Your legal questions answered by Justice K Chandru, former Judge of the Madras High Court
One cannot seek a change in common patta
I had bought two plots in an unapproved layout in 2005. We have patta, which we got regularised in 2017 by paying the necessary fee with the special tahsildar. However, there seems to be an error in the patta. The boundaries as per the field measurement book (FMB) of subdivision numbers given in the patta don’t match with the boundaries mentioned in the registration document. For making corrections in the patta/FMB, the government officials are asking for the entire layout sketch. The seller is refusing to give the layout sketch and is only willing to give the layout with my plot numbers marked. How can I resolve this? Your guidance would be most helpful.
— Sivasankari, Chennai
You have no right to seek a change in the common patta. Get your patta for the plots allotted to you as per the layout plan and be satisfied with the same. to get instruction/info from the Revenue Department. The land was inspected and the Revenue office concurs it is a genuine transaction. But a senior official insists on the 1956 sale deed/POA copy and 1970 POA copy. Kindly clarify whether i) Patta is obtainable under the above said circumstances especially when the executants have deceased ii) Very old documents are essential, especially when the Registration Department offices concerned are periodically trifurcated and they have made known their inability to trace the SRO, let alone the ancient documents iii) Any appeal is possible in the absence of the Revenue Department's categorical information as the RTI route may not fetch desired results
— Shiv Kylash, via email
An RTI query may help you to locate the office in which the SRO is available. Once you are aware of the availability, you can apply for a copy of the old documents including the POA (which must be a registered document) and then seek for patta.
The officers are right in asking the old documents to verify the genuineness of the transaction since it is a sale through a POA of the properties owned by the company.