Gharauni Mutation in UP: Name Change After Death or Sale

Your father has died, the Gharauni for the village house still carries his name, and the tehsil counter has sent you away twice without telling you which officer is even supposed to sign the change. Uttar Pradesh now answers that question by statute rather than by local practice, and the answer depends entirely on one thing: whether anybody is disputing your claim.

This routing table is the whole Act in one view. Find your row before you visit any office.

It is the Uttar Pradesh Rural Abadi Records Act, 2025, and it is numbered U.P. Act no. 4 of 2026. The Hindi title is the Uttar Pradesh Grameen Abadi Abhilekh Adhiniyam, 2025. The Governor assented on 2 January 2026 and the English translation was published the same day under Article 348(3) of the Constitution, vide No. 255(2)/LXXIX-V-1-2026-1(ka)-22-2025 dated Lucknow, 2 January 2026. Rajaswa Anubhag-14 is the department concerned.

Unlike many State Acts that sit unnotified for years, section 1(3) says it shall come into force with effect from the date of its publication in the Official Gazette. There is no separate commencement notification to wait for. Section 1(2) extends it to the whole of Uttar Pradesh.

The Statement of Objects and Reasons explains why it exists. The Centre's SVAMITVA scheme surveyed rural abadi with drone technology and produced ownership records, but, in the Statement's own words, there was no Act in the State to regulate transfer, amendment or updation on inheritance, succession and sale. This Act is the missing machinery, not a new survey.

This is the fear people bring to the tehsil, and it is misplaced. Section 20 is a savings provision: Gharaunis prepared through Survey and Record Operation under the State Government regulations notified vide no. 675/1-14/2020 dated 8 October 2020, issued under section 43(2) and section 234(1) of the Uttar Pradesh Revenue Code, 2006, shall be deemed to have been made under this Act.

So a card issued in 2021 or 2023 carries forward with full statutory backing. You do not re-apply. You mutate.

If your change is on this list and nobody contests it, it is an administrative updation, not litigation.

• Succession
• Registered sale deed
• Registered gift deed
• Auction conducted by Government or a Government undertaking
• Land acquisition
• Registered Will
• Court decree
• Partition or sub-division
• Written family settlement

Two conditions sit on top of that list. Section 14(4) makes the consent of shareholders mandatory for undisputed mutation of jointly owned property, so a co-owner who will not sign converts your file into a disputed one. And section 14(1) itself routes the actual mutation to be done in the manner as may be prescribed, which means the procedural detail lives in rules the State Government may make under section 19, with regulations by the Board of Revenue under section 21.

Section 3(1) names the record of the abadi as the Gharauni, subject to prescribed exemptions. Section 3(2) fixes its contents, and it is worth checking your own copy against this list.

1. Name of the owner and address
2. Share of other owners in the abadi plot
3. Plot number, dimensions and area of the abadi plot
4. Locational details of the abadi plot
5. Sketch of the abadi plot
6. Other particulars as may be prescribed

Section 3(3) calls the compilation of all Gharaunis of a village the Register of Gharaunis, and section 3(4) provides for a cadastral map called the Abadi Map. If the share of other owners is blank on your Gharauni but the property is in fact joint, that is a section 3(2)(b) gap and it will resurface at mutation under section 14(4).

Section 8 is the shortest and most valuable provision in the Act. The person recorded as owner in the Gharauni shall be deemed to be the owner of the abadi plot.

That is a deeming provision attached to a record. It is why an incorrect name is not a paperwork annoyance, and why getting the objection window right during the survey is worth more effort than fixing it afterwards.

The sequence in Chapter 2 is tight, and the citizen step sits in the middle of it.

1. Section 6: the State Government orders a Survey and Record Operation for part or the whole of a district by notification, on a proposal from the Board of Revenue.
2. Section 7(1): the Record Officer declares the dates of the abadi survey. Section 7(2): the Assistant Record Officer conducts it with the help of a technical agency.
3. Section 9: the preliminary Abadi Record is published by the Assistant Record Officer in the open meeting of the Gram Sabha. This is your notice. It is not sent to you individually.
4. Section 10(1): any person aggrieved by an entry may file an objection about errors of survey of his or her plot before the Record Officer, within the time prescribed.
5. Section 10(2): the Record Officer decides on the basis of concurrence or consent of all the concerned parties. Section 10(3): the decision is recorded by the Assistant Record Officer and the Gharauni is amended.
6. Section 10(4): if an entry is disputed, it is marked as disputed in the Abadi Survey Form and recorded as such in the Gharauni.
7. Sections 11(1) and 11(2): the Record Officer proposes closure to the Board, and the State Government notifies the closure.

Note the consent standard in section 10(2). Even at the objection stage the Record Officer is resolving by agreement, not adjudicating a title fight. If your neighbour will not concur, expect a disputed marking under section 10(4) rather than a ruling in your favour.

Missed the window entirely? Section 12 keeps one door open: after closure, any interested person can apply to the Record Officer for the survey of the abadi plot owned by him, and the Record Officer shall do as may be prescribed.

Section 16 does not fix any amount. It empowers the Board of Revenue, after approval of the State Government, to determine the fee for survey, mutation, updation, maintenance of records and for obtaining a copy of the Gharauni or any other abadi record.

That means there is no statutory figure to quote and no rate in the Act for anyone to point at. If you are asked to pay, ask which Board determination under section 16 fixes that amount. A fee that cannot be traced to a determination is a fee worth questioning.

Being clear about the gaps is more useful than pretending they are not there.

• No penalty section. Unlike many revenue statutes, this Act creates no offence and no fine for a wrong or delayed entry.
• No statutory time limit. No section fixes how long the Assistant Record Officer, Revenue Inspector or Tehsildar has to decide. The limits, if any, will come from rules under section 19.
• No appeal ladder inside the Act. Section 15 sends disputed matters to a competent court rather than to an internal appellate authority.
• Officers are protected. Section 18 bars any suit, prosecution or legal proceeding against an officer for anything done in good faith under the Act or its rules.
• Difficulties can be removed by order. Section 17 lets the State Government issue orders to remove difficulties, but only for two years from commencement, and every such order must be laid before both Houses of the State Legislature.

The absence of a time limit is precisely the gap where a Right to Information application does useful work.

Because the Act sets no deadline, silence is the common complaint. Ask for the file rather than for the outcome.

1. The date on which application no. ......... dated ......... seeking
   mutation in the Gharauni of village ......... , tehsil ......... ,
   was received in your office, and its current stage.
2. The name and designation of the officer with whom the said
   application is presently pending.
3. Whether the matter has been declared disputed under section 14(5)
   of the Uttar Pradesh Rural Abadi Records Act, 2025; if yes, a copy
   of the order or entry so declaring it.
4. A copy of the fee determined by the Board of Revenue under
   section 16 of the said Act for mutation and for a copy of the Gharauni.
5. A copy of the rules or regulations, if any, made under section 19 or
   section 21 of the said Act that prescribe the manner of mutation.

Address it to the Public Information Officer of the tehsil or the office of the Collector, pay the State fee shown in the Uttar Pradesh RTI fee schedule, and start the thirty day clock under section 7 of the RTI Act. The AI RTI Drafter will put it in the correct format, the RTI Timeline Calculator tracks the deadline, and if nothing arrives the First Appeal Builder drafts the first appeal. The RTI Playbook covers the escalation sequence if the first appeal also goes unanswered.

Yes. Section 1(3) brings it into force from the date of its publication in the Official Gazette, and the English text was published on 2 January 2026 as U.P. Act no. 4 of 2026. There is no separate commencement notification to wait for, which is unusual and is the opposite of how many recent State Acts are drafted.

No. Section 14(4) makes the consent of shareholders mandatory for undisputed mutation of jointly owned property. Without it the matter is not undisputed, so section 14(5) applies and the Sub Divisional Officer records it as disputed. Section 15 then leaves you to seek relief from a competent court.

The Act does not say so. Succession is listed as an undisputed ground in section 14(1)(i) and section 14(2) puts the updation with the Revenue Inspector. What documents that officer may require is left to the prescribed manner, so ask the tehsil for the rule or regulation under section 19 or section 21 that sets the requirement, rather than accepting an oral list.

The Act fixes no amount. Section 16 lets the Board of Revenue determine fees for survey, mutation, updation, maintenance of records and for obtaining a copy, after State Government approval. Ask which determination under section 16 supports the figure you are quoted.

Yes. Section 20 deems Gharaunis prepared under the regulations notified vide no. 675/1-14/2020 dated 8 October 2020, under section 43(2) and section 234(1) of the Uttar Pradesh Revenue Code, 2006, to have been made under this Act. You mutate the existing record rather than applying afresh.

Use section 12. After closure of the Survey and Record Operation, any interested person can apply to the Record Officer, the Collector of the district, for a survey of the abadi plot owned by him, and the Record Officer shall proceed as may be prescribed.

• The Uttar Pradesh Rural Abadi Records Act, 2025, U.P. Act no. 4 of 2026, Uttar Pradesh Grameen Abadi Abhilekh Adhiniyam, 2025, assented 2 January 2026, English translation published under Article 348(3) vide No. 255(2)/LXXIX-V-1-2026-1(ka)-22-2025 dated Lucknow, 2 January 2026. Full text on India Code at indiacode.gov.in
• The Uttar Pradesh Revenue Code, 2006, U.P. Act no. 8 of 2012, sections 30, 31, 43 and 234, referred to in sections 2 and 20 of the Abadi Act
• The Right to Information Act, 2005, sections 6 and 7, full text at RTI Act 2005 on RTI Wiki

• SVAMITVA property card: get it and use it for a loan
• UP Public Records Act 2025: when a government file can be destroyed
• How to apply for property mutation and khata
• Property mutation rejected: fix the record or appeal
• Land records unclear? Use RTI to get the official file
• How to file an RTI in Uttar Pradesh
• Uttar Pradesh RTI guide

Reviewed by Dr. Shrawan Kumar Pathak. This page is general legal information, not legal advice. Statutory text quoted from the English translation of U.P. Act no. 4 of 2026 published on India Code. Rules and regulations under sections 19 and 21, and fee determinations under section 16, were still pending verification at the time of writing, so confirm the current position at your tehsil before relying on any procedural detail.