Stage is being set for regularisation of sada bainamas (land transactions on plain paper) as the Telangana High Court lifted the stay in the process.
The process is however expected to take a few months given the huge number applications pending regularisation; over nine lakh people submitted their applications for regularisation of land transacted through sada bainamas across the State. Regularisation of these applications could not be taken up as the previous Telangana Rights in Land and Pattadar Passbooks Act — brought in by the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government — did not make a mention of the sada bainamas as a result of which the process has been stayed by the court.
The Congress Government however made specific mention of sada bainamas in the Telangana Bhu Bharati (Record of Rights) Act, 2024. According to land laws expert M. Sunil Kumar, Section 6 of the new Act makes provision for regularisation of sada bainamas and the procedure has been enlisted in the rules framed for effective implementation of the Act.
Procedure for regularisation of sada bainama lands
The procedure involves issue of notification by the government following which applications should be made in a prescribed format. The Revenue Divisional Officers (RDO) will then process the applications calling sellers and buyers for recording their statements. This will be followed by field verification of the land parcels for which applications have been submitted for regularisation based on which certificates will be issued to genuine owners and entered into records.
70 RDOs and 9 lakh applications
But officials opine that then process could take a few months as there are huge number of applications while the staff required for verification and recording the data is not commensurate with them. There are little over 70 RDOs across the State and they will have to process over nine lakh applications. The verification process has to be meticulous giving no scope for misuse of the provision. It could take anywhere around six months for the process to be completed after the issue of notification by the government, an official said.