Why a single government notification can void an otherwise clean transaction, and how to verify it before negotiating price.
A buyer can verify the pahani, pull a thirteen-year encumbrance certificate, walk the boundary with a surveyor, and still end up with land that cannot be registered. The reason is usually Section 22-A.
What the register actually is
Section 22-A of the Registration Act, as it applies in Telangana, empowers the government to notify categories of land as prohibited from registration. Assigned land, government land, endowment and wakf property, land under acquisition, and land subject to specific court orders can all appear on it.
The critical point is that a Section 22-A entry does not appear on the encumbrance certificate. The EC records transactions. The 22-A register records a prohibition. A parcel can therefore show a completely clean EC and still be unregisterable.
How the failure typically unfolds
The pattern is consistent. Price is agreed, an advance changes hands, the sale deed is drafted, and the parties arrive at the sub-registrar's office. Registration is refused. The advance is now the subject of a recovery dispute with a seller who may or may not have known.
How to check it
- Search the prohibited property register for the specific survey number, not the village.
- Check every survey number in the parcel. Assemblies fail on one bad entry.
- Re-check immediately before registration; the register is updated continuously.
This check costs nothing and takes very little time. It is skipped remarkably often, usually because the EC came back clean and the buyer assumed that settled the question.
