What is an A register extract?

An “A register” is a record of the land held at the VAO’s office (Village Adminstrative Officer). It has details on the property such as it’s classification, tax assessment, owner’s name, etc.

When you buy land, you want to confirm if the details in the sale deed are authentic. Apart from checking the FMB sketch, parent docs, etc. it’s important you verify ownership and land details in the A register extract.

A register extract can be got at the VAO’s office when you hand over the survey number for the land

Here’s a sample A register extract. Some of the pertinent details are

• Classification – Specifies if the land is a nanjai, punjai or a manavari. This essentially says if the land is a wet or dry land and how it can be irrigated, meaning through canals (nanjai) or rain (punjai). This is an important detail for non-Indian or dual-citizen property buyers in India, as they cannot buy agriculture land.

• Area specs – Specifies the area of the land in hectares. Here’s a simple conversion table for you.

1 hectare = 2.47 acres
1 acre = 18 grounds
1 ground = 2400 sq. ft
1 ground = 5.5 cents
1 acre = 100 cents

• Tax – Lists the tax assessment for the land. It’s usually a ridiculously low price, compared to what you have to pay in other countries.

• Owner info – Lists the property owners name. Pay attention to this piece of information. You want the owner’s name match the sale deed doc. If this property is owned by the government (e.g. road, acquired land, etc.), it’ll say so.

There are some more details on the A register which you can safely ignore as they are not that important for a real estate transaction.

You check the A register extract usually during a real estate transaction to authenticate ownership of property. During the course of land ownership if you want to confirm that you are the listed owner in government records, an Encumberance Certificate (EC) issued at the registrar’s office is just fine.

Another important document you check at the VAO’s office is the FMB sketch (Field Measurement Book) which is used to verify land measurement details such as survey area, plot area, boundary details, etc. We’ll go into details of FMB in a separate article.