Khewat, Khatauni and Khasra: how to read a Punjab Fard
The three numbers on a Punjab record of rights and what each one is for, where the Roznamcha fits, and why a registered sale and an updated Fard are two different events.
Most of the difficulty with a Punjab Fard is that it carries three numbers that look like each other and are not interchangeable. Getting them straight is what makes the rest of the document readable, and it is what decides whether the sheet you order is the one you wanted.
The three numbers
- Khewat
- The ownership account: one owner or set of co-owners, and everything they hold in that village. It is what people most often quote when asked for a Khasra number.
- Khatauni
- The cultivation account, which can name a tenant rather than the owner. One Khewat can carry several Khatauni numbers where different people cultivate different parts of it.
- Khasra
- The individual field number, and the one the map is actually drawn against. This is the number a map request needs.
What else the Fard tells you
Against the numbers sit the area and anything charged against the land. Co-owners appear as shares in the Khewat, and a sale by one co-owner is not a sale of the whole holding. Where a Khatauni names someone other than the owner, that is a cultivating interest, and it is part of what a buyer is reading the Fard for.
Roznamcha and Intkal
A reported transaction is entered first as a Rapat in the Patwari's daily register, the Roznamcha. The mutation that follows, the Intkal, is what enters the transfer against the holding in the Jamabandi. A sale that has been reported but not yet mutated exists in the first record and not yet in the second, which is exactly where the two disagree.
Until the Intkal is sanctioned the Jamabandi still shows the previous owner regardless of what a registered deed says. Checking mutation status is the practical first step in verifying that a seller can sell, and it is worth doing before a valuation rather than after.
Takseem: shares against parcels
A jointly held holding is undivided until a Takseem is completed: the co-owners hold shares in the whole rather than identifiable pieces of it. A Takseem turns those shares into parcels with their own boundaries. Whether it has happened decides what the map can usefully show you, so it is worth establishing early.
From the record to the map
The Fard lists Khasra numbers and stops there. Which of them touch each other, and what the holding looks like as one shape, comes from the Shajra sheets. A holding scattered by generations of partition means several sheets, and joining them into one drawing is usually the last step before a valuation, a Takseem or a court annexure.
🔗 Punjab land and survey glossary →Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Khewat and Khatauni?+
The Khewat is the ownership account, covering everything one owner or set of co-owners holds in the village. The Khatauni is the cultivation account and can name a tenant instead. One Khewat can carry several Khatauni numbers.
Does a Fard prove ownership?+
No. It is a copy of the record of rights and says what the revenue record shows. Title comes from the deeds and the chain behind them, and the record lags the facts wherever a mutation is still pending.
What is a Rapat in the Roznamcha?+
The first entry a reported transaction gets, in the Patwari's daily register, before any mutation follows. It records that something was reported; it does not by itself change the Jamabandi.