Glossary
Goa land & survey glossary
Plain-language meanings for the words on your Form I & XIV and Survey plan (cadastral map), what each one is, and which of them you actually need before joining your sheets.
12 terms
- Survey plan
- The Directorate of Settlement & Land Records' drawing of a survey number and its subdivisions, with their boundaries and the neighbouring numbers. It is the map side of Goa's land record. A property across several subdivisions or survey numbers means several plans, joined to see it whole.
- Survey number
- The number that identifies a parcel within a Goan village. The survey plan, Form I & XIV and the mutation register are all keyed on it together with the subdivision, so copy both exactly from Form I & XIV for any request.
- Subdivision number
- The part that follows the survey number, as in survey number 45 subdivision 2, identifying one share of the survey number. Form I & XIV is kept per subdivision, and most properties are described by survey number and subdivision together.
- Form I & XIVForm I & XIV
- Goa's record of rights for a survey number and subdivision. It gives the area, the occupant, any tenant or mundkar recorded against the land, and the crop details. It shows who the revenue record lists as holding the land; it does not draw the land and it is not a title deed.
- Mutation entry
- The entry that records a change of holder in the revenue record after a sale, inheritance, gift or partition. Until it is certified, Form I & XIV still shows the previous holder, whatever the deed says.
- Directorate of Settlement & Land RecordsDSLR
- The Goa department that maintains the land survey and issues survey plans. It works through survey offices at the taluka level.
- Mamlatdar
- The head of a taluka's revenue office in Goa. Form I & XIV, mutations and certified copies of the revenue record go through the Mamlatdar's office.
- Talathi
- The village-level revenue official who keeps the village's land records and is usually the first person to ask about an entry on Form I & XIV.
- Mundkar
- A person recorded as living in a dwelling house on land held by someone else, with the holder's consent. Goa has a specific law protecting mundkars, and a mundkar entry on Form I & XIV is something a buyer needs to understand before a purchase, with an advocate.
- CommunidadeComunidade
- A Goan village community institution that holds land collectively and is governed by its own code. Land recorded in a communidade's name is not a private holding, and dealing in it goes through the communidade's own process.
- MatrizMatriz predial
- The Portuguese-era land-tax register. Older deeds can identify a property by its Matriz number instead of a survey number. It is a tax reference, not a survey number, so it has to be traced to the current survey and subdivision before a survey plan can be requested.
- Descrição and Inscrição
- Entries in the old land registration office's books. The Descrição (description) numbers and describes the property; the Inscrição (inscription) records who held it and on what basis. Many Goan title chains still pass through them, and matching them to current survey numbers is work for the land-records office and an advocate.