The 7/12 extract (satbara) is the revenue record for a piece of land in Maharashtra — it shows the survey number, area, occupant, tenure, crop and, critically, the "other rights" column where mortgages, tenancies and court injunctions appear. It is strong evidence of possession and encumbrances, but it is not proof of title, and it does not exist for flats. Read together with registered deeds and mutation entries, it is where most bad purchases are caught.
Every month we meet buyers who paid a token amount before anyone read the 7/12 — and then discovered a tenancy entry, a bank charge or a stay order. The document is freely available (Maharashtra's Bhulekh / Mahabhulekh portal), takes minutes to pull, and reading it properly is the cheapest protection available in an Indian property transaction.
What the columns actually mean
| Section of the extract | What it records | What a buyer should look for |
|---|---|---|
| Survey / Gat number & area | The identity and extent of the land | Match it exactly to the deed and the plan you were shown |
| Occupant (kabjedar) | Who is recorded in possession | Is the seller actually named? If not, why not? |
| Tenure (bhogvatadar varg) | Class 1 (freehold-like) or Class 2 (restricted) | Class 2 usually needs Collector permission to transfer |
| Other rights (itar hakk) | Mortgages, tenancies, charges, court orders | Any entry here is a stop-and-investigate signal |
| Mutation (ferfar) numbers | The history of recorded changes | Pull each one — the story of the title is in these |
The five entries that should stop a purchase
- A bank or society charge in the other-rights column that the seller has not disclosed
- A tenancy or Kul entry — protected tenancy rights can survive a sale
- Class 2 tenure where no Collector permission is in hand
- A court injunction or stay noted against the survey number
- The seller's name absent from the occupant column, with no mutation explaining the gap
Flats and apartments: the 7/12 is not your document
For an apartment in Pune, the equivalent verification is different: the property card, the registered agreement chain, the society share certificate and transfer records, approved plans, the commencement and completion certificates, and — for an under-construction purchase — the MahaRERA registration and the project's disclosed timelines. Asking for a 7/12 for a fifth-floor flat is a signal to a seller that the buyer is unadvised.
A practical pre-purchase sequence
| Step | What is checked | Typical time |
|---|---|---|
| Pull the 7/12 / property card | Occupant, area, tenure, other rights | Same day |
| Trace mutation entries | How the title moved, and whether legally | 2–5 days |
| Registered-deed search (30 years) | Chain of ownership, encumbrances | 1–2 weeks |
| Public notice, where advisable | Flushes out unrecorded claims | 2 weeks |
| Written title opinion | Defects, cures, go / no-go | With the search |
The bottom line
Read the 7/12 before you pay anything, treat every other-rights entry as a question rather than a footnote, and never accept an oral "title is clear." A title search ends in a written opinion or it is not a title search — and for the cost of one, buyers routinely avoid disputes that take years to unwind.