Telangana SROs May Display 22-A Lists: Buyer Impact

Telangana SROs may display 22-A lists at the Sub-Registrar Office level, a move that could directly help land and flat buyers check prohibited property status before paying token advance, signing an agreement of sale, or applying for registration. For Hyderabad and surrounding growth corridors, this is not a small procedural change. Telangana currently has 1,47,934 prohibited properties under Section 22-A, and many buyers still discover the issue only when the document reaches the SRO counter.

If the proposed public display system becomes active, the biggest benefit will be simple: buyers can cross-check survey numbers, village names, mandals, and document restrictions earlier. In our experience, most disputes start not because buyers ignore checks, but because they check too late.

Telangana SROs May Display 22-A Lists: What Is Being Considered?

The idea under discussion is to make Section 22-A prohibited property lists more visible at the SRO level. Instead of buyers depending only on brokers, photocopied pahanis, old link documents, or verbal assurance from sellers, the SRO office could become a more direct verification point.

Section 22-A of the Registration Act is used to prohibit registration of certain properties. These may include government lands, assigned lands, endowment lands, wakf lands, ceiling surplus lands, lands under litigation, or properties notified by competent authorities. Once a property is placed in the 22-A list, the SRO generally cannot register a sale deed for that property unless the entry is removed or clarified through the proper channel.

For buyers in Telangana, this matters most in land-heavy locations like Shankarpally, Chevella, Moinabad, Gandipet, Shamshabad, Maheshwaram, Ibrahimpatnam, Ghatkesar, Medchal, Keesara, and Patancheru. These areas have seen heavy plotting activity, villa layouts, farmhouse sales, and agricultural land transactions. One wrong survey number can freeze the deal.

Our view is clear: 22-A visibility should happen before the buyer pays money, not after the challan is generated for registration.

Telangana SROs May Display 22-A Lists: Why Buyers Should Care

A property can look clean in a site visit and still fail at the registration stage. The land may have a compound wall, road access, electricity connection, and even previous sale deeds. But if the present survey number or sub-division is tagged under 22-A, registration can stop.

We have seen buyers in places like Mokila, Kollur, Narsingi, Adibatla, Tukkuguda, Bachupally, and Kompally assume that rapid development means clear title. That is a risky assumption. Growth corridors attract both genuine developers and weak-title resale activity.

The proposed SRO-level display can help in three practical ways:

• Before advance payment: Buyers can check whether the survey number is restricted before handing over ₹1 lakh, ₹5 lakh, or 10% booking amount.
• Before agreement of sale: Lawyers can verify 22-A status and add proper clauses if any clarification is pending.
• Before bank loan processing: Buyers can avoid paying processing fees and valuation charges for a property that may not be registrable.

This is especially useful for agricultural land purchases, plotted layouts, gram panchayat layouts, HMDA perimeter locations, and resale plots where old records are not always aligned with Dharani data.

How Big Is The 22-A Issue In Telangana?

The database figure is large: 1,47,934 prohibited properties are recorded under Section 22-A in Telangana. That number itself tells us why public access matters. Even if only a small percentage of these entries affect active market transactions, the number of buyers exposed to risk is significant.

Hyderabad’s property market is no longer limited to Jubilee Hills, Banjara Hills, Kukatpally, or Secunderabad. Buyers are moving towards outer mandals for larger plots and lower entry prices. A family buying 300 square yards in Shadnagar or a 500 square yard villa plot near Shankarpally may be putting lifetime savings into the deal. For them, 22-A is not a technical file entry. It is the difference between ownership and a stuck investment.

What Buyers Should Do Before Paying Advance

Do not treat 22-A verification as a final-day registration formality. It should be part of the first due diligence round, along with pahani, Dharani passbook details, link documents, layout approval, EC, mutation, and land use check.

Here is a practical order we suggest for Telangana buyers:

• Ask the seller for survey number, sub-division number, village, mandal, and extent.
• Check the SRO jurisdiction using the Find Your SRO Office tool.
• Run a 22-A check through the Section 22-A Prohibited Property Check.
• Search past transactions through the Encumbrance Certificate Search.
• Compare government value using the Market Value / Guideline Value Search.
• For apartments and gated communities, verify project details through RERA Project Lookup.
• Use the Property Verification Tool if the land parcel has multiple documents or unclear boundaries.

Telangana’s current statutory cost for a normal sale deed is generally around 6% of the transaction value or market value, whichever is higher, including stamp duty, transfer duty, and registration fee. For a ₹1 crore property, that means roughly ₹6 lakh in government charges. Before spending that kind of money, checking 22-A status is basic protection.

Impact On Hyderabad Land Corridors

The impact will be strongest in peri-urban land markets, not in fully built apartment pockets. In Madhapur or Ameerpet apartment resale, buyers usually depend on flat number, document number, EC, and society records. But in land transactions around Gandipet mandal, Shankarpally mandal, Abdullapurmet mandal, Maheshwaram mandal, and Kandukur mandal, survey-level clarity becomes central.

Take a common case. A buyer is shown a plot near a proposed road, close to a villa project, with a neat approach road. The broker says registration will happen in two days. The seller asks for ₹10 lakh advance to block the deal. If the SRO displays the 22-A list publicly, the buyer or document writer can check the survey number before money changes hands. That single step can prevent months of chasing for refund.

This can also discipline sellers. If a land parcel has a known issue, it becomes harder to hide behind vague terms like family land, old patta, clear title, or only small revenue issue. Public display at the SRO level will not solve every title problem, but it will reduce information imbalance.

Will SRO Display Alone Be Enough?

No. A 22-A display is useful, but buyers should not treat it as a full title certificate. A property may be absent from the prohibited list and still have other issues: boundary mismatch, unapproved layout, missing link document, pending civil dispute, wrong land use, mortgage, or inheritance conflict.

For example, a plot in an unapproved layout near Hayathnagar may not be in 22-A, but it can still face building permission trouble. A villa plot near Tukkuguda may have clean registration history, but if the road width is inadequate, future construction can suffer. For planning checks, buyers can use Land Use Zone Finder, Road Width Check, and FSI/FAR Calculator.

The SRO list should be seen as one strong filter. It is not a replacement for legal due diligence.

Our Take On The Proposed 22-A Display System

This is a buyer-friendly step if implemented properly. The display must be updated regularly, searchable by village and survey number, and available in a format that ordinary buyers can understand. A dusty notice board with hundreds of entries will not help much. A clean public list at SRO offices, backed by digital search, will.

We would like to see three safeguards:

• Date of update: Every displayed list should mention when it was last updated.
• Reason for prohibition: Buyers should know whether the entry relates to government land, assigned land, court order, endowment, or another category.
• Correction process: Genuine owners should have a clear route to seek rectification if a property is wrongly included.

For now, buyers should proceed with caution. If you are buying land or a plot anywhere in Telangana, especially outside core GHMC limits, check Section 22-A status at the start. In Hyderabad’s current market, speed is useful, but clean title is more valuable.