He has been plowing the land for many years. Yet, at 70, he still can’t call it his own.
Maruthaiah, from Bhojananpeta village, just seven km from Telangana’s Peddapalli town, finds himself embroiled in a legal tussle over 22 guntas of agricultural land that his father had purchased through a ‘plain deed’ in the early 1980s.– Generally an unregistered agreement at that time. After inheriting, their efforts to regularize the land have stalled, with revenue officials insisting on an affidavit from the legal heirs of the original seller, an almost impossible situation due to which they have to wait indefinitely for the ownership deed.
Not only for them, this affidavit requirement has emerged as the biggest hurdle for thousands of small and medium farmers across Telangana. In many cases, the vendors have died, their heirs have fled or they are unwilling to cooperate unless a “favor” is returned. The sharp increase in land prices over the past decade has made this task more difficult.
The result is a cruel paradox: farmers who have cultivated land for decades, whose names appear in the official “Anand Column”, are still denied ownership.
A small farmer from Rampalli village in Peddapalli district, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that despite submitting plain deed and other documentary evidence, revenue officials keep demanding affidavits from the seller or his legal heir. He asks, “The land seller had left the village in the late 1980s due to drought-like conditions in the area, which was once a Naxal-hit area. I tried to trace his family, but in vain. If they are untraceable, where should I go?”
Kanneganti Ravi, farmer leader of Telangana Rythu Swarajya Vedika, calls the affidavit rule illogical. “Simple bond transactions took place many decades ago on the basis of mutual trust. Continuous occupation and cultivation of such land by farmers is sufficient proof of ownership. Ground inspection, anand survey and inquiries with neighboring farmers should suffice,” he asserts. This issue concerns various fields. In the erstwhile districts of Karimnagar, Khammam, Nizamabad, Adilabad and Medak, affidavit-related delays have become routine.
“Around 7,800 applications for regularization of Sada Bainama were received in Konijerla mandal of Khammam district,” says Tehsildar Aruna, adding that around 6,500 applications have already been processed and the process is nearing completion.
While officials cite progress, many farmers say ground-level realities tell a different story. A farmer from Munjampalli village in Jagtial district says that despite repeated requests for inspection of his 20-gunta land, officials are yet to come. “They cite various reasons, including that they are busy. Many other people in the village have graciously managed to get their land regularised,” he alleged.
The situation is even worse in the villages included in urban bodies. K, a Dalit farmer from Mogilicherla near Warangal. Balaraju (65), who now falls under the Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation, says he cannot regularize the 1.27-acre land he bought from his aunt 20 years ago. “Officials say there is no provision to regularize Saada Bainama now as the village is part of the municipal corporation. We cannot even get formal registration done because of the high fees,” he lamented.
M. Adinarayana Reddy of Warangal district, who bought two acres of land in Dwarkapet in 1956, says he too is facing a similar hurdle after the village was merged with Narsampet Municipality.
Many farmers have accused officials of corruption and discretionary enforcement, worsening an already opaque process. The land they have lived on for decades is officially out of reach, as they are held hostage by paperwork, affidavits and an unyielding system.
historical background
Rooted in the Nizam era, the Sada Bainama practice became widespread throughout rural Telangana, allowing farmers – often illiterate or cash-strapped – to buy and sell small land parcels without formal registration. Although cheap, it was fraught with risks: buyers did not enjoy legal title, making them vulnerable to disputes, eviction, and exclusion from government welfare schemes.
Although it was earlier recognized under the Telangana Right to Land and Pattadar Passbook Act, 1971, discrepancies in record keeping led to controversy, which became more pronounced after the formation of Telangana in 2014.
In 2016, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (erstwhile Telangana Rashtra Samithi) government started the first phase of regularization under the Record of Rights (ROR) Act. Out of over 12.64 lakh applications, pattadar passbooks were issued to 6.18 lakh farmers after scrutiny, with small holders exempted from the fee. However, many claims were rejected due to verification-related issues.
The second phase followed in 2020 through Government Order No. 112, which saw more than nine lakh applications received at Meeseva centres.
A PIL challenging the amendment and procedure in the ROR Act led to the High Court imposing an interim stay, putting the cases on hold for almost five years. The uncertainty fueled rural discontent and became a major election issue in 2023, leading Congress to promise a solution and later replace the Dharani Act with the Bhu Bharti Act.
High Court approval, latest push
The impasse ended on August 6 last year, when a division bench of the high court dismissed the PIL and lifted the interim stay, noting that the Telangana Bhu Bharati (Record of Rights in Land) Act, 2025 provides for regularization of perpetual benamas under Section 6.
Revenue and Housing Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy termed the decision as “historic”, saying it would benefit lakhs of farmers. Officials and experts, including the Telangana Deputy Collectors Association, said this would reduce disputes and ensure permanent land rights.
On September 10, the Revenue Department issued a notification directing officials to take action on pending applications under Section 6(1) of the Act. Applicants were directed to prove continuous possession of the land for at least 12 years, with transactions occurring before June 2, 2014. The scheme is applicable only to small and marginal farmers in rural areas, excluding urban and commercial lands, to prevent misuse.
The Revenue Divisional Officer will act as the Inquiry Officer to verify the claims and approve the registration. Successful applicants will receive new pattadar passbooks, which will enable formal registration and mutation of land records.
In the absence of legal ownership, farmers were unable to use their land as collateral to obtain institutional loans and often struggled to meet basic farm expenses. Regularization is expected to ease access to loans, inputs and welfare schemes like Rythu Bharosa.
Role of officers and ongoing process
Explaining the verification process, a tehsildar said that a revenue inspector, along with the village supervision officer, conducts field inspection to verify whether the applicant owns the land and whether he is cultivating it or not. Notices are issued and displayed at the Gram Panchayat office, while statements of neighboring land owners are recorded during inspection to confirm possession and enjoyment. “We also verify other records like entries in the manual Pihani To establish that the applicant had purchased the land from the original owner, who was a pattadar,” he says.
However, the Tehsildar said it is mandatory to submit an affidavit from the seller or his legal heir. If the affidavit is not submitted due to legal issues the application is not considered, he says and points out that many cases are further complicated by wrong names or survey numbers of vendors in decades-old perpetual bond documents. “Disposing of these cases has become a challenge,” he admits.
While the Tehsildar investigates and submits the report, the final authority to approve regularization rests with the Revenue Divisional Officer.
Legal framework for regularization
Pattadar passbooks, which provide legal recognition of land ownership, are important for farmers to access institutional credit and welfare schemes. However, a large section of cultivators in Telangana remain without ownership despite uninterrupted occupation for decades, mainly due to land transactions carried out through plain bainama – executed on plain paper or through unregistered documents.
Unlike registered sale deeds protected under the Telangana Land Rights and Pattadar Passbook Act, 1971, perpetual deeds lack legal validity under successive land laws. As a result, more than nine lakh farmers remain with land without title deeds.
The BRS government had earlier set June 2, 2014 as the last date for regularization, after which more than 9.2 lakh applications were received. But the process came to a halt, leaving the applicants upset. After assuming power in December 2023, the Congress government sought to revive the process by including provisions for regularization of perpetual deeds under Section 6 of the Telangana Bhu Bharati (Record of Rights in Land) Act, 2025.
Despite the new law, progress at the ground level is slow. Officials are reportedly insisting on the affidavit citing rules made under the Act, while the software and verification are being delayed due to discrepancies between the names in the old Sada Bainama and the current entries in the Anand column. The affidavit requirement – introduced through rules made under the Act rather than the Act itself – has emerged as a major hurdle, resulting in negligible regularization in recent months.
M. Sunil Kumar, land law expert and Assistant Professor at NALSAR, who was actively involved in the preparation of the Bhu Bharati Act, says the lack of clear, written operational guidelines has led to varying interpretations by field officials, leading to delays and room for perceived discretion in implementation.
Experts have urged the government to give priority to local inquiries to establish possession and cultivation instead of relying excessively on affidavits and to redraft the rules by clearly defining the roles of officials at different levels. They also point to the absence of comprehensive land survey in Telangana as a structural barrier. Neighboring Andhra Pradesh’s decision to order re-survey and extend the regularization of Sada Bainama till December 31, 2027 has been cited as an example that Telangana can follow.
The Bhu Bharti Act also seeks to include provisions similar to Sections 5-A and 5-B of the 1971 Act, empowering tehsildars to regularize perpetual benama lands, issue Form 13-B certificates, treat such lands at par with registered holdings and enable grant of pattas and pattadar passbooks, thereby providing full ownership rights to farmers.
Meanwhile, Telangana Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Commission Chairman M. Kodanda Reddy, who also played a key role in implementing the Act, says Chief Minister A. A representation was given to Revanth Reddy and a high level meeting will be held to find the way forward.
“We proposed to hold a gram sabha to find out the facts regarding the sale of land through sada deed,” he says.
Another expert suggests that notices can be issued to both sellers and buyers, leading to public submission of affidavits, making verification easier.
If implemented, such measures are expected to not only unlock regularization but also reduce long-standing land disputes in Telangana, offering farmers security of tenure, smooth inheritance and legally protected ownership.
