How to Buy Agricultural Land (Part 1)

Solution: Look, whenever you buy land from someone, agricultural land, the first thing you do is confirm ownership. He hands you a fard (record extract) for the record. You go to the relevant patwari's circle. You look at the jamabandi (record of rights) there, you look at the patwar copy, the government copy, you look at the register of rights holders (register haqdaran), the crop inspection register (register girdawari). After looking at all these registers, things line up, and it becomes clear this person is the owner in this account, or the owner of a specific share whose subdivision has been marked, which is bounded on all four sides by this property. So that's your confirmation, that these matters are sorted. Now how do you actually buy it? Once you're satisfied, first you write an agreement of sale (iqrar-nama, bai-nama). Pay attention to what this agreement of sale should be written on. 1. On stamp paper. 2. The stamp paper's value should be complete. 3. Two witnesses of the buyer's own should be present. The law doesn't say there must be exactly two, there can be four. If the seller wants to include his own two witnesses, he may, but your, the buyer's, two witnesses must be your own. It should fully describe the property. The stamp paper's value should be 1,250 rupees, and it should be obtained from a bank. It should contain complete details of the property. It should state the mode of payment. How the earnest money (bayana) is to be paid should be stated. Please, please, we've now reached an era where you need a paper trail for everything, if you don't have a paper trail for money, you have no case. Keep in mind that courts don't accept cash payments if you have no paper trail. I'm not saying that if you pay in cash the agreement of sale becomes unlawful, no. I'm saying even cash payment needs a paper trail, showing where that cash came from. Suppose a deal is worth one crore, and thirty lakh is the earnest money, where did that thirty lakh rupees come from, if you can prove it, then pay the thirty lakh in cash, otherwise spend two or three thousand rupees on the thirty lakh to get a pay order made. After getting a pay order made, make the payment through the pay order. If you're a filer, make the payment by cheque, a crossed cheque, no payment of yours should be in cash, this is my advice. If it is cash, you should have a complete paper trail showing where that cash came from. That covers the earnest money. Now earnest money is of two kinds. One is earnest money where the full payment is made, there's no timeframe condition, no time condition at all, for this earnest money there's no restriction, you can do it whenever you want. The other is where you make partial payment, and the main payment remains outstanding, elegantly, stylishly outstanding. If the outstanding payment is proper, your matters will proceed smoothly. That covers earnest money.

After the earnest money, when you're ready to make full payment, you tell the owner, I am making full payment on such-and-such date, get a fard-e-bai (sale extract) issued. The owner goes to the patwari and gets a fard-e-bai issued from there. Now the fard-e-bai, the fard for sale of property, is an extremely important document. When the owner gets this document issued, the buyer must verify this document. He'll get it issued, and after issuing it, he'll give you a photocopy of it so you can prepare your registration documents, so that on the day you make payment, I can sign it. Now you must verify this fard-e-bai with your own eyes, not on someone's say-so. If the patwari says, yes, it's correct, don't accept it, ask him to show you the register. If the ADLR says it's been issued, don't accept it, tell him, show me with my own eyes that such-and-such person did or did not get the fard-e-bai issued. Once you've verified the issuance of the fard-e-bai, according to it you buy stamp paper according to its value, whether that's the DC rate or otherwise. Yes, one thing I forgot, if you're buying agricultural land, on the fard-e-bai the category of land, agricultural, must definitely be written. If your fard doesn't state this while you're buying agricultural land, then keep in mind you'll be charged according to the DC rate for the marla rate, and you might end up paying more in registration fees than the land is even worth. You must keep this in mind, when buying agricultural land, when you get the fard-e-bai issued, and the owner gets it and gives it to you, verify on it that the land category is agricultural. Whether it's cultivable or not is also written, and its value differs accordingly, old barren land, new barren land, uncultivable land, impossible-to-inhabit land. All these details should match the substance of your deal. For example, I'm selling you land saying, sir, I'm selling you land in an impossible-to-inhabit category. If the fard doesn't state 'impossible to inhabit' land, you'll be charged the fee for inhabitable land. You're buying agricultural land that's old barren land. When the fard comes, it states agricultural land, new barren land. You're buying agricultural uncultivable land. The fard comes stating agricultural cultivable land. You bear the losses from these things, the buyer bears the losses from these things. Now here's uncultivable agricultural land, you get a fard for cultivable agricultural land, you're the lay man, you get the registration done. A year later, tax hits you, matters spiral out of control. The registration fee increases. When you see these things, you'll say, what happened here? Now you'll run around trying to change it. They'll say, no, no, no, no, when it was sold to you, it was sold in this condition, this is the condition. If you want its condition changed, follow a lengthy procedure, there will be surveys, after the surveys matters will proceed, all of that. The fard-e-bai is an extremely important document. After this, you get your sale deed registered, in the registration one thing must definitely be mentioned, the property's boundaries must definitely be given. Second point, always get agricultural land registered at the same value you're buying it for, or two to four lakh rupees per acre more, the reason being that this protects you from pre-emption (haq-e-shufa) claims. Now the registration deed is prepared, after it's prepared, payment can follow one of two procedures. 1. The registration happens in person (roo-baroo). In person means the owner and witnesses personally, along with an identifier, appear before the registrar in person. The draft of the registered sale deed is presented in three sets. The registrar, in front of himself, asks the owner, well, did you receive the amount, well, did you pay it, witnesses, do you confirm this, identifier, do you identify this owner, yes, this is the owner. Thumbprints and signatures are done in front of the registrar, payment is made in front of the registrar. This is the best method, in person. 2. The second method is when the registrar isn't sitting there, sub-registrars are often not at their seats, it's not possible for the registration to happen in person, then the procedure is a local commission. Now some people make a mistake with the local commission, the mistake they make is: the registration draft is prepared, once the draft is prepared, they get thumbprints on it and make the payment, this is the wrong way. Remember, whether you're getting the registration done through a local commission or in person, if it's in person, go before the sub-registrar and sign and thumbprint, don't do it behind his back, don't do it in his absence.