Source and many thanks to: goodnewsindia.com/pointreturn/on … ying-land/
Highlights of the information on the above link
Original Documents
District
Village Name
Taluk
Revenue Division
Name of owner
Survey Number
Obtain EC (maximum?)
You could demand 30 years encumbrance certificate to be checked. If you still have anymore doubts, you can take a Possession Certificate of the ownership of the particular land, which is available from the village office.
RTC means Record of Rights, Tenancy and Crops. This is a very important Revenue record as it contains all possible data relating to lands held by an individual or group of individuals such as, area, assessment, water rate, classification of soil, number of trees, nature of possession of the land, whether acquired by registered or unregistered document by succession, partition, mortgage, liabilities, tenancy and details of crops grown, land utilization, area under mixed crops, etc. The RTC is maintained for each village separately
tnreginet.net/igregn/webAppl … ledate.asp (What is registered documents on this link)
Usually, each title holder gets a “patta” that is often proffered as conclusive evidence of ownership. But it is not the case. It is only a certificate of holding but not of ‘what’ in detail is held. That is established by a a document known as “adangal” in Tamil , meaning “inclusions or contents”, which you obtain from the Village Administrative Officer [VAO]. The adangal is fairly conclusive proof of ownership. It will list name, survey number, extent, the type of land, what is cultivated and what the tax is. There is another document called “chitta” that comes with it, which lists public assets like lakes, ponds, roads, temples, graveyards etc.
Then there is the FMB [Field Map Boundary] Sketch [-or known as just the “sketch”] which is a scale drawing of the survey numbers involved. This is again obtained from the VAO.
Between, the patta [which describes the borders of the property], the adangal, the chitta, the sketch and the stamped, registered document of ownership [-or a court decree, as we saw] you are good to go
If there is no POA or agreement at large, you will probably deal with several people in case of an inherited property. These will be all the legal heirs - father, his sons and [if inherited after 1979] daughters and all minors. All these must be signatories to the sale deed and must be so named in the document your lawyer will prepare.[As a corollary, any valid POA or Agreement should also have been executed by all these]
One neat advise I followed was to cite a sum in the document [-which cannot be lower in any case, than what is known as the “guide line value” for that particular survey number and obtained from the registrar’s records] and pay the difference as development cost and obtain a stamped receipt from the seller.
The last act is about obtaining a patta in your name. For this you return to the VAO, he prepares a covering letter and forwards it to the Tehsildar’s office, You could expect your patta or certificate of title, in about 15 days.
But you can read the article to learn the jargon to toss around with the various people you will interact: chitta, patta, adangal, document, decree, VAO, sketch etc are milestones in your paper chase.