Telangana land owner on ground, not in official records

For several years, he has ploughed the land. Yet, at 70, he still cannot call it his own.

Maruthaiah of Bhojannapeta village, just seven km from Peddapalli town in Telangana, finds himself trapped in a legal limbo over 22 guntas of agricultural land his father had bought in the early 1980s through a ‘Sada Bainama’— an unregistered agreement common at the time. After inheriting it, his attempt to regularise the land has stalled, with Revenue officials insisting on an affidavit from the legal heirs of the original seller, an almost impossible condition that has left him waiting indefinitely for a title deed.

Not just him, this affidavit requirement has emerged as the biggest roadblock for thousands of small and medium farmers across Telangana. In many cases, sellers have died, their heirs have migrated or they are unwilling to cooperate unless “favours” are extended. A sharp rise in land prices over the past decade has only made the task more difficult.

The result is a cruel paradox: farmers who have cultivated land for decades, whose names appear in official “enjoyment columns”, are still denied ownership.

A small farmer from Rampalli village in Peddapalli district, speaking on condition of anonymity, says despite submitting the Sada Bainama and other documentary evidence, Revenue officials continue to demand an affidavit from the seller or their legal heir. “The land seller left the village in the late 1980s due to drought-like conditions in what used to be a Naxal-hit region. I have tried tracing his family, but in vain. If they are not traceable, where do I go,” he asks.

Farmer leader Kanneganti Ravi of Telangana Rythu Swarajya Vedika terms the affidavit rule illogical. “The Sada Bainama transactions took place several decades ago, based on mutual trust. Continuous possession and cultivation of such lands by farmers are proof enough of ownership. Ground inspection, enjoyment survey and enquiry with neighbouring farmers should suffice,” he insists. The issue cuts across regions. In the erstwhile Karimnagar, Khammam, Nizamabad, Adilabad and Medak districts, affidavit-related delays have become routine.

“Around 7,800 applications were received for the regularisation of Sada Bainamas in Konijerla mandal of Khammam district,” Tahsildar Aruna says, adding nearly 6,500 applications have already been processed and that the exercise is nearing completion.

While officials cite progress, many farmers say ground-level realities speak a different story. A farmer from Munjampally village in Jagtial district says despite repeated pleas for inspection of his 20-gunta land, officials have not showed up yet. “They cite various reasons, including that they are busy. Several others in the village have managed to get their lands regularised by offering favours,” he alleges.

The situation is worse in villages merged with urban bodies. K. Balaraju (65), a Dalit farmer from Mogilicherla near Warangal, now under the Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation, says he cannot regularise 1.27 acres purchased from his maternal aunt 20 years ago. “Officials say there is no provision to regularise Sada Bainama now that the village is part of the municipal corporation. We also cannot pursue formal registration due to high fees,” he rues.

M. Adinarayana Reddy from Warangal district, who bought two acres in Dwarakapet in 1956, says he is facing a similar hurdle after the village was merged into Narsampet municipality.

Several farmers allege corruption and discretionary enforcement by officials, further muddying an already opaque process. The land they have lived off for decades remains officially out of reach, as they are held hostage by paperwork, affidavits and an unyielding system.

Rooted in the Nizam era, the Sada Bainama practice became widespread across rural Telangana, allowing farmers — often illiterate or cash-strapped — to buy and sell small land parcels without formal registration. While inexpensive, it was fraught with risks: purchasers did not acquire legal title, leaving them vulnerable to disputes, eviction and exclusion from government welfare schemes.

Though earlierrecognised under the Telangana Rights in Land and Pattadar Passbooks Act, 1971, inconsistencies in record-keeping led to disputes, which became more pronounced after the formation of Telangana in 2014.

In 2016, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (then Telangana Rashtra Samithi) government launched the first phase of regularisation under the Record of Rights (RoR) Act. Of more than 12.64 lakh applications, pattadar passbooks were issued to 6.18 lakh farmers after scrutiny, with small holders exempted from fees. Many claims, however, were rejected due to verification-related issues.

A second phase followed in 2020 through Government Order No.112, drawing over nine lakh applications at MeeSeva centres.

Amendments to the RoR Act and a Public Interest Litigation challenging the process led the High Court to impose an interim stay, freezing cases for nearly five years. The uncertainty fuelled rural discontent and became a key election issue in 2023, prompting the Congress to promise a resolution and later replace the Dharani Act with the Bhu Bharati Act.

The stalemate ended on August 6 last year, when a Division Bench of the High Court dismissed the PIL and vacated the interim stay, noting that the Telangana Bhu Bharati (Record of Rights in Land) Act, 2025 provides for regularisation of Sada Bainamas under Section 6.

Revenue and Housing Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy termed the ruling as “historic”, saying it would benefit lakhs of farmers. Officials and experts, including the Telangana Deputy Collectors’ Association, said it would reduce disputes and ensure permanent land rights.

On September 10, the Revenue Department issued a notification directing officials to process pending applications under Section 6(1) of the Act. Applicants were directed to prove continuous possession of land for at least 12 years, with transactions predating June 2, 2014. The scheme applies only to small and marginal farmers in rural areas, excluding urban and commercial lands to prevent misuse.

Revenue Divisional Officers will act as inquiry officers to verify claims and approve registration. Successful applicants will receive fresh pattadar passbooks, enabling formal registration and mutation of land records.

In the absence of legal titles, farmers were unable to use their land as collateral to access institutional credit and often struggled to meet basic agricultural expenses. Regularisation is expected to facilitate access to loans, inputs, and welfare schemes such as Rythu Bharosa.

Explaining the enquiry process, a Tahsildar said that a Revenue Inspector, along with the Grama Palana Officer, conducts field inspections to verify whether the applicant is in possession of and cultivating the land. Notices are issued and displayed at the Gram Panchayat office, while statements of neighbouring landowners are recorded during inspections to confirm possession and enjoyment. “We also verify other records such as entry in manual Pahani to establish that the applicant purchased the land from the original owner, who was the pattadar,” he says.

However, the Tahsildar said submission of an affidavit from the seller or their legal heir is mandatory. Applications are not considered if the affidavit is not produced due to legal issues, he adds and points out that many cases are further complicated by incorrect names of sellers or survey numbers in decades-old Sada Bainama documents. “Disposal of these cases has become a challenge,” he admits.

While Tahsildars conduct enquiries and submit reports, the final authority to approve regularisation rests with the Revenue Divisional Officer.

Pattadar passbooks, which confer legal recognition of land ownership, are crucial for farmers to access institutional credit and welfare schemes. However, a sizeable section of cultivators in Telangana remains without titles despite uninterrupted possession for decades, largely due to land transactions made through Sada Bainamas — executed on plain-paper or through unregistered docuements.

Unlike registered sale deeds protected under the Telangana Rights in Land and Pattadar Passbooks Act, 1971, Sada Bainamas lack legal validity under successive land laws. As a result, over nine lakh farmers continue to hold land without title deeds.

The BRS government had earlier fixed June 2, 2014, as the cut-off date for regularisation, triggering over 9.2 lakh applications. But the process stalled, leaving applicants in distress. After assuming office in December 2023, the Congress government sought to revive the process by incorporating provisions for regularisation of Sada Bainamas under Section 6 of the Telangana Bhu Bharati (Record of Rights in Land) Act, 2025.

Despite the new law, progress on the ground has been slow. Officials are reportedly insisting on affidavits, citing rules framed under the Act, while discrepancies between names in old Sada Bainamas and current entries in the enjoyment column have led to software and verification delays. The affidavit requirement — introduced through rules framed under the Act rather than the Act itself — has emerged as a major bottleneck, resulting in negligible regularisation in recent months.

Land laws expert and NALSAR adjunct professor M. Sunil Kumar, who was actively involved in the preparation of the Bhu Bharati Act, says the lack of clear, written operational guidelines has led to varying interpretations by field officials, causing delays and giving scope for alleged discretion in implementation.

Experts have urged the government to prioritise local enquiries to establish possession and cultivation, rather than rely excessively on affidavits, and to reframe rules by clearly defining the roles of officials at various levels. They also point to the absence of comprehensive land surveys in Telangana as a structural hurdle. Neighbouring Andhra Pradesh’s decision to order a resurvey and extend regularisation of Sada Bainamas till December 31, 2027, is cited as an example Telangana could follow.

There are also calls to incorporate provisions similar to Sections 5-A and 5-B of the 1971 Act into the Bhu Bharati Act, empowering Tahsildars to regularise Sada Bainama lands, issue Form 13-B certificates, place such lands on par with registered holdings and enable the grant of pattas and pattadar passbooks, thereby conferring full ownership rights on farmers.

Meanwhile, Telangana Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Commission chairman M. Kodanda Reddy, who also played a key role in enacting the Act, says a representation had been made to Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on the affidavit hurdle and that a high-level meeting would be held to find a way forward.

“We proposed a Gram Sabha to be conducted to ascertain facts regarding the sale of land through Sada Bainamas,” he says.

Another expert suggests that notices could be issued to both sellers and buyers, enabling affidavits to be furnished publicly, easing verification.

If implemented, such measures are expected not only to unlock regularisation but also reduce land disputes that have long plagued Telangana, offering farmers security of tenure, smoother inheritance and legally protected ownership.