Land Investment

Aerial view of a grid of divided agricultural parcels in rural Maharashtra, each field a different shade of green

Land Investment

40 Guntha to Acre: Maharashtra Land Conversion Table

By Girish Chhalwani,September 23, 2026September 23, 2026

TL;DR

40 guntha to acre is exactly 1 acre. One guntha is 101.1714 square metres, which is 1,089 square feet exactly.
One acre is 4,046.86 square metres and 43,560 square feet, so 40 × 1,089 = 43,560 and the arithmetic closes without rounding.
The catch: a Maharashtra 7/12 does not print guntha at all. It prints hectare, are and square metres, and it prints them in Marathi.
One hectare is 98.8422 guntha and 2.4711 acre. One are is 100 square metres, which is 0.9884 guntha, so are and guntha are close but not equal.
That near-match is where errors creep in. Treating one are as one guntha understates a five-acre parcel by roughly a quarter of a guntha per are.
Bigha is not a Maharashtra revenue unit. It is a market word, it differs between regions, and it appears nowhere on the record of rights.

Girish Chhalwani, Founder & CEO, THE EDGE Developments · 20+ years in Maharashtra land acquisition, tenure and NA conversion · 7 min read · Last updated 23 September 2026

40 guntha to acre is one of the few land conversions in India that is exact rather than approximate, and the number is 1 acre precisely. The difficulty is not the conversion. It is that the document you are converting from does not use guntha, and nobody tells buyers that before they start.

Terms used on this page

Guntha is the Maharashtra land unit of 40 to the acre.

Satbara is the 7/12 extract: the village record of rights for one parcel.

Khatedar is the person recorded as holding the land.

Hissa is a sub-division of a survey number.

Gat number is the group survey number given to a holding after consolidation.

Ferfar is a mutation entry, which is the record of a change of holder in the village register.

What is 40 guntha in acre, exactly?

40 guntha is one acre, and the record of rights maintained under section 148 of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966 is where the area you are converting comes from. One guntha is 101.1714 square metres. One acre is 4,046.86 square metres. Forty guntha at 1,089 square feet each gives 43,560 square feet, which is an acre.

Because the guntha is defined as a fortieth of an acre rather than as a round metric quantity, every guntha figure converts to acres cleanly and to square metres untidily. That is the right way round for a buyer: the acre number is the one you will negotiate in, and it is the one that stays exact.

Why does the 7/12 not show guntha at all?

Because the record of rights under section 148 of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966 states area in metric units, and on the live portal on 23 September 2026 it does so in Marathi. What a satbara prints is hectare, are and square metres. Guntha is a market unit, not a revenue unit, and it never appears there.

A Maharashtra 7/12 prints area in hectare, are and square metres, in Marathi, and never in guntha. So the conversion a buyer actually needs runs the other way from every table online. You are not converting guntha into acres. You are converting a hectare-are-square-metre figure, read in Devanagari, into the guntha the broker quoted you and the acres you will price in.

This is also where the most expensive mistake in small-parcel deals happens, and it comes from the near-match between the are and the guntha.

What is the full conversion table?

Every figure below is derived from the exact definitions rather than rounded from another table, with one acre taken as 4,046.8564 square metres. Where a value does not terminate it is given to four decimal places, and the square-foot column for guntha is exact.

Maharashtra land measurement conversions
From	Acre	Guntha	Square metres	Square feet
1 guntha	0.025	1	101.1714	1,089
12 guntha	0.300	12	1,214.06	13,068
20 guntha	0.500	20	2,023.43	21,780
40 guntha	1.000	40	4,046.86	43,560
1 are	0.0247	0.9884	100	1,076.39
1 hectare	2.4711	98.8422	10,000	107,639.10
1 acre	1	40	4,046.86	43,560

How do you convert from the figure on your own 7/12?

Read it as three numbers rather than one. The area stated under section 148 of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966 reads as hectare, then are, then square metres, in that order and in that sequence of columns, and on the live portal on 23 September 2026 every label was in Marathi.

Convert everything to square metres first. Multiply the hectare figure by 10,000, the are figure by 100, then add the square-metre figure to both. Now you have one number instead of three.
Divide by 101.1714 for guntha. That is the exact guntha in square metres, so use it rather than the rounded 101 that circulates in the market.
Divide by 4,046.86 for acres. Or divide the guntha figure by 40, which gives the same answer and is easier to check by eye.
Sanity-check against the hissa. If the parcel is a sub-division, the area on the 7/12 is the sub-division’s area rather than the whole survey number’s, and those get confused constantly.
Compare with what you were quoted. A gap of more than a guntha or so between the record and the broker’s figure is a question to ask before you pay, not after.

The record of rights states area in metric units and the market quotes in guntha. Almost every disputed area I have seen in twenty years started as a conversion nobody checked.

Girish Chhalwani, Founder & CEO, THE EDGE Developments

What about bigha, and why do the numbers never agree?

Because bigha is not a Maharashtra revenue unit at all, and it appears nowhere in the record of rights kept under section 148 of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966. It is a market word with regional meanings, and a bigha in one district is not a bigha in another.

Treat any bigha figure as a conversation, not a measurement. If a seller quotes in bigha, ask for the area as it appears on the 7/12 and convert from that. If he cannot produce it, the area is not the only thing you should be worried about.

The same caution applies in reverse to the guntha itself outside Maharashtra and the neighbouring belt. Within the state it is exact at a fortieth of an acre. That is a property of this state’s practice, not a national standard.

Frequently asked questions

How many guntha make one acre?

Forty. The guntha is defined as a fortieth of an acre, so the conversion is exact rather than approximate, and 40 guntha is 1 acre with no rounding.

What is 1 guntha in square feet?

1,089 square feet exactly. Forty of them give 43,560 square feet, which is one acre.

What is 1 guntha in square metres?

101.1714 square metres. The rounded figure of 101 that circulates in the market understates a large parcel noticeably, so use the exact value when the area matters.

How many guntha are in one hectare?

98.8422 guntha, which is 2.4711 acre. A hectare is very slightly less than a hundred guntha, and treating it as exactly a hundred is a common source of error.

Is an are the same as a guntha?

No, and this is the trap. One are is 100 square metres and one guntha is 101.1714, so an are is 0.9884 guntha. They are close enough to be confused and far enough apart to matter on a large holding.

Does the 7/12 extract show area in guntha?

No. A Maharashtra 7/12 states area in hectare, are and square metres, and the portal displays it in Marathi. Guntha is a market unit and does not appear on the record.

Converting an area off a 7/12 before you pay? THE EDGE Developments reconciles the recorded area against the quoted area on every parcel in the Karjat, Khopoli and Khalapur belt. Send us the extract.

Citations and sources

MahaBhulekh v2.0, Maharashtra Bhumi Abhilekh — the Marathi-only notice and the record types, read off the live portal on 23 September 2026.

Aerial view of green cultivated farmland on one side of a straight road and a bare grid of demarcated plots on the other

Land Investment

7/12 and 8A Difference: What Each Record Actually Shows

By Girish Chhalwani,September 23, 2026September 23, 2026

TL;DR

The 7/12 and 8A difference in one line: the 7/12 is organised around a parcel of land, the 8A is organised around a person’s account in a village.
Both are maintained under section 148 of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966. Neither is a title deed and neither proves ownership by itself.
Pull the 7/12 and you see one survey number. Pull the 8A and you see every holding that khatedar has in the same village.
That is why the 8A catches things the 7/12 cannot: undisclosed adjacent parcels, a holding split across survey numbers, and a seller who owns less than he implies.
Both come off the same portal, and on 23 September 2026 it offered exactly four record types: 7/12, 8A, Property Card and K-Prat.
The free copy of either carries the portal’s own disclaimer that it cannot be used for any governmental or legal purpose.

Girish Chhalwani, Founder & CEO, THE EDGE Developments · 20+ years in Maharashtra land acquisition, tenure and NA conversion · 8 min read · Last updated 23 September 2026

The 7/12 and 8A difference is not a matter of detail or format: the two records are indexed on different things. One answers “what is happening to this land”. The other answers “what land does this person hold here”. Buyers pull the first, skip the second, and miss the half of the picture that would have told them who they are dealing with.

Terms used on this page

Satbara is the 7/12 extract: the village record of rights for one parcel.

Khatedar is the person recorded as holding the land.

Khata is that holder’s account number in the village.

Mutation is the entry that records a change of holder in the record of rights.

Ferfar is that mutation entry itself, numbered and kept in sequence for the village.

Gat number is the group survey number given to a holding after consolidation.

Guntha is the Maharashtra land unit of 40 to the acre.

What is the 7/12 and 8A difference, in one line?

Both sit within the record of rights that section 148 of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966 requires in every village, and the difference is the index. The 7/12 is indexed by survey or gat number. The 8A is indexed by the holder’s account in that village. Same data, sorted on a different key to answer a different question.

Village Form VII is the Record of Rights and Village Form XII is the crop register; the combined extract is named for those two village forms, not for sections 7 and 12 of any Act. The forms themselves are prescribed by rules made under section 328 of the Code. The 8A is the account register: it lists the survey numbers standing to one khatedar’s khata in that village, with the area against each.

Put plainly, if you ask the record about land you get a 7/12, and if you ask it about a person you get an 8A. Neither is more official than the other and neither is a deed.

What does each record actually contain?

The overlap is smaller than most buyers expect, and section 148 of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966 is the common source rather than a guarantee that the two will agree. Where they disagree, the disagreement is itself the finding, and it usually points at an uncertified entry sitting between them.

7/12 extract and 8A extract compared
Feature	7/12 extract	8A extract
Indexed by	Survey or gat number	Khatedar’s khata in the village
Answers	Who holds this parcel, and what is on it	What does this person hold in this village
Area shown	For that one parcel, in hectare, are and square metres	Against each survey number in the account, and as a total
Other rights column	Yes: charges, tenancies, pending entries, disputed notes	No equivalent column
Crop position	Yes, from Village Form XII	No
Shows other parcels of the same holder	No	Yes, and that is the point of it
Useful for	Reading one parcel in depth	Reading one seller in breadth

Why does the 8A matter to a buyer at all?

Because a 7/12 will not tell you that the parcel you are buying is one of eleven the seller holds in that village, and section 148 of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966 gives you the register that will. Breadth is a different risk from depth, and most buyers only ever check depth.

Three things the 8A surfaces routinely. A holding split across several survey numbers, where the seller is quietly selling the accessible part and keeping the landlocked remainder. An area total that does not reconcile with what the seller has been describing. And co-holders who appear against some parcels and not others, which is where a family arrangement usually shows itself.

There is a fourth, less obvious use. If you are buying two adjacent parcels from what you have been told are two unrelated sellers, the 8A will show you whether they are in fact one account.

The 7/12 tells you about the land. The 8A tells you about the person selling it. A title search that skips the second is a search of half the risk.

Girish Chhalwani, Founder & CEO, THE EDGE Developments

Where do you get each one?

Both come off the same state portal, and on 23 September 2026 it offered exactly four record types to choose between: 7/12, 8A, Property Card and K-Prat. You pick the record type first, then narrow to district, taluka and village, all of which are mandatory before the form will accept anything else.

Two observations from that same check are worth carrying. The district list offers thirty-five entries while the portal numbers districts internally up to thirty-six; the one that is absent is Mumbai City, which has no 7/12 at all and sits on Property Cards instead. And Dharashiv, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Ahilyanagar appear only under those names, so a search for Osmanabad, Aurangabad or Ahmednagar returns nothing without telling you why.

The portal is also in Marathi only by its own notice, and a mobile number and captcha are compulsory on every query. Pulling a 7/12 and an 8A for one parcel is therefore two separate manual searches, not one.

Which record settles a dispute?

Neither, and the portal says so itself: its disclaimer states the information shown cannot be used for any governmental or legal purpose. The record of rights under section 148 of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966 is evidence of possession and of entries made, not a conclusive record of title.

For anything a lender, a court or a sub-registrar will read, you need the digitally signed extract rather than the free screen. And for the underlying question of who owns the land, you need the chain of registered documents, of which the record of rights is a reflection rather than the source.

The honest position is that these two records are a filter, not a conclusion. They are very good at telling you what to investigate next, which is exactly what a first pass should do.

Frequently asked questions

What is the main 7/12 and 8A difference?

The index. A 7/12 is organised around a survey or gat number and tells you about one parcel. An 8A is organised around a khatedar’s account and tells you every parcel that person holds in that village.

Do I need both for a land purchase?

For a serious purchase, yes. The 7/12 gives you depth on the parcel and the 8A gives you breadth on the seller. Each catches defects the other cannot show.

Are the 7/12 and 8A issued under the same law?

Both sit within the record of rights that section 148 of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966 requires to be maintained in every village. They draw on the same underlying record and are sorted on different keys.

Does the 8A prove ownership?

No. Neither record proves ownership. They evidence entries made in the record of rights, while title itself comes from the chain of registered documents.

Why does my district not appear on the portal?

Three districts are listed only under their current names: Dharashiv, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Ahilyanagar. Mumbai City is absent entirely from the 7/12 list because it has no 7/12 and uses Property Cards instead.

Is the free extract accepted by a bank?

Generally not. The portal states its information cannot be used for any governmental or legal purpose, so a lender will ask for the digitally signed version.

Checking a parcel in Karjat, Khopoli or Khalapur? THE EDGE Developments pulls the 8A alongside the 7/12 on every deal, because the seller matters as much as the survey number. Ask us to run both.

Citations and sources

MahaBhulekh v2.0, Maharashtra Bhumi Abhilekh — the four record types, the mandatory district, taluka and village fields, the district list, the Marathi-only notice and the disclaimer, all read off the live portal on 23 September 2026.

An antique brass surveying instrument and a brass lens ring on a dark polished wooden desk under warm light

Land Investment

Check Ferfar Status Online: Maharashtra Mutation Tracker

By Girish Chhalwani,September 23, 2026September 23, 2026

TL;DR

A ferfar is a mutation entry, which is the record of a change of holder in the village register, and you can check ferfar status online free on the state portal — but only once you know the district, the taluka and the village. There is no state-wide search.
The register of mutations is kept under section 150 of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966, and an entry sits in it as pending until it is certified.
A pending entry is the gap buyers pay into: the seller shows a 7/12 with his name on it while an unresolved entry is still running behind it.
The mutation number is the handle for everything else. Without it the Talathi office cannot find the file and neither can you.
Tested on the live portal on 23 September 2026: the site is Marathi only by its own notice, and a mobile number and captcha are mandatory on every single query.
The portal carries its own disclaimer that the information shown cannot be used for any governmental or legal purpose. The free copy is a lead, not evidence.

Girish Chhalwani, Founder & CEO, THE EDGE Developments · 20+ years in Maharashtra land acquisition, tenure and NA conversion · 8 min read · Last updated 23 September 2026

Anyone can check ferfar status online in Maharashtra in about four minutes, free, and the check catches the single defect that most often survives a casual title read. The obstacle is not the fee or the login. It is that the portal will not let you search until you already know which village the land sits in.

Terms used on this page

Mutation is the entry that records a change of holder in the record of rights.

Ferfar is that mutation entry itself, numbered and kept in sequence for the village.

Satbara is the 7/12 extract: the village record of rights for one parcel.

Khatedar is the person recorded as holding the land.

Tahsildar is the revenue officer in charge of a taluka.

Gat number is the group survey number given to a holding after consolidation.

What is a ferfar, and why does its status decide your deal?

The register of mutations under section 150 of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966 is where every change of holder is written down before it reaches the 7/12. An entry is made, notice goes out, objections are heard, and only then is it certified. Until certification the entry exists but settles nothing.

That interval is the whole problem. A seller can hold a satbara showing his name while an entry behind it is still open, or while an earlier entry was certified over an objection that is now under appeal. The extract looks clean because the extract only shows the current state, not the argument that produced it.

So the status of the ferfar is a different question from what the 7/12 says today, and it is the more useful one. A buyer who reads only the current extract is reading the answer without the working.

How do you check ferfar status online?

The sequence below reflects the portal as it stood on 23 September 2026 and the order matters, because each step narrows the next. Fix the geography first, pull the record, then read the entries in sequence under section 150 of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966 rather than skipping to the latest one.

Fix the village before you touch the portal. District, taluka and village are all mandatory fields. If you have only a survey number and a seller’s name, you cannot begin; get the village from the agreement, the tax receipt or the previous deed.
Choose the record type. The portal offers four: 7/12, 8A, Property Card and K-Prat. For a rural parcel you want the 7/12; urban land sits on the Property Card instead.
Enter the survey or gat number. The form accepts a numeric survey number or an alphabetic one, and these are separate options rather than one field that takes both.
Supply a mobile number and clear the captcha. Both are compulsory on every query, which is also why nobody can run this in bulk across a chain of villages.
Read the other rights column, not the occupant column. Pending entries, charges, tenancies and disputed notes live here, and this is the column sellers do not volunteer.
Take the mutation number off the entry and take it to the Talathi. The online view tells you an entry exists. The office file tells you what it says and whether anybody objected.

What does the portal refuse to do?

Four limits, all observed directly on the live portal on 23 September 2026 and none of them documented anywhere a buyer would normally look. Knowing them before you start is the difference between a four-minute check and a wasted afternoon, and two of the four will return nothing at all rather than an error.

Mahabhulekh as observed on 23 September 2026
What we found	What it means for your search
The portal carries an explicit notice that it is available in Marathi only, and that third-party transliteration tools are not expected to be used	Names have to be read and entered in Devanagari, spelled the way the record spells them rather than the way the seller spells them in English
A mobile number and a captcha are compulsory on every query	The check cannot be scripted or run in bulk; a chain of five villages is five manual queries
The district list offers thirty-five entries, while the portal numbers districts internally up to thirty-six	The missing one is Mumbai City, which has no 7/12 at all and sits on Property Cards instead
Three districts appear only under their current names: Dharashiv, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Ahilyanagar	Searching for Osmanabad, Aurangabad or Ahmednagar returns nothing, and it returns nothing silently

The portal also carries its own disclaimer, and it is the most important line on the page: the information shown there cannot be used for any governmental or legal purpose. Treat the free view as a lead. For anything a lender, a court or a sub-registrar will read, you need the digitally signed copy.

Where does the mutation number actually appear?

On the 7/12 itself, in the other rights column, and it is the handle for everything that follows under section 150 of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966. Each entry carries its own number in the village sequence, and that number is what the Talathi office uses to find the file.

Without it you are asking a clerk to search by name and date, which in a village with three families sharing a surname is not a search at all. With it, you can ask for the specific thing worth asking for: the notice that was issued, who objected, and the order that certified or rejected the entry.

The extract tells you who holds the land today. The mutation file tells you whether anybody disagreed, and disagreement is what turns up two years after you have paid.

Girish Chhalwani, Founder & CEO, THE EDGE Developments

What does a pending entry mean for a buyer?

It means the record of rights is mid-sentence, and section 150 of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966 has not yet finished it. A pending entry is not a defect by itself. Most of them are routine and most are certified without objection. The risk is in buying while one is open without knowing what it says.

The workable rule is simple. If an entry is pending, find out what it does before you pay anything that cannot be recovered. If it records the seller acquiring the land, the seller is selling something he does not yet hold on the record. If it records somebody else acquiring an interest, you need to know that before the sale deed, not after.

Where the entry has been certified but an appeal is running, the extract will look entirely clean. That case is invisible to this check, and it is the reason a ferfar status check is one step in a title search rather than the whole of it.

Frequently asked questions

Can I check ferfar status online without knowing the village?

No. District, taluka and village are all mandatory fields before the portal will accept a survey number or a name. If you have only a seller name, get the village from the agreement, a tax receipt or the previous deed first.

Is the free online ferfar legally valid?

No. The portal states that the information shown cannot be used for any governmental or legal purpose. For a lender, a court or a sub-registrar you need the digitally signed extract rather than the free screen.

What is the difference between a pending and a certified mutation?

A pending entry has been made but not yet decided after notice and objections. A certified entry has been decided, and it is the certified ones that are reflected as settled on the record of rights.

Where do I find the mutation number?

In the other rights column of the 7/12 extract. Each entry carries its own number in the village sequence, and that number is what the Talathi office needs to retrieve the file.

Can I run this check for several villages at once?

No. A mobile number and a captcha are compulsory on every query, so each village is a separate manual search. A chain of five villages is five searches.

Does a clean extract mean there is no dispute?

Not necessarily. Where an entry has been certified and an appeal is running against it, the current extract can look entirely clean. That is why a ferfar check sits inside a wider title search rather than replacing one.

Buying in the Karjat, Khopoli or Khalapur belt? THE EDGE Developments reads the mutation history before the price is agreed, not after the deposit. Ask us to check a parcel.

Citations and sources

MahaBhulekh v2.0, Maharashtra Bhumi Abhilekh — the record types, mandatory fields, district list, language notice and disclaimer, all read off the live portal on 23 September 2026.

A bundle of land documents tied with red string resting on a dark wooden desk beside a lit brass lamp

Land Investment

Government Valuation of Land in Maharashtra: How It Works

By Girish Chhalwani,September 23, 2026September 23, 2026

TL;DR

The government valuation of land in Maharashtra is the Annual Statement of Rates, and it is prepared under Rule 4 of the Maharashtra Stamp (Determination of True Market Value of Property) Rules, 1995.
The officer who prepares it is named in the Rule: the Joint Director of Town Planning and Valuation, Maharashtra State, assisted by officers appointed for the purpose.
Since the 2015 amendment the statement comes into force on the 1st day of April each year. Before that it changed on 1 January, which is why older guides give the wrong date.
The figure is a floor for stamp duty, not a ceiling on price and not an opinion of what the land is worth.
Rule 6 is the route when the figure cannot be arrived at from the statement alone: the registering officer refers the property to the Collector for determination after local enquiry.
The free online rate display carries no legal status. For anything a lender or a court will read, the rate has to come through the Department.

Girish Chhalwani, Founder & CEO, THE EDGE Developments · 20+ years in Maharashtra land acquisition, tenure and NA conversion · 8 min read · Last updated 23 September 2026

The government valuation of land in Maharashtra has a statutory name, a named author and a fixed commencement date, and almost every guide online gets the date wrong. It is the Annual Statement of Rates. Buyers call it the ready reckoner rate, agents call it the government rate, and the confusion costs people money at exactly the moment a deal is being priced.

Terms used on this page

Satbara is the 7/12 extract: the village record of rights for one parcel of land.

Khatedar is the person recorded as holding the land.

Guntha is the Maharashtra land unit of 40 to the acre.

Tahsildar is the revenue officer in charge of a taluka.

Mutation is the entry that records a change of holder in the record of rights.

Ferfar is the mutation entry itself, numbered and kept in sequence.

What is the government valuation of land, and who fixes it?

Rule 4 of the Maharashtra Stamp (Determination of True Market Value of Property) Rules, 1995 provides that the Joint Director of Town Planning and Valuation, Maharashtra State, shall prepare the annual statement of rates, assisted by officers appointed for the purpose. It is an administrative act with a named author, not an algorithm.

That matters more than it sounds. A valuation with a named officer behind it is a valuation that can be questioned, corrected and appealed. A number that simply appears on a portal cannot be. When somebody tells you “the government rate is X”, the correct next question is which statement, for which year, and for which zone.

The Rules themselves are made under section 69 of the Maharashtra Stamp Act, 1958, and they operate alongside sections 31 and 32-A of that Act. Section 31 is the adjudication route, where a party asks the Collector to determine the duty payable on an instrument before it is executed. Section 32-A is the reference that follows registration where the registering officer believes the value has been understated.

When does a new rate come into force?

Since the 2015 amendment to these Rules the annual statement comes into effect every year on the 1st day of April. It previously came into force on the 1st day of January. Guides written before that change, and guides that copied them since, still print the January date.

The practical consequence is a window. A deal negotiated in February against the current statement and registered in April is registered against a different one. Where rates have moved, the duty moves with them, and the party who agreed to bear the duty carries that movement.

Which statement applies to your instrument
Date of execution	Statement that applies	What to check
On or after 1 April	The statement notified for that financial year	Confirm the year shown on the rate you were quoted
Before 1 April	The previous financial year’s statement	Whether registration will slip past 31 March
Executed in one year, registered in the next	Duty attaches to the instrument, so the date of execution governs	That execution is dated, and provably so

How is the rate actually built for a specific parcel?

The statement is built by zone, not by survey number, which is why section 32-A of the Maharashtra Stamp Act, 1958 exists at all. A zone rate is an average across land the statement treats as comparable. Your parcel may be materially better or worse than the zone average, and the statement has no way to know that.

So the rate you read is a starting point that then gets adjusted for the things the statement does account for: the nature of the land, whether it is agricultural or converted, its frontage, and the built structure on it if any. A parcel whose satbara still shows it as agricultural is valued as agricultural land even where a layout has been sanctioned around it.

This is the single most common pricing error we see. A buyer reads a developed-land rate for the zone, applies it to a parcel that is still agricultural on the record of rights, and budgets duty against a number the sub-registrar will never accept.

What if the government valuation is wrong for your land?

Rule 6 of the 1995 Rules is the answer, and it is not an appeal. Where the registering officer believes the true valuation of the immovable property cannot be arrived at without recourse to local enquiry, the matter is referred to the Collector, who determines the true market value after that enquiry.

Read that carefully, because the direction of travel surprises people. Rule 6 is a mechanism for the department to look harder at a property, and it can move the value up as easily as down. It is not a discount counter. Where a parcel is genuinely disadvantaged — landlocked, under a reservation, encumbered by a right of way — the enquiry is the place to establish it, with documents rather than assertions.

The rate is a floor for duty, not an opinion of what the land is worth. Treating it as a valuation is how buyers talk themselves into overpaying and sellers talk themselves into underpricing.

Girish Chhalwani, Founder & CEO, THE EDGE Developments

Where does the figure actually bite in your deal?

In three places, and section 31 of the Maharashtra Stamp Act, 1958 governs the first of them. Before execution you can have the duty adjudicated. At registration the sub-registrar checks the consideration against the statement. After registration a reference under section 32-A can still follow if the value appears understated.

Between those three points, a mutation entry, the ferfar, can change the description of the land on the record of rights and therefore the rate band it falls into. A parcel that converts from agricultural to non-agricultural between negotiation and registration does not carry the price it was negotiated at, for duty purposes.

The order that works: read the record of rights first, establish what the land legally is today, then look up the rate for that description, then price. Doing it the other way round produces a number that has to be defended rather than one that simply holds.

Frequently asked questions

Is the government valuation of land the same as the ready reckoner rate?

Yes. The Annual Statement of Rates is the statutory name and the ready reckoner rate is the market name for the same thing. The statement is prepared under Rule 4 of the Maharashtra Stamp (Determination of True Market Value of Property) Rules, 1995.

Who prepares the Annual Statement of Rates in Maharashtra?

The Joint Director of Town Planning and Valuation, Maharashtra State, assisted by officers appointed for the purpose. The Rule names the office rather than leaving it to a department generally.

On what date does the new rate take effect?

The 1st day of April each year, following the 2015 amendment to the Rules. Before that amendment the statement came into force on the 1st day of January, and many guides still print the older date.

Can I pay stamp duty on a price lower than the government valuation?

You can agree any price you like, but duty is charged on the higher of the consideration and the value arrived at under the statement. Paying less than the statement value does not reduce the duty.

Can the government valuation be challenged?

Rule 6 allows the registering officer to refer a property to the Collector for determination of true market value after local enquiry. It is a determination rather than an appeal, and the outcome can be higher than the statement rate.

Does the rate differ for agricultural land?

Yes. The statement values land according to what it legally is on the record of rights, so a parcel still recorded as agricultural is valued as agricultural even where development has been sanctioned nearby.

Pricing a parcel in the Karjat, Khopoli or Khalapur belt? THE EDGE Developments reads the record of rights before quoting a rate, so the duty number holds at the sub-registrar rather than moving on the day. Talk to us about a parcel.

Citations and sources

The Maharashtra Stamp (Determination of True Market Value of Property) Rules, 1995 — Rule 4, Rule 6, and the 2015 amendment to the commencement date.
Department of Registration and Stamps, Government of Maharashtra — the Department’s own description of the Annual Statement of Rates.

Aerial view of farmland and a river beside a low-rise development on the Mumbai metropolitan fringe

Land Investment

Water Rights on a Plot: Borewell Permission, GSDA Norms and the 2009 Act

By Girish Chhalwani,September 13, 2026September 23, 2026

TL;DR

The Maharashtra Groundwater (Development and Management) Act, 2009 governs this, and it applies to notified and non-notified areas alike, not only to drought districts.
Section 21 prohibits well construction within the area of influence of a public drinking water source. Until an area of influence is formally notified, the existing 500 metre distance applies. A well built without permission can be confiscated.
Section 7 makes registration of existing and new wells and borewells mandatory in both notified and non-notified areas.
Section 8(1) directs the State Groundwater Authority to prohibit drilling of deep borewells for uses other than drinking, in notified and non-notified areas. Section 8(2) restricts extraction from existing deep wells beyond 60 metres in notified areas, and section 8(3) imposes a cess in non-notified areas.
In a notified watershed the Watershed Water Resources Committee permits a new well under section 32. In a non-notified area the gram panchayat grants permission under section 46, subject to constructing artificial recharge structures.
Penalties under section 52 run to Rs 10,000 for a first offence, and up to six months imprisonment or Rs 25,000 or both for subsequent offences.
Owning the land does not carry an unrestricted right to the water under it, and that is the sentence most weekend-home buyers have never heard.

Girish Chhalwani, Founder & CEO, THE EDGE Developments · 20+ years in Maharashtra land acquisition, tenure and NA conversion · 8 min read · Last updated 13 September 2026

Buying the plot does not buy you the right to sink a well on it, and in the belt where most second homes are being built the water question is decided by statute rather than by the seller’s assurance. Obtaining borewell permission in Maharashtra is a regulated process with a named authority, defined distances, a depth threshold and real penalties, and none of it is discoverable from a title search.

The Act, and what it changed

The Maharashtra Groundwater (Development and Management) Act, 2009 put groundwater under a permission regime rather than leaving it to the landowner’s discretion. The critical structural point is that the Act does not confine itself to areas already in trouble. It creates obligations in notified areas, where groundwater is under formal management, and also in non-notified areas, where most buyers assume they are free to do as they wish.

Notified versus non-notified: what differs
Issue	Notified area	Non-notified area
Who permits a new well	Watershed Water Resources Committee, section 32	Gram panchayat, section 46, subject to artificial recharge structures
Registration of wells	Mandatory, section 7	Mandatory, section 7
Deep borewells for non-drinking use	To be prohibited under section 8(1)	To be prohibited under section 8(1)
Existing deep wells beyond 60 m	Extraction restricted, section 8(2)	Cess on extraction, section 8(3)
Distance from a public drinking water source	Section 21 applies	Section 21 applies

The single most useful line in that table for a buyer is the registration row. Registration is mandatory in both columns, which means an unregistered well already standing on the parcel you are buying is a liability you are acquiring, not a feature you are being given.

The 500 metre rule

Section 21 prohibits construction of a well within the area of influence of a public drinking water source, and until an area of influence is formally notified, the existing provision of 500 metres is kept as it is. A well constructed without permission is liable to confiscation.

Five hundred metres is a long way in a village. A public drinking water source can be a village well, a borewell serving a hamlet, or a source feeding a piped scheme, and its location will not appear on any document the seller hands you. Establishing it is a site and enquiry exercise: walk the surroundings, ask the panchayat, and measure.

This is also where an otherwise excellent parcel can quietly fail. A plot with a stream frontage, a view and clean title, sitting 300 metres from the village drinking water borewell, has a water problem that no amount of negotiation resolves.

The 60 metre threshold

Section 8 draws a line at depth. Section 8(1) directs the State Groundwater Authority to prohibit drilling of deep borewells for usages other than drinking, in both notified and non-notified areas. Section 8(2) restricts extraction from existing deep wells exceeding 60 metres in notified areas, and section 8(3) imposes a cess on such extraction in non-notified areas.

The practical translation for a weekend home is uncomfortable. The deep borewell that a contractor will cheerfully quote for, at whatever depth the rig can reach, is the thing the section is aimed at. A well drilled for a garden, a pool and four bathrooms is not a drinking water use in the sense the Act is protecting, and depth is not a technical decision left to the driller.

Until formal notification occurs, the existing provision of 500 m distance is kept as it is.

On section 21, Maharashtra Groundwater (Development and Management) Act, 2009

Who actually gives permission

The answer depends on the area and it determines who you should be talking to before you buy.

Notified watershed. The Watershed Water Resources Committee, operating at taluka level, retains authority to permit sinking of a new well within the notified area under section 32.
Non-notified area. The gram panchayat grants permission under section 46, and that permission is subject to the construction of artificial recharge structures. Read that condition carefully: it is a cost and a design constraint, not a formality.
Technical support throughout. The Groundwater Surveys and Development Agency provides the technical input across levels, which is why GSDA data is the right place to understand the groundwater status of a watershed before committing.

What it costs to get this wrong

Section 52 sets the penalty at a fine up to Rs 10,000 for a first offence, and for subsequent offences imprisonment up to six months or a fine up to Rs 25,000, or both. Section 21 adds confiscation of a well constructed without permission.

The statutory penalty is not usually the real cost. The real cost is a house built around the assumption of an on-site water source that cannot lawfully be operated, in a location where the alternative is tanker supply at summer rates, in perpetuity, for a property you intended to enjoy rather than to manage.

The pre-purchase water check

Six checks, in order of how quickly they disqualify a parcel
Check	Why
Distance to the nearest public drinking water source	Section 21 and the 500 metre position. Fastest possible disqualifier
Is the watershed notified	Determines whether the Committee or the panchayat permits, and how hard permission will be
Are existing wells on the parcel registered	Section 7. An unregistered well transfers as a liability
Depth of any existing borewell	The 60 metre threshold in section 8 changes the position materially
GSDA status of the watershed	Tells you the real groundwater picture rather than the seller’s summer story
What the neighbours actually do in April and May	The most honest data available, and free

Do the first two before travelling. They are answerable by enquiry and they eliminate more parcels than everything below them combined.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need permission to dig a borewell on my own land in Maharashtra

Yes. Under the Maharashtra Groundwater (Development and Management) Act, 2009 permission is required, from the Watershed Water Resources Committee in a notified area under section 32 or from the gram panchayat in a non-notified area under section 46.

How far must a well be from a public drinking water source

Section 21 prohibits construction within the area of influence of a public drinking water source, and until that area is formally notified the existing 500 metre distance applies.

What is the 60 metre rule

Section 8(2) restricts extraction from existing deep wells exceeding 60 metres in notified areas, and section 8(3) imposes a cess on such extraction in non-notified areas. Section 8(1) directs prohibition of deep borewells for uses other than drinking.

Do existing wells need to be registered

Yes. Section 7 makes registration of existing and new wells and borewells mandatory in both notified and non-notified areas.

What happens if I sink a well without permission

A well constructed without permission can be confiscated under section 21, and section 52 provides a fine up to Rs 10,000 for a first offence and imprisonment up to six months or a fine up to Rs 25,000 or both for subsequent offences.

Does owning the land give me a right to the groundwater

Not an unrestricted one. Groundwater is regulated under the 2009 Act, and ownership of the surface does not carry an unqualified right to extract what is beneath it.

What is GSDA

The Groundwater Surveys and Development Agency, which provides technical support across the levels of groundwater governance and whose data is the right starting point for assessing a watershed.

Planning a weekend home rather than a plot? Ask about water before you ask about the view. It is the one constraint that cannot be designed around after the fact.

Talk to THE EDGE

Citations and sources

Maharashtra Groundwater (Development and Management) Act, 2009 — sections 7, 8(1), 8(2), 8(3), 21, 32, 46 and 52. Explanatory note on the Act, India Water Portal
Groundwater Surveys and Development Agency, Government of Maharashtra — technical authority referenced in the Act’s governance structure

Groundwater notification status changes by watershed and over time. Confirm the current status for the specific watershed with GSDA and the relevant authority before relying on any of the positions above.

A small single-storey stone farmhouse with a terracotta tiled roof standing in the middle of wide green cultivated fields, with wooded hills rising behind it in warm light.

Land Investment

Gram Panchayat NOC, Form 8 and Village Clearances for a Plot

By Girish Chhalwani,September 13, 2026September 23, 2026

TL;DR

Section 52 of the Maharashtra Village Panchayats Act, 1959 is headed control on erection of buildings. The panchayat sits in the construction chain, not beside it.
Section 54 is headed numbering of premises and section 124 levy of taxes and fees by panchayats. Together these are why a village-level record exists at all.
Form 8, commonly called Namuna 8, is the panchayat property register used for assessment. It records who is being taxed for a property. It does not record who owns it.
A Form 8 entry is routinely produced as proof of ownership in this belt. It is not, and a buyer who accepts it as such has skipped the title question entirely.
The panchayat NOC matters because it is cheap to obtain when everything is in order and impossible to obtain when something is not, which makes it an excellent early diagnostic.
Where a plot falls inside a planning authority’s jurisdiction, the panchayat is not the sanctioning authority for the layout, and a panchayat permission does not substitute for a sanctioned layout.

Girish Chhalwani, Founder & CEO, THE EDGE Developments · 20+ years in Maharashtra land acquisition, tenure and NA conversion · 7 min read · Last updated 13 September 2026

A Form 8 entry in the panchayat register proves that someone is being assessed for tax on a property, and it proves nothing else. That single sentence would prevent a large share of the disputes that arise in villages across the Karjat, Khalapur, Murbad and Konkan belt, where the gram panchayat NOC and the Form 8 extract are handed over as though they were the title deed.

Where the panchayat sits in the chain

The Maharashtra Village Panchayats Act, 1959 gives the panchayat a defined and limited role. Three provisions matter to a buyer, and their marginal headings tell you most of what you need.

The three provisions that create the village layer
Section	Marginal heading	Why it matters to a buyer
52	Control on erection of buildings	The panchayat has a say in building activity within its jurisdiction
54	Numbering of premises	The basis on which properties are identified in village records
124	Levy of taxes and fees by panchayats	The reason the property register exists, and therefore what it is for

Read those three together and the character of the village record becomes obvious. It is a taxation instrument. It exists so the panchayat can identify premises, assess them and collect. Nothing in that purpose requires it to determine ownership, and it does not.

What Form 8 is, and what it is not

Form 8, or Namuna 8, is the panchayat property register in which properties are entered for assessment. An extract shows a property, an identifying number, and the person in whose name the assessment stands.

The name in that column is the person the panchayat looks to for payment. It arrived there because someone applied, or because someone was found in occupation, or because it was carried forward from an older entry. None of those routes involves an examination of title. A Form 8 extract is therefore evidence of assessment, and at most secondary evidence of possession.

What each village document does and does not establish
Document	Establishes	Does not establish
Form 8 extract	That a property is on the assessment register in a name	Ownership, boundaries, or the validity of any transfer
Tax paid receipt	That a payment was made	Anything about title
Panchayat NOC	That the panchayat has no objection on the matters within its remit	That the layout is sanctioned or that title is clear
7/12 extract	The revenue record of rights for agricultural land	Conclusive title, and not the position on tenure restrictions
Registered sale deed	That an instrument was executed and registered	That the seller had anything to convey

Set out this way it is clear that no single document in the stack proves ownership on its own. The Form 8 extract is simply the weakest of them, and the one most often presented as the strongest.

Why the NOC is still worth getting early

The panchayat NOC is a poor title document and an excellent diagnostic, and those two facts are not in tension.

When a parcel is uncomplicated, the NOC is straightforward. When it is not, the reasons surface fast and locally: an unpaid assessment, a boundary the village disputes, a path across the parcel that people use, a competing claim within the seller’s family, a structure that was never regularised, land the village considers common. The panchayat knows all of this before any record does, because it is where the knowledge lives.

Control on erection of buildings.

Maharashtra Village Panchayats Act, 1959, marginal heading to section 52

So the sequence to use is: ask for the NOC early, not because the document will protect you, but because the process of obtaining it surfaces objections while walking away is still cheap.

The jurisdiction question

A panchayat permission is not a layout sanction, and where a plot falls inside a planning authority’s jurisdiction the panchayat is not the sanctioning authority. This is the mistake that produces the most expensive outcomes, because construction proceeds on the strength of a village-level permission and is then found to be unauthorised.

Large parts of the corridor most attractive to Mumbai buyers sit inside special planning authority or metropolitan authority jurisdictions where the applicable development control regulations, and the sanctioning authority, are not the panchayat. Establish which authority governs the parcel before you accept any permission as sufficient.

The village-level checklist

Obtain the Form 8 extract, and read it as a tax record. Note the name, but treat it as a lead rather than an answer.
Ask for tax paid receipts for several years. Continuity tells you something about possession. Discontinuity is a question worth asking.
Ask the panchayat directly whether there is any dispute, claim or objection on the property. Do this in person. It is the highest-yield hour in the whole exercise.
Ask whether any part of the parcel is treated as common land or as a path. Village knowledge precedes the record here, often by years.
Confirm which authority sanctions development for this parcel. If it is not the panchayat, a panchayat permission is not the permission you need.
Check for unauthorised structures already standing. An existing structure without permission becomes your problem on the day you take possession.
Reconcile the panchayat record against the revenue record. Where the Form 8 name and the 7/12 name differ, find out why before proceeding, not after.

That last step is the one that finds real defects. A mismatch between the tax register and the record of rights usually has a story behind it, and the story is usually an unrecorded transfer, a family arrangement that was never formalised, or a possession that was never a purchase.

Frequently asked questions

Is a gram panchayat NOC proof of ownership

No. It records that the panchayat has no objection on the matters within its remit. It is not a title document and does not establish ownership.

What is Form 8 or Namuna 8

The panchayat property register used for assessment. It shows a property, its identifying number and the name in which the assessment stands.

Does a name in Form 8 mean that person owns the plot

No. It means that person is assessed for tax on it. Ownership is a separate question answered by the title chain, not by the assessment register.

Which section controls building in a village

Section 52 of the Maharashtra Village Panchayats Act, 1959 is headed control on erection of buildings.

Can a panchayat sanction my plotted layout

Not where the parcel falls within a planning authority’s jurisdiction. Establish the sanctioning authority for the specific parcel before treating any permission as sufficient.

Why bother with the panchayat at all

Because objections surface there first. The process of seeking the no objection is a cheap and fast way to discover disputes, common land claims and unrecorded paths before you commit.

Handed a Form 8 extract as the proof of ownership? Ask for the title chain instead. We reconcile the village record against the revenue record before anything is signed.

Talk to THE EDGE

Citations and sources

Maharashtra Village Panchayats Act, 1959 (Act 3 of 1959) — section 52 control on erection of buildings, section 54 numbering of premises, section 124 levy of taxes and fees by panchayats. Marginal headings taken from the Act as published. The full operative text of these sections was not reproduced in the extract consulted, so read the sections in full before relying on them in a specific case
Ministry of Panchayati Raj, The Maharashtra Village Panchayats Act, 1959

An advocate's desk with a bundle of land title documents beside a brass lamp

Land Investment

Buying Land as an Individual, HUF, LLP or Private Limited Company

By Girish Chhalwani,September 13, 2026September 23, 2026

TL;DR

Section 45(5A), which defers the tax on a joint development gain to the year of the completion certificate, is available only to individuals and Hindu Undivided Families. Firms, LLPs and companies do not get it.
Section 54F, the reinvestment exemption used when land is sold and the proceeds go into a residential house, is likewise an individual and HUF provision.
The choice between 12.5 per cent without indexation and 20 per cent with indexation, for property acquired before 23 July 2024, is open only to a resident individual or HUF. Everyone else is on 12.5 per cent.
So the two biggest tax levers available to a land holder in Maharashtra both switch off the moment the land sits inside a company or an LLP.
What a company buys you is different: limited liability, easier admission of investors, cleaner succession of the holding, and the ability to run development as a business.
Getting land out of a company later is expensive. Assume the structure you choose at purchase is the structure you sell from.
Before any of this, check whether the buyer is even eligible to acquire the land. Agricultural land in Maharashtra carries its own restrictions on who may purchase, and no tax argument survives an ineligible buyer.

Girish Chhalwani, Founder & CEO, THE EDGE Developments · 20+ years in Maharashtra land acquisition, tenure and NA conversion · 8 min read · Last updated 13 September 2026

The holding entity is a tax decision disguised as an administrative one, and it is made before the deed rather than after it. The question of buying land through a company rather than personally is usually raised for reasons of convenience and answered on reflex. The reflex is often wrong, because the concessions that matter most to a land holder are written for individuals and HUFs only.

The two provisions that decide most of it

Start with what is lost rather than what is gained, because the losses are specific and quantifiable while the gains are usually described in generalities.

Availability of the key concessions by holding entity
Provision	Individual	HUF	Partnership firm	LLP	Private limited company
Section 45(5A) JDA deferral to the completion certificate year	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Section 54F reinvestment exemption into a residential house	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Option of 20 per cent with indexation for property acquired before 23 July 2024	Yes, if resident	Yes, if resident	No	No	No

Section 45(5A) is the one that surprises people most. A landowner who signs a joint development agreement while holding personally pays tax in the year the completion certificate issues, when there is something realisable in hand. The same landowner holding through a company pays on ordinary principles in the year of the transfer to the developer, years before any return.

That is not a rate difference. It is a cash-flow event in the wrong year.

What each structure is actually for

Individual

The default, and for a long-hold land position usually the right one. Every concession above is available. The costs are that liability is personal, that admitting a co-investor means co-ownership with all its partition and consent problems, and that succession runs through the ordinary law of inheritance with the delays that brings.

Hindu Undivided Family

Retains the concessions and adds a separate assessable entity with its own exemption limit, which can be useful where family funds are genuinely being deployed. It is not a wrapper to be created for a transaction. The source of funds and the character of the property have to be right, and unwinding a HUF holding is harder than creating one. Partition is a real event with real consequences, not an administrative step.

Partnership firm

Rarely the right answer for a pure land hold. It loses the concessions, and introduces the instability of a firm whose constitution changes when partners come and go. Where it appears, it is usually a legacy structure rather than a chosen one.

LLP

Limited liability with a partnership’s internal flexibility, and popular for exactly that reason. The trade is the loss of the individual and HUF concessions. An LLP earns its place when the activity is genuinely a business with multiple participants and shared risk, not when a single family is holding a parcel for ten years.

Private limited company

The right structure when the land is inventory for a development business, when outside investors are coming in, or when the holding needs to be transferable as shares rather than as land. It is the wrong structure for a family that intends to hold and eventually sell, because every rupee of gain is taxed inside the company and taxed again on the way out to the shareholders.

The exit problem nobody models at purchase

Land is easy to put into a company and expensive to take out of one. The route out is a transfer from the company to the shareholder or a third party, which is a transfer for tax purposes and an instrument for stamp duty purposes, on top of whatever has already been paid inside the company on the gain.

Selling the shares instead of the land avoids a second conveyance, and is the standard answer, but it brings its own set of buyer concerns: the purchaser inherits the company’s entire history, including liabilities that have nothing to do with the land. Sophisticated buyers price that risk. Unsophisticated ones refuse the structure entirely, which narrows the market for your asset.

Section 45(5A) only applies to Individuals and HUF.

Quicko, on the scope of the joint development deferral

The question that precedes all of this

None of the above matters if the proposed buyer cannot lawfully acquire the land. Agricultural land in Maharashtra carries restrictions on who may purchase it, and those restrictions attach to the character of the buyer. A company or an LLP proposing to buy agricultural land is in a materially different position from an individual agriculturist, and the answer is not uniform across situations.

Treat eligibility as the first question and tax as the second. A structure that is tax-optimal and ineligible to buy is not a structure, and a transfer made in the face of a restriction creates precisely the kind of defect the rest of this site is about.

A working decision sequence

Is the buyer eligible to acquire this land at all? Tenure and buyer-character restrictions come first.
What is the realistic exit? A sale in eight years, a joint development, a development you will run yourself, or a hold across a generation. Each points to a different answer.
If a joint development is plausible, hold personally or in the HUF. Section 45(5A) is worth more than most of the reasons people give for incorporating.
If a sale followed by reinvestment into a house is plausible, hold personally or in the HUF. Section 54F is not available otherwise.
If outside money is coming in, or the land is inventory, use the company. That is what it is for, and the concessions you are giving up were never going to apply to a trading position anyway.
Do not incorporate for liability reasons alone on a passive land hold. The liability profile of holding a parcel is not the liability profile of running a development.
Do not restructure just before a transaction. Moving land into an entity shortly before a JDA or a sale is both a taxable event in itself and a poor look.

Frequently asked questions

Should I buy land in my own name or through a company

For a passive hold with a likely sale or joint development, personal or HUF holding preserves sections 45(5A) and 54F, which a company cannot use. For a development business or where investors are coming in, a company is the appropriate structure.

Can a company claim section 45(5A) on a joint development

No. The deferral to the completion certificate year is available only to individuals and Hindu Undivided Families.

Can an LLP claim section 54F

No. Section 54F is an individual and HUF provision.

Who can choose 20 per cent with indexation

A resident individual or HUF holding property acquired before 23 July 2024. Other taxpayers are on 12.5 per cent without indexation.

Is it expensive to move land out of a company later

Yes. The transfer is a taxable event and an instrument attracting stamp duty, on top of tax already borne inside the company on the gain. Selling the shares avoids a second conveyance but transfers the company history to the buyer.

Does the entity change the stamp duty on purchase

Stamp duty is charged on the instrument rather than on the identity of the buyer, with concessions that turn on the buyer only in specific cases such as the concession available to women purchasers. Compute it for your specific instrument rather than assuming.

Can a company buy agricultural land in Maharashtra

Restrictions apply to who may purchase agricultural land, and they attach to the character of the buyer. Confirm eligibility for the specific parcel and the specific buyer before choosing a structure.

Deciding whose name goes on the deed? Decide the exit first. The structure follows from it, and reversing the choice later is the expensive part.

Talk to THE EDGE

Citations and sources

Income-tax Act, 1961, section 45(5A) — available to individuals and HUFs only. See Quicko on section 45(5A) and ClearTax on JDA taxation
Income-tax Act, 1961, section 54F — conditions and the Rs 10 crore cap from 1 April 2024. See the section 54F conditions
Finance (No. 2) Act, 2024 — the 12.5 per cent rate and the resident individual and HUF option for property acquired before 23 July 2024. See ClearTax on long-term capital gains

This article is general information, not tax or corporate advice on any particular holding. Take the structure decision with a chartered accountant and an advocate before the deed is drawn.

Modern villa on a plotted residential development with a landscaped lawn at golden hour in Maharashtra

Land Investment

MahaRERA for Plotted Projects: What a Plot Buyer Must Verify

By Girish Chhalwani,September 13, 2026September 23, 2026

TL;DR

Section 3 of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 requires registration before any advertising or sale where the land proposed to be developed exceeds 500 square metres, or where more than eight apartments or plots are proposed, whichever applies.
A plotted development carrying infrastructure obligations is a real estate project. Sale of raw land with no development obligation is different, and that distinction is where promoters argue.
Each phase is a separate real estate project and needs its own registration. A registration number for phase one says nothing about the plot you are being sold in phase two.
Under section 13, a promoter cannot accept more than ten per cent of the cost of the plot as an advance or application fee without first entering into a registered agreement for sale.
Under section 4(2)(l)(D), seventy per cent of the amounts realised from allottees must go into a separate account, to be used only for that project’s land and construction cost.
Section 18 gives the allottee a right to withdraw with refund and interest, or to continue and take interest for delay, if the promoter fails to complete or hand over by the agreed date.
Penalty for developing without registration can run to ten per cent of the estimated project cost, with imprisonment for continued breach.

Girish Chhalwani, Founder & CEO, THE EDGE Developments · 20+ years in Maharashtra land acquisition, tenure and NA conversion · 8 min read · Last updated 13 September 2026

A plotted development with roads, drainage, water lines and a completion promise is a real estate project, and if it crosses the section 3 thresholds it cannot be advertised or sold before it is registered. The belief that a MahaRERA plotted project is somehow outside the regime is the single most useful misunderstanding a weak promoter has, because it removes the escrow, the agreement, the timeline and the remedy all at once.

When registration is required

Registration under section 3(1) is required before any marketing, advertising or sale where any one of the triggers is met. The thresholds are not cumulative in the way people assume, and the exemption is narrower than the trigger.

Section 3 triggers and the exemption
Position	Requirement
Land proposed to be developed exceeds 500 sq.m	Registration required
More than eight apartments or plots proposed	Registration required, whatever the land area
Project without a valid occupancy certificate, still selling inventory	Registration required
Each phase of a phased development	Treated as a separate project, each needing its own registration
Exemption	Only where the area is under 500 sq.m and there are not more than eight units. Both limbs must be satisfied

The phasing point deserves emphasis because it is where plot buyers are most often misled. A promoter can hold a genuine registration for a first phase and sell plots from an unregistered second phase alongside it, on the same site, under the same name, using the same signboard. The registration number on the brochure has to be checked against the specific phase in which your plot sits.

The raw land argument

The counter-position a promoter will run is that this is a sale of land, not a development, and land is outside RERA. That argument has a real basis where nothing is being promised: a survey number is conveyed, the buyer takes it as it is, and there is no obligation on the seller to do anything to it.

It collapses the moment infrastructure obligations enter. Internal roads, storm-water drains, a water line, street lighting, a gate, a compound wall, common open space, an amenity plot, a completion date. Each of those is a development obligation, and a promoter who has taken money against them has sold a real estate project. The test is what has been promised, not what the document has been titled.

The three protections a plot buyer loses without registration

This is the part worth internalising, because registration is not paperwork. It is the mechanism that delivers three specific protections.

The ten per cent rule, section 13. A promoter cannot accept more than ten per cent of the cost of the plot as an advance or application fee without first entering into a registered agreement for sale. Where a buyer has paid forty per cent against a booking form and an allotment letter, that rule has been broken and there is no registered agreement setting out area, price, timeline or default consequences.
The seventy per cent account, section 4(2)(l)(D). Seventy per cent of the amounts realised from allottees must be deposited in a separate account, to be used only for the land and construction cost of that project. This is what stops money from one project funding another promoter’s land purchase elsewhere, which is the single most common mechanism by which projects stall.
The delay remedy, section 18. Where the promoter fails to complete or hand over by the agreed date, the allottee may withdraw and claim a refund with interest, or continue and claim interest for every month of delay. Without a registered project and a registered agreement carrying a date, there is nothing to be in breach of.

Plotted developments with infrastructure obligations do require registration.

Analysis of section 3 registration requirements under MahaRERA

What to check, and how

The plot buyer verification sequence
Check	What good looks like	What to be wary of
Registration number on the MahaRERA portal	An active registration matching the project and the phase your plot sits in	A number that resolves to a different phase, a lapsed registration, or a number quoted only on paper
Promoter name	Matches the entity that will execute your agreement and the entity on the title	Three different names across brochure, agreement and 7/12
Sanctioned layout on the portal	Plot numbering that matches what you are being shown on site	A marketing plan with plot numbers that do not appear in the sanctioned layout
Declared completion date	A specific date you can hold against section 18	Soon, subject to approvals, or a date only in conversation
Quarterly progress updates	Filed and current	Nothing filed for several quarters on a project claimed to be moving
Amount demanded before agreement	Not more than ten per cent	A booking demand well above ten per cent against an allotment letter
Litigation disclosed	Listed on the portal	Encumbrances you find yourself that are not disclosed

Do these in this order, because the first two dispose of most problems in ten minutes and the rest are only worth doing if the first two hold.

Registration is not a quality certificate

An honest article has to say this. A MahaRERA registration number tells you the promoter has made declarations to a regulator, that a separate account exists, and that a completion date has been committed. It does not tell you the title is clean, that the layout was properly sanctioned, that the land is free of the tenure restrictions discussed elsewhere on this site, or that the promoter can deliver.

Registration is a floor. A registered project with a defective title is still a defective title, and the regulator does not adjudicate that for you before granting registration. Run the title work regardless.

What non-registration actually costs the promoter

Where a project that required registration was developed or sold without it, the penalty can extend to ten per cent of the estimated cost of the project, with imprisonment available for continued contravention. That is worth knowing not because a buyer wants to prosecute anyone, but because it explains behaviour. A promoter who has taken your money outside the system has an incentive to keep you outside it, and that shows up as reluctance to execute a registered agreement.

Frequently asked questions

Does RERA apply to plots or only to flats

It applies to plots. A plotted development with infrastructure obligations is a real estate project and requires registration where the section 3 thresholds are met.

What is the registration threshold for a plotted project

Registration is required where the land proposed to be developed exceeds 500 square metres, or where more than eight plots or apartments are proposed. The exemption applies only where both limbs are satisfied.

Is each phase registered separately

Yes. Each phase is treated as a separate real estate project with its own registration, so the number on the brochure must be checked against the phase your plot is in.

How much can a promoter take before the agreement for sale

Not more than ten per cent of the cost of the plot, under section 13. Beyond that a registered agreement for sale must be executed first.

What is the seventy per cent account

Under section 4(2)(l)(D), seventy per cent of amounts realised from allottees must be kept in a separate account and used only for the land and construction cost of that project.

What can I do if the plot is not handed over on time

Section 18 lets the allottee withdraw and claim a refund with interest, or continue and claim interest for the period of delay, where the promoter fails to complete or hand over by the agreed date.

Does a MahaRERA number mean the title is clean

No. Registration records declarations to a regulator. It is not a title certificate, and full title due diligence remains necessary.

Being sold a plot in a phase you cannot find on the portal? That is the check to finish before the booking amount, not after. We verify registration, phase and layout against what is actually on site.

Talk to THE EDGE

Citations and sources

Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, section 3 — registration of real estate projects, the 500 square metre and eight unit thresholds, phase-wise registration and the exemption. See this analysis of section 3 registration
Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, section 13 — no more than ten per cent as advance without a registered agreement for sale
Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, section 4(2)(l)(D) — seventy per cent of realisations to a separate account
Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, section 18 — refund with interest or interest for delay
Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, section 59 — penalty up to ten per cent of estimated project cost for non-registration

A traditional Maharashtra farmstead in soft morning light, with weathered stone boundary markers and a dry-stone wall in the foreground and a small tiled-roof dwelling among green fields behind.

Land Investment

Tribal Land in Maharashtra: Why Section 36A Can Void Your Purchase

By Girish Chhalwani,September 13, 2026September 23, 2026

TL;DR

Section 36A of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966 requires the previous sanction of the Collector before occupancy held by a tribal is transferred to a non-tribal.
Rule 4(1)(a) of the Maharashtra Land Revenue (Transfer of Occupancy by Tribals to Non-Tribals) Rules, 1975 restricts sale to a non-tribal except where the non-tribal intends to use the land for a non-agricultural purpose. Leasing and mortgaging remain permitted for agricultural use.
On 26 May 2025 a Division Bench of the Bombay High Court upheld Rule 4(1)(a) in Mahendarsingh Digvijaysingh Mukne v. State of Maharashtra, Writ Petition No. 2727 of 2018.
The petitioner there wanted to sell to a non-tribal tenant family that had worked the land since 1940. The Collector refused because the intended use was agricultural. The High Court did not disturb that.
The Court held that individual hardship by itself cannot invalidate a provision enacted for tribal welfare under Article 46, and found no discrimination because a tribal may transfer freely to another tribal.
A power of attorney does not solve this. If the underlying transfer needs sanction, dressing it as an agency arrangement changes nothing.

Girish Chhalwani, Founder & CEO, THE EDGE Developments · 20+ years in Maharashtra land acquisition, tenure and NA conversion · 8 min read · Last updated 13 September 2026

If the occupant in the chain of title was a tribal and the transfer to a non-tribal went through without the previous sanction of the Collector under section 36A, the buyer did not acquire the land, and no amount of subsequent paperwork repairs it. This is the most under-checked restriction on tribal land in Maharashtra, and the belt where second homes are being built is exactly the belt where it bites.

What section 36A does

Section 36A of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966 makes the previous sanction of the Collector a condition of transferring occupancy from a tribal to a non-tribal. The word doing the work is previous. Sanction is not a formality obtained afterwards to tidy up a completed sale; it is the thing that makes the transfer capable of happening at all.

The section does not stop tribal occupants from dealing with their land. A tribal may transfer to another tribal without this restriction, and the Bombay High Court has treated that fact as the answer to the argument that the provision discriminates. What the section does is control the exit of land out of tribal ownership.

The 1975 Rules, and the restriction people do not expect

Rule 4(1)(a) of the Maharashtra Land Revenue (Transfer of Occupancy by Tribals to Non-Tribals) Rules, 1975 restricts sale of occupancy to a non-tribal except where the non-tribal intends to use the land for a non-agricultural purpose. Leasing and mortgaging to a non-tribal for agricultural use remain permitted.

Read that carefully, because it inverts what most buyers assume. The buyer who wants to keep farming the land is in a worse position than the buyer who wants to convert it. A family that has cultivated a parcel for three generations and wants to buy it and carry on cultivating is precisely the case the rule blocks.

What Rule 4(1)(a) permits and restricts
Transaction	Position under the rule
Tribal to tribal	Unrestricted by this rule
Sale to a non-tribal for agricultural use	Restricted
Sale to a non-tribal for a non-agricultural purpose	Within the exception, still subject to Collector sanction under section 36A
Lease or mortgage to a non-tribal for agricultural use	Permitted

The May 2025 judgment, and why it matters now

On 26 May 2025 a Division Bench of the Bombay High Court comprising Justices A. S. Chandurkar and Rajesh S. Patil decided Mahendarsingh Digvijaysingh Mukne v. State of Maharashtra, Writ Petition No. 2727 of 2018, and upheld the validity of Rule 4(1)(a).

The facts are worth stating because they are as sympathetic as such facts get. The petitioner, a tribal, wished to transfer ancestral agricultural land to a non-tribal tenant whose father had worked that property since 1940. The Collector refused permission under Rule 4(1)(a)(i) on the ground that the land would continue to be used for agriculture. The petitioner then challenged the rule itself as constitutionally invalid.

The Court held the rule legally justifiable as a measure preventing non-tribals from accumulating tribal agricultural land, referring to the State’s obligation under Article 46 of the Constitution. It found no discriminatory classification, since tribals retain unrestricted rights of transfer to other tribals. And it recorded that section 36A gives the Collector discretion within the statutory framework without imposing an unreasonable restriction.

Individual hardship by itself cannot be a ground to hold a provision to be invalid.

Bombay High Court, Mahendarsingh Digvijaysingh Mukne v. State of Maharashtra, 26 May 2025

For a buyer, the practical reading is straightforward. Eighty-five years of continuous cultivation by the intending purchaser’s family, an entirely willing tribal seller, and a High Court petition were together not enough. A twelve-month acquaintance and an assurance that it will be sorted out later is not going to be enough either.

How the problem arrives in a title chain

Almost nobody sets out to buy tribal land. The exposure comes in through the chain, and usually in one of these shapes.

An old unsanctioned transfer. A parcel left tribal hands decades ago without sanction, has changed hands twice since, and the current seller is entirely innocent of the history. The defect travels with the land, not with the person.
Sanction that does not match the use. Sanction was granted on a stated non-agricultural purpose that never materialised. The file is clean on its face and the ground contradicts it.
A power of attorney arrangement. The tribal occupant remains on the record while a non-tribal controls, develops and eventually sells the land through an agency document. This is a structure, not a transfer, and it does not survive scrutiny.
Development agreement dressed as a lease. Leasing for agricultural use is permitted, so a long lease is sometimes used to carry what is commercially a sale. The substance is what will be examined.
Partial or informal sanction. An oral assurance, a note on a file, an application made and never decided. None of these is previous sanction.

What to check, and in what order

The tribal land check
Step	What you are looking for	Where it lives
1. Identify every occupant in the chain	Whether any holder was a tribal occupant	7/12, the mutation series, older village records
2. Locate the transfer out of tribal hands	The exact entry and its date	Ferfar or mutation register
3. Ask for the section 36A sanction order	A written order of the Collector, previous to the transfer	Collector office record, produced by the seller
4. Read the purpose stated in the sanction	Whether the stated non-agricultural purpose was real	The order itself, checked against ground use
5. Check the area for Scheduled Area status	Additional procedural requirements may apply	The applicable notification for the taluka
6. Test any POA or long lease against substance	Whether the arrangement is a disguised transfer	The instruments, read together

On step 5, there is a further layer worth flagging honestly. A notification dated 14 June 2016 is recorded as modifying the position for section 36A by requiring prior Gram Sabha sanction before the Collector allows a transfer of occupancy from a tribal to a non-tribal. We were not able to retrieve the text of that notification while preparing this article, so treat it as a line of enquiry to confirm with your advocate for the specific taluka rather than as a settled statement of the requirement.

What a buyer should conclude

The restriction is not a technicality that gets waived for a good story, and the May 2025 judgment is recent, considered and unhelpful to anyone hoping otherwise. If the chain runs through a tribal occupant and the sanction order cannot be produced and read, the parcel is not purchasable, whatever the price and whatever the assurance.

The corollary is worth stating too. Where a proper section 36A sanction exists, was previous to the transfer, and matches the actual use, the position is sound and the parcel is not tainted merely by having once been tribal land. The document is the difference.

Frequently asked questions

Can a non-tribal buy tribal land in Maharashtra

Only with the previous sanction of the Collector under section 36A of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, and Rule 4(1)(a) restricts sale to a non-tribal except where the non-tribal intends non-agricultural use.

What is section 36A

The provision of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966 that makes the previous sanction of the Collector a condition of transferring occupancy held by a tribal to a non-tribal.

What happens if I already bought without sanction

The transfer is not valid merely because it was registered, paid for and followed by possession. The defect attaches to the land and passes down the chain, so take advice on the specific chain rather than assuming time has cured it.

Does a power of attorney solve the problem

No. If the underlying transaction is a transfer requiring sanction, structuring it as an agency arrangement does not change what it is.

Can a tribal sell to another tribal

Yes. The Bombay High Court treated the unrestricted right of transfer between tribals as the reason the restriction is not discriminatory.

Did the Bombay High Court strike down the restriction

No. On 26 May 2025 in Mahendarsingh Digvijaysingh Mukne v. State of Maharashtra the Court upheld Rule 4(1)(a), holding that individual hardship by itself cannot invalidate a provision enacted for tribal welfare.

Buying in the Sahyadri or Palghar belt? Ask for the section 36A sanction order before anything else. If it cannot be produced and read, the price is irrelevant.

Talk to THE EDGE

Citations and sources

Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966, section 36A — text
Maharashtra Land Revenue (Transfer of Occupancy by Tribals to Non-Tribals) Rules, 1975, Rule 4(1)(a) — bare rules
Mahendarsingh Digvijaysingh Mukne v. State of Maharashtra, Writ Petition No. 2727 of 2018, Bombay High Court, 26 May 2025, Chandurkar and Rajesh S. Patil JJ — case report
Notification dated 14 June 2016 on modifications to section 36A requiring prior Gram Sabha sanction — listed on the Raj Bhavan Maharashtra document index, but the document page redirected and could not be read in preparing this article. Verify before relying on it

Aerial view of farmland reorganised into a planned grid of serviced plots and roads in Maharashtra

Land Investment

UDCPR Plotted Layout Rules: Roads, Open Space and Amenity Space

By Girish Chhalwani,September 13, 2026September 23, 2026

TL;DR

Internal road width in a residential layout is set by road length under Table 3A: 9.00 m up to 150 m, 12.00 m above 150 m and up to 300 m, 15.00 m above 300 m. Length is measured from the farthest plot to the public street.
Non-residential layouts need more under Table 3B: 12.0 m, 15.0 m and 18.0 m or more against the same length bands.
Any layout of 0.4 hectare or more must earmark 10 per cent of the layout area as recreational open space, under Regulation 3.4.1.
That 0.4 hectare is measured against the original holding as it stood on 11 January 1967, not against a later sub-division made without permission.
Amenity space under Regulation 3.5.1 is Nil below 20,000 sq.m and 5 per cent of total area at 20,000 sq.m or more, as substituted on 16 June 2021.
A plot not abutting a public road needs an access way of at least 6.0 m for up to 75 m, or 9.0 m for up to 150 m, in non-congested areas.
UDCPR does not apply everywhere. NAINA, MIDC, Greater Mumbai, JNPT, hill station municipal councils, Lonavala and notified eco-sensitive regions are outside it, and that is the first question, not the last.

Girish Chhalwani, Founder & CEO, THE EDGE Developments · 20+ years in Maharashtra land acquisition, tenure and NA conversion · 9 min read · Last updated 13 September 2026

A plotted layout is legal when its internal roads, recreational open space and amenity space meet the figures the regulations set, and a brochure that does not state those figures is not describing a sanctioned layout. The UDCPR plotted layout rules are unusually checkable: every requirement below carries a regulation or table number you can quote back to a seller.

First question: does UDCPR even apply

This is where most conversations should start and almost none do. The Unified Development Control and Promotion Regulations do not apply to the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and the planning and special planning authorities within its limit, to MIDC, to NAINA, to the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust area, to hill station municipal councils, to Lonavala Municipal Council, or to eco-sensitive and eco-fragile regions notified by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

That exclusion list matters enormously to buyers in this belt, because NAINA covers a large part of the corridor that gets marketed as the airport growth zone. If a plot sits inside one of these areas, the norms below are the wrong yardstick and you need the applicable authority’s own regulations instead.

Internal roads: width follows length

Regulation 3.3.2 sets minimum internal road widths by the length of the road, not by the size of the plot. The length is measured from the farthest plot, or building, to the public street, under Regulation 3.3.3.

Table 3A — internal roads for residential development
Length of internal road	Minimum width
Up to 150 m	9.00 m
Above 150 m and up to 300 m	12.00 m
Above 300 m	15.00 m

Table 3B — internal roads for non-residential development
Length of internal road	Minimum width
Up to 150 m	12.0 m
Above 150 m and up to 300 m	15.0 m
Above 300 m	18.0 m or more

Table 3C — internal roads for a group housing scheme
Length of internal road	Minimum width
Up to 150 m	7.50 m
Above 150 m and up to 300 m	9.00 m
Above 300 m and up to 600 m	12.00 m
Above 600 m	15.00 m

Two riders worth knowing. Where plots of 100 sq.m or less are proposed for Economically Weaker Sections, 4.5 m roads up to 60 m and 6.0 m roads up to 100 m may be permitted so that EWS plots abut both sides. And a group housing scheme of more than 2.0 hectares must provide through roads coordinating with adjoining major road links of 15.0 m and above.

The Authority may also insist on a larger width than the table requires, in the interest of general development of the area. So the table is a floor, not an entitlement.

Access to a plot that does not abut a road

Regulation 3.2.1 states the principle plainly: every plot or land shall have means of access like a street or road, irrespective of its width. Where a plot does not abut a public street, Regulation 3.2.2 sets the access way width in non-congested areas at a minimum of 6.0 m for a length up to 75.0 m, and 9.0 m for a length up to 150.0 m. In congested areas the minimum is 4.5 m.

Regulation 3.2.3 then prohibits any construction that encroaches on or diminishes the area set apart as means of access. Read that alongside a layout drawing where the access strip looks suspiciously narrow on the far side of the last plot.

Recreational open space: the 0.4 hectare trigger

Under Regulation 3.4.1, any layout, sub-division or development of land admeasuring 0.4 hectare or more must earmark 10 per cent of the layout area as recreational open space, as far as possible in one place. The area is computed after deducting land under Development Plan or Regional Plan roads and reservations. Above 0.8 hectare the open space may be split across locations within the same layout, subject to size and dimension rules.

The detail that catches people is the reference date. That 0.4 hectare threshold is measured against the original holding as on 11 January 1967, not against a later sub-division recorded in revenue or city survey records without permission under the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966.

For land sub-divided after 11 January 1967 without prior permission, and now below 0.4 hectare, the applicant may choose one of three routes.

Provide 10 per cent open space subject to a minimum of 200 sq.m.
Take a reduced FSI of 75 per cent of the basic FSI otherwise permissible, with TDR loading limited to 50 per cent of what Chapter 6 allows.
Take full basic FSI and other permissible FSI or TDR by paying 10 per cent of the value of the land under the proposal, as per the Annual Statement of Rates for that year.

Plots up to 0.4 hectare regularised under the Maharashtra Gunthewari Development (Regularisation, Upgradation and Control) Act, 2001 do not require this open space. Plots of 0.4 hectare or more regularised under that Act do, along with the rest of UDCPR including amenity space, by the insertion of 2 December 2021.

10% of the area under layout shall be earmarked as recreational open space which shall, as far as possible, be provided in one place.

UDCPR-2020, Regulation 3.4.1

Amenity space: the number that changed

Regulation 3.5.1, as substituted by notification dated 16 June 2021, requires no amenity space for land below 20,000 sq.m, and 5 per cent of the total area for land of 20,000 sq.m or more. It applies in the areas of local authorities, special planning authorities and metropolitan region development authorities, computed on gross area after deducting land under Development Plan reservations and roads, including road widening proposals.

If you have seen a different pair of percentages quoted, it is probably from an earlier version of the regulation. This is a provision that has been amended, and the figures above are the ones in the consolidated text updated to 30 January 2025.

Two operational points. The amenity space must be approachable by a minimum 12.0 m wide road, except where a 12.0 m approach to the site does not exist; in B and C class municipal councils, nagarpanchayats and Regional Plan areas it may sit on a 9 m road, but then no special building is allowed on it. And the Authority may insist on the amenity space being handed over where it is required for one of six purposes: garden, playground, municipal school, municipal hospital, fire brigade, or housing for project affected persons. In that case it is deemed a reservation and the owner gets in-situ FSI or TDR in lieu, granted only after transfer.

The electric sub-station provision people forget

Regulation 3.6 requires provision for an electric sub-station where the power supply authority considers it necessary: a single transformer sub-station of 5.0 m by 5.0 m and not more than 5.0 m high on a plot above 2,000 sq.m, and a suitable site as required by the power supply company for a layout or sub-division of 2.0 hectares or more. It is a small thing that becomes a large thing when it has not been planned for.

What to ask a seller, in order

Six questions that separate a sanctioned layout from a drawing
Question	What a good answer looks like
Which authority sanctions this layout	A named authority, and confirmation that UDCPR applies rather than NAINA or MIDC regulations
What is the length of the longest internal road	A number, measured from the farthest plot to the public street, matched to Table 3A
How wide are the internal roads	9, 12 or 15 m matching that length, not an average or a promise
Where is the 10 per cent recreational open space	Marked on the sanctioned plan, in one place where possible
What was the holding on 11 January 1967	Relevant wherever the layout is close to the 0.4 hectare line
Is amenity space provided, and where	Required only at 20,000 sq.m or more, and it must sit on a road of adequate width

Frequently asked questions

What is the minimum internal road width in a plotted layout

For residential development under Table 3A it is 9.00 m for roads up to 150 m, 12.00 m above 150 m and up to 300 m, and 15.00 m above 300 m. Non-residential layouts need 12.0, 15.0 and 18.0 m or more.

How much open space must a layout provide

Ten per cent of the layout area, for any layout or sub-division of 0.4 hectare or more, under Regulation 3.4.1, provided as far as possible in one place.

Why does the date 11 January 1967 matter

The 0.4 hectare threshold for recreational open space is measured against the original holding as on 11 January 1967, not against a later unauthorised sub-division.

How much amenity space is required

None below 20,000 sq.m, and 5 per cent of the total area at 20,000 sq.m or more, under Regulation 3.5.1 as substituted on 16 June 2021.

Does UDCPR apply to a plot in NAINA

No. NAINA is outside UDCPR, as are Greater Mumbai, MIDC, JNPT, hill station municipal councils, Lonavala Municipal Council and notified eco-sensitive regions. Check the governing authority before applying any of these norms.

Do gunthewari plots need open space

Plots up to 0.4 hectare regularised under the Gunthewari Act do not. Plots of 0.4 hectare or more regularised under that Act do, along with amenity space and the rest of UDCPR.

Looking at a plotted layout in the Karjat or Khalapur belt? Ask for the road lengths and the open space location before the price. Those two answers tell you whether a sanction exists.

Talk to THE EDGE

Citations and sources

UDCPR-2020, consolidated text updated as on 30 January 2025 (sanctioned text hosted by PMRDA) — Regulation 3.2 (means of access), Regulation 3.3.2 with Tables 3A, 3B and 3C (internal roads), Regulation 3.3.3 (how road length is measured), Regulation 3.4.1 (recreational open space), Regulation 3.5.1 (amenity space), Regulation 3.6 (electric sub-station)
Notification No. CR.236/18 (Part-3) dated 16 June 2021 — substitution of the amenity space table in Regulation 3.5.1
Corrigendum / Addendum No. CR.121/21 dated 2 December 2021 — insertion regarding gunthewari plots of 0.4 hectare or more
Maharashtra Gunthewari Development (Regularisation, Upgradation and Control) Act, 2001

UDCPR is amended frequently. The text relied on here is current to 30 January 2025 and anything later must be checked against newer notifications. Final approval rests with the planning authority, and a licensed architect or engineer should verify before any submission.

What is 40 guntha in acre, exactly?

Why does the 7/12 not show guntha at all?

What is the full conversion table?

How do you convert from the figure on your own 7/12?

What about bigha, and why do the numbers never agree?

Frequently asked questions

How many guntha make one acre?

What is 1 guntha in square feet?

What is 1 guntha in square metres?

How many guntha are in one hectare?

Is an are the same as a guntha?

Does the 7/12 extract show area in guntha?

Related reading

Citations and sources

What is the 7/12 and 8A difference, in one line?

What does each record actually contain?

Why does the 8A matter to a buyer at all?

Where do you get each one?

Which record settles a dispute?

Frequently asked questions

What is the main 7/12 and 8A difference?

Do I need both for a land purchase?

Are the 7/12 and 8A issued under the same law?

Does the 8A prove ownership?

Why does my district not appear on the portal?

Is the free extract accepted by a bank?

Related reading

Citations and sources

What is a ferfar, and why does its status decide your deal?

How do you check ferfar status online?

What does the portal refuse to do?

Where does the mutation number actually appear?

What does a pending entry mean for a buyer?

Frequently asked questions

Can I check ferfar status online without knowing the village?

Is the free online ferfar legally valid?

What is the difference between a pending and a certified mutation?

Where do I find the mutation number?

Can I run this check for several villages at once?

Does a clean extract mean there is no dispute?

Related reading

Citations and sources

What is the government valuation of land, and who fixes it?

When does a new rate come into force?

How is the rate actually built for a specific parcel?

What if the government valuation is wrong for your land?

Where does the figure actually bite in your deal?

Frequently asked questions

Is the government valuation of land the same as the ready reckoner rate?

Who prepares the Annual Statement of Rates in Maharashtra?

On what date does the new rate take effect?

Can I pay stamp duty on a price lower than the government valuation?

Can the government valuation be challenged?

Does the rate differ for agricultural land?

Related reading

Citations and sources

The Act, and what it changed

The 500 metre rule

The 60 metre threshold

Who actually gives permission

What it costs to get this wrong

The pre-purchase water check

Frequently asked questions

Do I need permission to dig a borewell on my own land in Maharashtra

How far must a well be from a public drinking water source

What is the 60 metre rule

Do existing wells need to be registered

What happens if I sink a well without permission

Does owning the land give me a right to the groundwater

What is GSDA

Related reading

Citations and sources

Where the panchayat sits in the chain

What Form 8 is, and what it is not

Why the NOC is still worth getting early

The jurisdiction question

The village-level checklist

Frequently asked questions

Is a gram panchayat NOC proof of ownership