If your family's land is still recorded in the name of a grandfather or great-grandfather who has died, and nobody files a claim, the new record can be written without your name on it. Fixing that afterwards is a court case. Filing now is a form.
Bihar's land records are mostly from surveys done a century ago. This one replaces them. It is not an update — it produces a new Record of Rights.
Land routinely sits in a great-grandfather's name because nobody ever did the mutation. Everyone in the village knows whose it is. The new record won't. It records what's filed, not what's known.
The same survey that endangers your claim is also the cheapest opportunity in a century to get the record corrected into your name — by filing a form rather than fighting a suit.
The deadline has already moved from July to December 2026. The Directorate's own notices are full of contract terminations and strikes. Don't read delay as safety — it means your village could be processed with little warning.
The survey moves through your mouza in order. Which stage you're at decides what you can still do.
Free, online, and it tells you which fight you're actually in. You need district, anchal, and mouza to search anything.
The Record of Rights from Bihar's old Cadastral Survey — roughly 1900 to 1920. If your great-grandfather held land then, this is where his name is written. It is the single document most likely to name him directly.
The current holding register — who the state thinks holds it now, and who's been paying rent. Same portal.
Khatiyan says great-grandfather, Jamabandi says great-grandfather → the chain never moved; you're reconstructing it. Jamabandi says your father → the chain moved and you're extending it. Jamabandi says a stranger → stop and get a lawyer before filing anything.
Bhu-Naksha shows the plot boundaries on record. Worth checking before kistwar, so you know what you're claiming and can spot a boundary that's already wrong.
Both are on the Directorate's homepage. The links are in Hindi — here's exactly what to look for.
Your declaration of what land you hold and how you came to hold it. This is the core filing — the thing that puts your claim in front of the surveyor.
On dlrs.bihar.gov.in, look for:
स्व-घोषणा हेतु प्रपत्र-2 यहां डाउनलोड करें
स्व-घोषणा हेतु प्रपत्र-2 यहाँ से समर्पित करें
("download Prapatra-2" and "submit Prapatra-2 here")
This is the one built for your situation. The vanshavali — the pedigree linking the dead person named on the record down to you. Required for ancestral property held in a grandfather's or great-grandfather's name, whether it came via khatiyan or a sale deed.
Look for:
वंशावली हेतु प्रपत्र-3(1) यहां डाउनलोड करें
("download Prapatra-3(1) for vanshavali")
Gather these before you fill anything in. The vanshavali is only as strong as the chain you can evidence.
| Document | Why / where |
|---|---|
| Khatiyan copy | Names the original holder. Bhu-Abhilekh on the Bihar Bhumi portal. |
| Death certificates | For each person in the chain who has died. Municipality or panchayat where the death was registered. Old deaths are often unregistered — see below. |
| Proof of relationship | Anything linking generations: old ration cards, school records, voter lists, Aadhaar, existing mutation entries. |
| Rent receipts (मालगुजारी रसीद) | Powerful. Shows continuous possession and payment. Even old ones. |
| Any old paper naming the plot | Tax receipt, electricity bill, court paper, partition deed, even a family letter with the khata/khesra number. |
| Aadhaar + mobile | Yours, for the filing. |
Filing is cheap. Filing wrong is worse than filing late, because it goes on the record with your name on it.
If a cousin, uncle or stranger has farmed or occupied the land for decades, you are not doing paperwork — you are opening a dispute, possibly against your own family. Adverse possession and limitation may have run. Recovering the record and recovering the land are different problems, and the second one has a clock that may already have expired. Talk to a vakil before you file, not after.
"Great-grandfather" usually means several branches of the family, and every descendant is a co-claimant. A vanshavali that quietly omits your uncle's line is a false document — and it will be contested by people who know the truth. Get the family tree right even where it costs you share. A correct smaller claim beats a fraudulent larger one that collapses.
An old partition deed or a sale you don't know about changes everything. Before assuming the land is undivided, check the registration records — a different department from the survey, and a different portal.
Go to eNibandhan (Prohibition, Excise & Registration Dept — 141 registry offices statewide) and use two services: Encumbrance Certificate — every registered transaction on a property over a period, so ask for as many years back as they'll give you — and Certified Copy, if the EC shows a deed you didn't know existed.
This is also how you recover papers lost in a fire or flood. The sub-registrar keeps a permanent copy of every registered deed. Your copy burning does not destroy theirs. A certified copy is legally usable in place of the original.
Registration helpline: 14544 or 0612-3522300. Note that pre-computerisation deeds — anything from your great-grandfather's time — usually won't appear online at all. Those need a physical search of the registry's ledgers, normally via a search advocate who knows those volumes.
0612-2280012
directorlrs-bih@nic.in
Directorate of Land Records & Survey, Survey Institute, Shastri Nagar, Patna 800023
Your district settlement office runs the survey on the ground. For "what stage is my mouza" and "was my form received", they are the real answer — not the website.
Every district has a Legal Services Authority offering free lawyers to eligible people — women, SC/ST, and those below the income limit. Land is exactly what they handle. Badly underused.