Khewat and Khasra: How to Read a Punjab Land Record
Ask most buyers in Punjab what a khewat number is and you get a pause. They have seen one. It was on the fard the dealer handed over, next to several other numbers that also meant nothing, and they nodded and moved on. That fard is the single most important document in the transaction, and reading it is not difficult once somebody explains which number does what.
The difference between khewat and khasra is the difference between who owns and what is owned. Khatauni sits between them and records who is cultivating. Get those three straight and a Punjab land record stops being intimidating.
Here is what each number means, how they relate to each other, and what to check on a fard before you buy anything.
Khewat and khasra: the three numbers explained
| Term | What it identifies | Think of it as |
|---|---|---|
| Khewat | An owner’s account — a person or set of co-owners and their shares | The ownership account number |
| Khatauni | A cultivator’s account — who is in possession and cultivating | The cultivation account number |
| Khasra | A specific field or parcel of land | The plot number on the ground |
The relationship between them is one to many in both directions. One khewat can contain several khasra numbers, because an owner may hold scattered parcels across the village. One khasra can appear under more than one khewat, because a single field can be owned in shares by different accounts.
That last point is the one that matters most to a buyer, and it is why identifying land by khasra number alone is never sufficient. A khasra number tells you which piece of ground is being discussed. It does not tell you that the person selling it owns all of it.
Khewat: the ownership account
The khewat, often called the khata, groups land under its owners. Against it you will find the names of the owners and, crucially, their shares, usually expressed as a fraction.
Shares are where undivided family holdings reveal themselves. A khewat showing four brothers with a quarter share each is telling you that no individual brother can sell a specific field out of it as sole owner, because none of them owns any specific field. They own fractions of the whole account. Selling a defined parcel out of such a holding requires either partition first or every co-sharer joining the sale.
Read the share column carefully and add the fractions up. If they do not come to a whole, or if a name you were never told about appears, ask before going further.
Khatauni: who is actually farming it
The khatauni records cultivation and possession rather than ownership. In the common case the owner cultivates his own land and the two align. Where they do not, the record is telling you something important: somebody other than the owner is in possession.
That may be an entirely ordinary tenancy the seller will mention freely. It may also be a situation the seller would rather you did not enquire about. Either way, a buyer purchasing land occupied by somebody else is buying a conversation as well as a field, and it is far better to have that conversation before payment.
The girdawari, the crop inspection record, is the natural companion check here. It shows who has been recorded as cultivating over successive seasons and is harder to present selectively than a verbal account.
Khasra: the parcel itself
The khasra number identifies a specific parcel on the ground, and it is what ties the paper record to the physical land. Against it you will find the area, recorded in kanal and marla, and the classification of the land, which is how you learn whether it is irrigated, barani, banjar or something else.
Khasra numbers change over time as parcels are subdivided, which produces sub-numbers, and they are periodically renumbered during consolidation. An old document referring to a khasra number that no longer exists in the current record is not necessarily suspicious, but it does need reconciling rather than ignoring.
To locate the parcel physically, the khasra number is read against the shajra, the village map. This is the step that answers the question buyers most often fail to ask: is the land I walked on actually the land described in the document?
Jamabandi and fard
The jamabandi is the record of rights for a village, showing owners, cultivators, parcels, areas and shares together. It is revised periodically, so any given jamabandi is a snapshot of a moment rather than a live feed.
A fard is an extract from it for a particular holding, and it is what changes hands in a transaction. You can obtain one yourself through the Punjab land records portal at jamabandi.punjab.gov.in, which is worth doing rather than relying on the copy the seller supplies.
Because the jamabandi is periodic, recent transactions may not yet appear in it. That is what the mutation register is for, and checking mutations alongside the fard is how you see changes that have happened since the last revision.
What to check on a fard before buying
- Is the seller named in the khewat, spelled as on his identity documents?
- What share does he hold? Anything less than the whole means other people have rights in it.
- Do the khasra numbers match the land you were shown, checked against the shajra?
- Does the recorded area match the area you are paying for?
- Who appears in the khatauni? If it is not the seller, ask why.
- How recent is the record, and what has happened by way of mutation since?
- Are there other names in the khewat you have not been told about?
None of this requires a lawyer to perform, though it is sensible to have one review the result. Understanding khewat and khasra well enough to ask these seven questions puts an ordinary buyer ahead of most of the people transacting around him, and it costs nothing but an hour.
Why the numbers sometimes do not match
A mismatch between an old document and the current record alarms buyers more than it should. Punjab land has been through consolidation, and consolidation renumbers parcels. A holding described one way in a 1970s deed can legitimately carry entirely different khasra numbers today, with the same physical land underneath.
The same applies to subdivision. When a parcel is split between heirs or sold in part, the original number acquires sub-numbers, so one field becomes several entries. Areas that once sat in a single line now appear across three or four.
What distinguishes an innocent discrepancy from a real problem is whether it reconciles. Old khewat and khasra references should be traceable forward through consolidation records and mutations to the entries in today’s fard, with the areas adding up. Where that chain can be followed, the mismatch is administrative history. Where it cannot, or where the areas do not reconcile, you have found something that needs an explanation before money moves.
This is the point at which a local revenue expert or an advocate who works in that tehsil earns their fee. Reading khewat and khasra entries on a current fard is something a careful buyer can do alone; tracing a holding back through fifty years of renumbering is not.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between khewat and khasra? Khewat is the ownership account identifying owners and their shares. Khasra identifies a specific parcel of land on the ground. One khewat may contain many khasra numbers.
What is khatauni? The cultivator’s account, recording who is in possession and cultivating, which may or may not be the owner.
Is khewat the same as khata? The terms are used interchangeably for the ownership account in Punjab records.
Can one khasra number have several owners? Yes. A single parcel can be held in shares across more than one khewat, which is why a khasra number alone never establishes who may sell it.
Where do I get a fard? From the Punjab land records portal, or from the concerned revenue office. Obtain it yourself rather than relying on a copy provided by the seller.
Have a fard you cannot make sense of? Send it across and we will tell you what the shares and entries actually say before you commit — free, no obligation.