A software engineer in Nizampet had agreed a price, paid a token advance, and booked a slot at the sub registrar office to register a plot he had been shown clean looking papers for. On the morning of registration the deed was refused at the counter. The survey number, it turned out, sat on the state's Section 22A prohibited list, and no amount of paperwork on his side could move it. He had done everything a trusting buyer does and still walked away with a refused document and an advance he now had to chase. A two minute online check, run days earlier, would have told him the same thing for free.

The short answer. Section 22A of the Registration Act 1908 lets the Telangana government notify certain land, such as government, endowment, wakf, assigned and disputed parcels, as prohibited, and a guide to the rule explains that the sub registrar is then legally bound to refuse a sale, gift or mortgage deed for that survey number. Lenders treat a flagged parcel as non marketable, so a home loan can be rejected outright. The trade off is stark and one sided: the prohibited property check is free and takes minutes on the Bhu Bharati and IGRS portals, while skipping it can cost you an advance and weeks of recovery.

What does Section 22A of the Registration Act do?

Section 22A bars certain categories of land from registration entirely, and that is the single fact a buyer most needs to grasp. According to a detailed explainer on the rule published by 1acre, once a survey number appears on the prohibited list, the sub registrar is legally bound to refuse any sale deed, gift deed or mortgage document for that parcel, with no discretion and no workaround. In plain terms, the registration simply cannot happen while the flag stands.

This is different from a title dispute you might negotiate around or an encumbrance you could clear. A prohibited flag is a hard stop applied at the registration counter itself. That is exactly why it belongs at the very front of your due diligence, before you agree a price and long before you hand over a token advance, because the check costs nothing and the consequence of missing it is total.

Why does a prohibited flag matter so much to a buyer?

A prohibited flag matters because it strikes at the one thing a buyer is really paying for, a title that can be transferred and recorded in your name. If the deed cannot be registered, you cannot become the legal owner, and every rupee you have committed sits exposed. The damage does not stop at registration either. Lenders that see a Section 22A flag classify the parcel as having a non marketable title, which means a home loan application against it is liable to be rejected outright rather than merely delayed.

For a buyer relying on a loan, that turns a single flag into a chain reaction. The registration is blocked, the financing collapses, and any advance already paid becomes a recovery problem with a seller who may be slow to return it. Running the check first removes all of this risk for the price of a few minutes online, which is why buyers in the city increasingly ask for the report as a precondition to any advance.

It is worth being clear about the sequence here. The check is something you run before you agree a price and certainly before you pay a token, not something you leave to the lawyer on registration day. By the time a deed is refused at the counter, the advance is already gone and your leverage over the seller has shrunk to a request for a refund. Doing the check at the enquiry stage keeps you in the strong position, able to walk away at no cost the moment a flag appears.

What kinds of land end up on the 22A list?

The prohibited list is not random, and knowing its categories helps you read the risk on a given parcel. The 1acre explainer sets out six clauses under Section 22A, running from clause (a) through clause (f). These cover assigned land distributed to the landless poor, government land, endowment and wakf properties, ceiling surplus land, court ordered restricted parcels, and government notified prohibitions framed as being against public policy.

For a buyer, the practical signal is that any parcel with a history touching government allotment, temple or wakf institutions, land ceiling proceedings, or a court order deserves extra scrutiny. None of these histories is always visible from a clean looking sale deed handed across a table, which is precisely why the survey number check against the official list matters more than the appearance of the papers.

Where do I check, Bhu Bharati or IGRS?

Which portal you use depends on whether the land is agricultural or urban, and the honest answer is that a careful buyer checks both. Agricultural land is searched on the Bhu Bharati portal at bhubharati.telangana.gov.in, while urban and non agricultural plots are searched on the IGRS registration portal at registration.telangana.gov.in. It is worth noting that Bhu Bharati is the newer system that replaced the older Dharani portal, though many buyers, agents and even bank staff still say Dharani out of habit.

The reason to check both, every time, is that a parcel's classification is not always as clean cut as a seller presents it, and a status can differ between the systems. The table below lays out where each type of land sits and how to approach the search.

How do I run the free 22A check?

The check is designed to be quick, and a buyer can run it without any professional help. The essential idea is to search the exact survey number on the right portal, read the prohibited status column, and preserve dated proof of what you saw. Use the checklist below and do it before you commit any money.

1. Confirm whether the parcel is agricultural or urban, so you know Bhu Bharati is primary for one and IGRS for the other.
2. Open the correct official portal, bhubharati.telangana.gov.in for agricultural land or registration.telangana.gov.in for urban plots.
3. Select the district, mandal and village exactly as they appear in the property documents.
4. Enter the precise survey number, matching every digit and sub division to the papers you have been shown.
5. Read the prohibited status column carefully for any Section 22A clause flag against that survey number.
6. Repeat the search on the other portal the same day, so agricultural and non agricultural records are both covered.
7. Save dated screenshots of both results as your record of the status on the day you checked.

What if a genuine patta shows up as prohibited?

Sometimes a genuinely private patta land appears on the prohibited list, and this is a known and frustrating problem rather than proof of a scam. Reporting on the land records exercises of recent years indicates that thousands of legitimate parcels were incorrectly flagged, and that the state has been reviewing the prohibited list. If a parcel you are interested in is caught this way, the flag still blocks registration until it is formally corrected, so the practical position for a buyer does not change.

The right response is to slow down rather than to pay and hope. Ask the seller to pursue a correction with the revenue and registration authorities, backed by the title chain and revenue records, and monitor the official portal for the status to update. Until the survey number comes off the list, treat the purchase as on hold, because a promise that the flag is a mistake is not the same as a record that shows the parcel is registrable.

How does this fit the rest of my due diligence?

The prohibited property check is one layer of a larger verification, not the whole of it. It tells you whether a parcel can be registered at all, but it does not by itself confirm a clean chain of title or the absence of loans and charges. That is why it pairs naturally with the land records and encumbrance checks a buyer should also run in Telangana.

For the wider picture, read our companion guide on verifying land records in Hyderabad and our walkthrough on pulling an independent encumbrance certificate through IGRS Telangana. Together with the Section 22A check, these give you a three part view of whether a property is registrable, whose name it traces back to, and whether anything is charged against it.

Frequently asked questions

What is a Section 22A prohibited property in Telangana?

It is a parcel of land that the government has notified under Section 22A of the Registration Act 1908, which flags land such as government, endowment, wakf, assigned and disputed properties. Once a survey number sits on this prohibited list, the sub registrar is required to refuse registration of a sale, gift or mortgage deed for it.

Can a prohibited property be registered in Telangana?

No, not while it stays on the list, because a guide to the rule explains that the sub registrar is legally bound to refuse a sale, gift or mortgage deed for a flagged survey number. A buyer should therefore run the free check and confirm the current status on the official Telangana registration portal before parting with any money.

Which portal shows the Section 22A status of a property?

Agricultural land is checked on the Bhu Bharati portal at bhubharati.telangana.gov.in, while urban and non agricultural plots are checked on the IGRS registration portal at registration.telangana.gov.in. The safest practice is to search the survey number on both portals on the same day and save dated screenshots of what each one shows.

What if my genuine patta land is wrongly on the prohibited list?

Reporting suggests that earlier land records exercises wrongly flagged some genuine private patta lands, and the state has been reviewing the list. If your parcel is affected, raise a correction with the revenue and registration authorities with your title documents, and track the official portal, because registration stays blocked until the flag is formally removed.

Last updated 2026-07-22. PropNewz Team.