Patta and Chitta in Tamil Nadu: how to check, verify and download a land record online
How to view and verify a patta and chitta by survey number on Tamil Nadu's e-services portal, what each record does and does not prove, and the fake-patta trap.
PropWatch Editorial8 min read
In Tamil Nadu, the revenue record that tells a buyer who the state recognises as the holder of a land parcel is the patta. It is issued by the Revenue Department in the name of the recorded owner of a survey number, and it sits alongside the chitta — the village account that records the land's classification and extent — and the adangal, the A-Register or crop-and-cultivation account. The state's e-services portal lets anyone view and verify these records online by survey number or patta number, free, while the encumbrance certificate comes from the separate TNREGINET registration portal. This guide covers what a patta and chitta show, what they do not prove, how to pull and verify them, the common fake-patta fraud, and how all of this connects to the EC before money moves.
Patta, chitta and adangal — what each record is
These three Tamil Nadu land records are routinely lumped together as 'patta chitta', but they answer different questions and a buyer should read them separately:
- Patta — the record of ownership of a land parcel held by the Revenue Department. It names the recorded holder, the survey and subdivision numbers, the extent, and the patta number under which the holding stands in the village register.
- Chitta — the village land account that records the classification and extent for the survey number, historically distinguishing wet land (nanjai) from dry land (punjai). In current practice the chitta is largely merged into the integrated patta-chitta record.
- Adangal (A-Register) — the cultivation and crop account for the parcel, season by season, which is how the revenue record evidences possession and use of the land.
- FMB sketch — the Field Measurement Book sketch, the cadastral map showing the boundaries, subdivision and measurements of the survey number. It is what confirms the parcel on paper matches the parcel on the ground.
The two limits to state at the outset matter as much as the records themselves. A patta covers land outside municipal urban survey limits; for urban parcels the equivalent record is the TSLR (Town Survey Land Register) extract, not a patta. And a patta is a revenue record, not a title deed.
Why patta and the EC matter together in Tamil Nadu
Two state systems hold two halves of a property's history, and a buyer needs both. The Revenue Department's e-services portal holds the patta, chitta, adangal and FMB — who the revenue record shows as holder, how the land is classified, and what the parcel measures. The registration department's TNREGINET portal holds the encumbrance certificate (in Tamil, the villangam certificate) — the list of every transaction registered against the property over a period, including sales, mortgages, gifts and attachments.
Read in isolation, each is incomplete. A patta in the seller's name says nothing about a mortgage created last year; that appears on the EC. An EC showing a clean sale chain says nothing about whether the land is still classed as government poramboke or whether the patta extent matches the FMB; that comes from the revenue records. The defects show up at the join — a name, an extent or a charge that appears on one record and not the other.
The fake-patta trap
Because the patta is the document a casual buyer treats as proof of ownership, a forged or altered patta is one of the recurring frauds in Tamil Nadu land deals. A seller may produce a printed patta that looks official but was never issued, was altered to change the holder's name or extent, or relates to a different survey number than the land being shown. A patta is also sometimes shown for land that is in fact classified as government poramboke, which cannot be privately sold.
The defence is to never accept a paper patta at face value. The e-services portal carries a dedicated 'Verify Patta / Chitta' service precisely so that a buyer can confirm a patta against the government's own database rather than trusting a printout. A patta that does not verify on the official portal, or that returns different holder or extent details than the paper copy shows, is a stop sign — not a clerical mismatch to be argued away.
How to view and verify a patta online — step by step
The official source is the Government of Tamil Nadu e-services portal at eservices.tn.gov.in, run by the Revenue Department, which carries the View and Verify Patta/Chitta/FMB, A-Register extract, TSLR (urban) and government-versus-private land services. To view and verify a patta:
- Open the e-services portal at eservices.tn.gov.in and choose your language. For rural and natham land select the 'View Patta / Chitta / FMB' service; for urban survey limits use the TSLR extract service instead.
- Select the location step by step — District, then Taluk, then Village — from the dropdowns. An incorrect village is the most common reason a search returns no result.
- Choose to search by survey number and subdivision, or by patta number, and enter the identifier for the exact parcel.
- Complete the OTP step with a mobile number to unlock the record, then view the patta and chitta details on screen — holder name, survey and subdivision, extent and classification.
- Pull the FMB sketch for the same survey number and confirm the boundaries, subdivision and measurements match the parcel being sold.
- Run the 'Verify Patta / Chitta' service against any paper patta the seller has produced, and use the 'Verify Government / Private (Poramboke) Land' service to confirm the parcel is not government land that cannot be sold.
After a registered sale, the patta has to be transferred into the buyer's name in the revenue record — a step distinct from registration itself. Most property registrations on TNREGINET now trigger an automatic patta-transfer request to the Revenue Department, but the transfer is not guaranteed to complete on its own; the buyer should confirm the patta has actually been mutated into their name on the e-services portal after the sale, and follow up with the Taluk office if it has not.
A verification checklist before you pay
- Verify, do not trust the printout — run the seller's patta through the e-services 'Verify Patta / Chitta' service and confirm the holder, survey number and extent match exactly.
- Match the holder — the name on the verified patta should match the seller and the chain on the registered sale deed.
- Match the extent and the parcel — reconcile the patta extent against the FMB sketch and the sale-deed area; a shortfall or a boundary that does not line up is a question, not a rounding error.
- Check the classification — confirm the land is not government poramboke and, where relevant, that any change of use is in order.
- Read the adangal — the cultivation account should be consistent with the possession the seller claims.
- Pull a long-period encumbrance certificate from TNREGINET and read it against the patta chain — a mortgage or disputed transfer may sit on the EC and not on the patta.
- Confirm patta transfer after purchase — check that the patta has been mutated into your name on the e-services portal once the sale is registered.
- Have a property advocate examine the patta, chitta, FMB, EC and title deeds together before any payment — the online records do not replace that examination.
The logic is the same one PropWatch has set out for Karnataka revenue land: the patta tells you who the revenue department records as holder and how the land is classified; the FMB tells you what the parcel measures; the EC tells you what was registered against it; and the registered sale deed and parent-document chain establish title. A gap in any one is the thing to resolve before signing.
SourcePropWatch — RTC (pahani) in Karnataka: how to view and verify a land record online on Bhoomi
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