare an edition of the record of rights “yearly, or at such other intervals as the Financial Commissioner may prescribe”. This edition is the jamabandi. The patwari also keeps a register of mutations.
• Reporting an acquisition (s. 34): anyone who acquires a right as landowner, assignee or occupancy tenant, by inheritance, purchase, mortgage, gift or otherwise, must report it to the patwari, who enters it in the register of mutations; a revenue officer inquires and orders the entry.
• Late reporting (s. 39): not reporting within three months can draw a fine of up to five times the mutation fee.
• Fees (s. 38): the state government fixes the fees for entries and for copies.
• Presumption (s. 44): an entry “shall be presumed to be true until the contrary is proved or a new entry is lawfully substituted therefor”. A person aggrieved by an entry can sue for a declaration (s. 45).

The vocabulary

The Department of Land Resources’ evaluation of Haryana defines most of these terms; the Punjab portal searches by the same khewat, khatauni and khasra numbers:

How to get a copy

Punjab

1. Open the Easy Jamabandi portal (jamabandi.punjab.gov.in). Search by owner name, khewat, khatauni or khasra number, after choosing district, tehsil, village and jamabandi year.
2. A non-certified copy opens on screen. To get the certified copy, enter your name, mobile number and address, choose download, WhatsApp or email, and pay online.
3. Fees (portal’s service-charges page): government fee ₹20 per page, facilitation fee ₹5 per page; courier ₹100 within the state or ₹200 outside it; email ₹50 per fard. Maximum delivery time: 3 days by email, 7 days by courier.
4. The portal says the digital record of rights is available since 2002; Sewa Kendras offer the same services.

Haryana

1. The state portal is jamabandi.nic.in (webHALRIS), which serves both land records and deed registration. District pages describe it as giving access to the jamabandi and sanctioned mutations by owner name, khewat and khasra number.
2. The DoLR evaluation explains that the free online nakal “is only for information purposes”; an official copy with a government seal and QR code is applied for in a separate paid section of the website or at citizen service centres and revenue offices.
3. The fee for an official Haryana nakal was not stated in the pages read, and jamabandi.nic.in did not open from Payotte’s location.

Reading a Haryana jamabandi: the five-year trap

The DoLR evaluation describes a point that matters to a buyer. Haryana keeps two copies of each jamabandi: parat patwar, which is the one shown online, and parat sarkar. After a sale, the mutation is noted in the remarks column, in red, but the seller’s name stays in the owners’ column until the village jamabandi is rewritten (“consigned”) in its five-year cycle. The online copy may therefore still show earlier owners; you must read every remark to see which mutations concern the seller.

In Haryana, mutation is triggered by registration for sale, gift, family transfer and mortgage with possession, with ₹200 collected at registration; the details stay public for ten days for objections. For the national comparison, see mutation of property records.

Online services in Punjab

The Punjab SOP lists, besides copies: mutation on the basis of inheritance, mutation on the basis of a registered deed (the deed is fetched from the registration system), a rapat entry for a bank loan or court order, fard badar to correct a clerical error that crept into a new jamabandi, and an annual subscription that alerts you to any change on a khewat. For the subscription, an email address is mandatory for NRIs.

Before you buy land

• Get a certified fard or nakal for each khasra and khewat in the deal.
• Check co-owners on the khewat and their shares.
• Read the remarks column for pending or sanctioned mutations, mortgages and stay orders.
• Run the title search and encumbrance certificate checks too.
• For agricultural land, check who may buy it before you sign: see NRIs buying property.

Sources and limits

The Act text read is the India Code copy, which does not show every later Punjab or Haryana amendment. The Haryana fee for an official nakal was not found. A property lawyer can read the jamabandi with you.