How to apply for property mutation and khata

Property mutation is how the tehsil or municipality writes the new owner's name in its own books after a sale, gift, or death. It is not the same as registering the deed. Without mutation, tax, khata, jamabandi or 7-12 often stay in the previous name, and the next buyer will ask why.

Citizens search “khata transfer”, “dakhil kharij”, “namantaran”, and “land records mutation” as if they were different products. They are local names for the same job: update the government's working register so it matches the person who now holds the property.

Mutation does not create ownership. The registered sale deed, gift deed, will, or succession document creates or proves title. Mutation is the revenue or municipal copy. Banks, tax counters, and future buyers still ask for both. If you skip mutation, the previous owner may keep receiving tax notices. You may also struggle to get an electricity or water connection in your name.

Urban files usually sit with the municipal corporation or council. Rural agricultural land usually sits with the patwari, revenue inspector, and tehsildar. A flat in a city and a field in the same district can need two different offices.

There is no India-wide “property mutation apply” website. Each state, and often each city, runs its own land-records or e-municipality stack. A Delhi MCD khata screen will not mutate a Pune 7-12. A UP bhulekh view will not transfer a Bengaluru khata.

Before you upload anything:

• Decide whether the property is municipal (city tax) or rural (tehsil RoR).
• Open your state's land-records site and your city's property-tax site, not a random “mutation online” ad.
• Confirm the form name: mutation, khata transfer, assessment transfer, dakhil kharij, or RoR correction.
• Ignore a national fee chart. Your state sets the fee. The portal or counter receipt is the only number that matters.

Examples of official-looking starting points, not a complete map: municipal sites such as mcdonline.nic.in for parts of Delhi, and state RoR views such as mahabhumi, upbhulekh, and other NIC bhulekh hosts. Always type the government domain yourself. If the screen asks you to courier original title deeds to a private courier locker, stop.

Citizen charters and Right to Public Services Acts in some states publish a local timeline. That timeline is state law, not a national 30-day promise. Read the acknowledgement you receive.

Offices ask for overlapping papers, then add a local extra. Treat this as a typical pack. Confirm the live checklist on the portal or at the tehsil notice board.

Across all routes you almost always need:

• Aadhaar or other photo ID that matches the deed spelling. See Aadhaar apply or update if the name is wrong.
• Copy of the existing khata, 7-12, jamabandi, or municipal tax bill in the old name.
• Proof that property tax or land revenue arrears are cleared, or an application to pay them.
• An income certificate is not a mutation document. Do not add one unless that specific office listed it.

Scan PDFs that the portal can read. Photograph of a folded deed with a thumb over the registration stamp is a common bounce.

1. Identify the office. City building: municipality or corporation assessment cell. Agricultural land: tehsildar / talathi / patwari circle.
2. Download or collect the mutation / khata-transfer form used there. Many cities now take this inside the property-tax login.
3. Fill the survey number, ward, khata number, or municipal assessment number exactly as printed on the old bill.
4. Attach the deed and ID set from the table above.
5. Pay only the fee displayed on the government portal or on a departmental challan. There is no national Rs figure to quote here.
6. Note the acknowledgement number. That number is what you later put in RTI.
7. Allow the inspector or patwari to verify possession if the office still does field visits. Be present with the original deed.
8. Collect the mutation order, the new khata extract, or the updated 7-12 / jamabandi. Check the spelling before you leave.
9. Carry the new extract to electricity, water, society, and bank files. Mutation in one register does not auto-update the others.

Some states let a citizen start online and still require one physical appearance. That is normal. A fully paper file at the tehsil is also still normal. Neither path is fake by itself.

Paying this year's tax in cash at the counter does not always change the name on the assessment. The tax software may still print the seller. Mutation or khata transfer is the name-change step. After it, the next demand should print you.

If you pay arrears in the old name just to stop a warrant, keep the receipt. Attach it to the mutation file so the clerk cannot say “dues pending” as a stall.

For apartments, society transfer and municipal khata can be two queues. Finish both. A share certificate without municipal khata still hurts at sale time.

• Thinking the sub-registrar stamp finished the job. Registration is title. Mutation is the working register.
• Applying in the municipality for agricultural land, or at the tehsil for a purely municipal house, without checking jurisdiction.
• Skipping other legal heirs on an inheritance file. One heir's name alone often draws an objection.
• Using an unregistered agreement to sell as if it were a sale deed.
• Leaving property-tax arrears unpaid, then blaming the PIO for a hold that the tax screen already showed.
• Paying a middleman a “urgent mutation” charge with no receipt.
• Not reading the mutated extract. A wrong parentage or a missing floor number is cheaper to fix now than at the next sale.

This is a high-value RTI use. The file is local. The noting is short. A silent mutation desk is often waiting on a field report that nobody dated. RTI Act 2005 s.6(1) lets you ask for that trail. The PIO has 30 days under s.7(1). First appeal sits under s.19(1).

Send the RTI to the tehsildar's office for rural RoR, jamabandi, or 7-12. Send it to the municipal commissioner / assessment officer PIO for city khata. If you are unsure, file at the district office and ask for transfer to the record holder.

To,
The Public Information Officer,
Office of the Tehsildar / Municipal Corporation (Assessment / Property Tax),
[District / City]

Subject: Information under RTI Act 2005 s.6(1) on property mutation / khata transfer

Property: [survey / khata / municipal ID]
Application / acknowledgement no.: ________ dated ________
Applicant: ________

1. Current status of the mutation / khata-transfer application as on date.
2. Certified copy of file notings and the movement register for the last sixty days.
3. Date of field inspection or a written note that no inspection was required.
4. Copy of any objection, court stay, tax-arrear hold, or query memo, with the date it was issued to me.
5. Name and designation of the officer with whom the file currently lies, and the date it reached that desk.
6. Copy of the mutation order or updated RoR / khata / 7-12 / jamabandi if already approved.

I apply under s.6(1). Please reply within 30 days under s.7(1).

Paste the facts into AI RTI Drafter. If day 30 passes, First Appeal Builder. Fees and portals: RTI fees by state and state RTI portals.

Illustrative scenario: a buyer in a tier-2 city registered the sale in March and still has tax bills in the seller's name in August. The municipal PIO's movement register shows the file parked with a junior inspector who never did the site visit. That one page is more useful than a fourth visit to the enquiry window.

Take the registered sale deed, ID, and last tax receipt to the municipality (city) or tehsildar (rural land). Apply on that office's portal or counter form. Pay only the fee shown there.

Khata transfer is the municipal name-change, especially in cities that bill tax against a khata. Mutation is the broader revenue word. In practice citizens need the local name-change, whatever the office calls it.

The tehsil posts an entry that the old occupant is out and you are in. The next jamabandi or 7-12 extract should print your name. Ask for a fresh certified copy after the order.

File mutation with the death certificate plus will, succession, or legal-heir paper. If several heirs exist, include all of them or their written no-objection. A single-name shortcut often stalls.

No. Registration at the sub-registrar proves the transfer. Mutation updates tax and RoR. You usually need both before a clean resale.

Use the acknowledgement number. Then RTI for notings, inspection date, and the officer holding the file. That is more effective than an unpaid reminder through an agent.

In most cities, yes, or a linked khata transfer. Paying tax once in cash may not rewrite the assessment name. Complete mutation, then check the next bill.

No. Some states and cities have e-forms. Others still take paper at the tehsil. Jurisdiction comes first. The portal comes second.

• AI RTI Drafter
• The RTI Playbook
• All how-to-apply guides
• Apply for income certificate
• Apply for Aadhaar
• Citizen crisis response network
• State RTI portals
• RTI Act, 2005

• Your state's NIC land-records / bhulekh host, and your city's municipal property-tax site
• MCD online, as one large-city example
• Haryana jamabandi public view, as one RoR example
• Digital India for links to state service portals
• ServicePlus / e-District where the state has listed mutation as a service
• RTI fees by state

Reviewed for RTI Wiki by Dr. Shrawan Kumar Pathak.