tribal land records

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

Key Takeaways

Forms 7E/12E are specialized land record formats used to document landholdings in Scheduled Tribe (Adivasi) areas, where protections under tribal land laws restrict transfer to non-tribal parties.
Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule’s 2026 initiatives include a focus on ensuring tribal land records accurately reflect current holders and protected status, reducing disputes and unauthorized transfers.
Land in areas covered by tribal land protections carries significant restrictions on sale to non-tribal buyers, and verifying this status accurately is essential before any transaction is even considered.
Buyers should treat any land in or near recognized tribal belts with particular caution, independently confirming its classification rather than relying solely on a seller’s or broker’s representation.

Reading time: 7 min | Last updated: July 2026 | By Girish Chhalwani, Founder & CEO, THE EDGE Developments

Maharashtra’s Revenue Department has intensified focus on the accuracy of tribal land records — documented through specialized formats like Form 7E/12E in Scheduled Areas — as part of Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule’s broader 2026 land record reform agenda. These records exist because land held by Scheduled Tribe members in designated areas is subject to specific legal protections restricting transfer, and keeping these records accurate is essential both for protecting tribal land rights and for preventing land buyers from inadvertently entering into legally void or contestable transactions.

What Are Forms 7E/12E?

In areas notified under tribal land protection provisions, land records maintain specialized annotations or forms (referenced here as 7E/12E, reflecting extensions of the standard 7/12 framework specifically for tribal-held land) that document the tribal status of the recorded holder and any applicable transfer restrictions. These exist alongside the standard 7/12 system but carry additional legal weight regarding whom the land can be transferred to.

Why Transfer Restrictions Exist

Under laws designed to protect tribal communities from land alienation, land held by Scheduled Tribe members in Scheduled Areas generally cannot be freely sold to non-tribal buyers without specific government permission, and in many cases, such permission is granted only in narrow, defined circumstances. This protective framework aims to prevent historically vulnerable tribal landholders from losing land through distress sales or exploitative transactions.

Why Bawankule’s 2026 Push on This Matters

Issue Being Addressed	Impact
Outdated or inaccurate tribal status records	Can lead to genuine disputes over whether protections apply, or fraudulent transactions exploiting record gaps
Unauthorized or informal transfers	Land changing hands outside legal protections, often to the detriment of the original tribal holder
Buyer uncertainty	Prospective buyers unknowingly entering agreements for land that cannot be legally transferred to them

“Tribal land protections exist for good reason, and they’re not a technicality to work around — they’re a hard legal restriction. Any time land near a tribal belt looks unusually cheap or the seller is vague about documentation, that’s exactly when to slow down and get independent verification of the land’s classification before going any further.” — Girish Chhalwani, Founder & CEO, THE EDGE Developments

What Buyers Should Do

Determine whether a plot of interest falls within a Scheduled Area or is otherwise subject to tribal land protection provisions.
Independently verify the land’s recorded status directly with the local Talathi or Tehsildar office rather than relying on seller representations alone.
If tribal land protections apply, understand that transfer to a non-tribal buyer may require specific government permission and is not a straightforward transaction — consult a lawyer experienced in tribal land law before proceeding.
Treat any pressure to close quickly on land near tribal areas as a reason for more scrutiny, not less.

How This Connects to Maharashtra’s Wider Special-Category Land Reforms

Forms 7E/12E aren’t the only special-category land documentation getting closer scrutiny under the 2026 reform agenda. Devasthan Inam land — historically granted to temples and religious trusts — carries its own distinct transfer restrictions and has faced similar historical documentation gaps. Both categories share a common thread: land that is legally protected or restricted, but where the protection only functions if the underlying records are kept accurate and current. When records lag, a well-meaning legal protection can quietly erode — informal transfers happen anyway, boundaries blur, and by the time a dispute surfaces, reconstructing the true chain of ownership and eligibility becomes far harder than it should be.

For buyers, the practical lesson from both categories is the same: any land carrying a special legal classification — tribal, religious trust, or otherwise — deserves a materially higher level of scrutiny than a standard freehold plot. The paperwork burden is heavier, the permissions required are narrower, and the consequences of getting it wrong are more severe (a legally void transaction, not just a slow one). Rather than treating this as a deterrent, the more useful frame is that these categories require a different due-diligence checklist entirely — one that starts with confirming the land‘s legal category before any other verification step, since everything downstream depends on that answer.

As Maharashtra’s Revenue Department works through these accuracy pushes across multiple special land categories simultaneously, buyers evaluating land in tribal belts, near religious institutions, or in other historically under-documented categories should expect the verification bar to keep rising — a trend worth factoring into timelines for any transaction involving this kind of land.

FAQ

What are Forms 7E/12E?

They are specialized land record documentation used in Scheduled Areas to record tribal landholding status and applicable transfer restrictions, alongside the standard 7/12 framework.

Can non-tribal buyers purchase tribal-protected land in Maharashtra?

Generally, transfer to non-tribal buyers is restricted and requires specific government permission, granted only in limited circumstances.

Why is Bawankule focusing on tribal land record accuracy in 2026?

To reduce disputes, prevent unauthorized transfers, and ensure records accurately reflect tribal landholder status and legal protections.

How do I check if a plot is subject to tribal land protections?

Verify directly with the local Talathi or Tehsildar office, since this classification carries significant legal weight that shouldn’t be assumed from a seller’s representation alone.

What happens if I unknowingly buy tribal-protected land?

Such a transaction can be legally void or contestable, which is why independent verification before any agreement is essential.

Citations & Sources

Maharashtra Revenue & Forest Department, 2026 policy announcements
Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966 — tribal land protection provisions

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