Jamabandi Meaning: How the Record of Rights Lists Land

What is the meaning of jamabandi?

Jamabandi is the periodic record of rights kept for each revenue village under the Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887, which continues to apply in Haryana. Prepared by the patwari and attested by revenue officers, it lists every holding by khewat and khatauni number. Each entry gives owners and shares, cultivators, the khasra or killa numbers held, their area in kanal and marla, and the land class.

It is rewritten periodically, about every five years in Haryana. Changes in between, such as a sale, inheritance or partition, are entered as mutations (intkal) and carried into the next jamabandi.

What does a jamabandi entry show?

Before building on agricultural land with nearby lines or pipes, the GPR cost calculator prices a scan of the site.

Nehri means canal-irrigated, chahi well-irrigated, barani rain-fed, banjar uncultivated and gair mumkin land that cannot be cultivated, such as a road or a house.

What does jamabandi not tell you?

It does not show where the field is on the ground. Location comes from the village map, the shajra, and a field survey, which today means satellite-based positioning with a GPS receiver. The numbering itself is explained under khasra and killa numbers. Entries carry a legal presumption of correctness until shown otherwise, but a jamabandi is not a sale deed, and an area entry can differ from what is measured on site. Where we find such a difference, the drawing reports both figures.

Other states and records

Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan also call their record of rights a jamabandi; Uttar Pradesh uses the khatauni. Formats differ, so always read the local column headings.

A worked example of reading a share

A share in a jamabandi is a fraction of the whole khewat, and the area follows by simple arithmetic. Suppose a khewat totals 12 kanal 16 marla, which is 256 marla, and an owner is shown with a share of 3/8. That owner's portion is 256 × 3/8 = 96 marla, or 4 kanal 16 marla, which is 0.6 acre. The jamabandi does not say which part of the field that 0.6 acre is. That is settled by family arrangement, partition or a later demarcation, and the surveyor marks only what the parties agree or what the revenue order fixes.

Mistakes people make with jamabandi copies

Most problems arise from reading a copy as if it were current, complete and measured.

• Relying on an old copy. Mutations entered since the copy was issued may have changed owners or shares.
• Mixing up khewat and khasra. The first is an ownership account, the second a field; one khewat can include many khasras.
• Skipping the remarks column. Mortgages, stay orders and other notes sit there and matter to a buyer.
• Assuming the area is the ground area. The record area and the measured area often differ by a few marla.

How a jamabandi is used in a Mezux land survey

We list the record details on the drawing so the survey can be checked against the papers. The title block notes the jamabandi year, village, khewat and khatauni numbers and the khasra or killa numbers surveyed, with the recorded area. The measured area, from corners fixed by DGPS (differential global positioning system), is shown beside it, with the difference in marla and square metres. The way DGPS works on farmland, a base station on a control pillar corrects the rover at each corner. That side-by-side record helps owners and their advocates see at once whether a dispute is about paper or about ground. Haryana's records are being digitised under the national Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme, which is why the online copy is often the quickest place to start.

Why it matters on infrastructure jobs

On pipelines, cables and road widenings through farmland, the list of owners from the jamabandi sits beside the engineer's list of buried-service clashes; see our Utility Conflict Matrix guide. Owners also need to know how close they may dig beside a marked line; see: Utility Tolerance Zone. For the survey of those services, read our note on SUE survey.

To survey a holding from its jamabandi, book a survey slot for your project.

Frequently asked questions

Is a jamabandi proof of ownership?

It is strong evidence and carries a presumption of correctness, but it is a revenue record, not a title deed. Registered documents and mutation orders sit behind it.

How often is the jamabandi updated?

It is rewritten periodically, about every five years in Haryana; mutations record changes in between.

Can you survey my land from a jamabandi copy?

Yes, together with the village map. See the land survey services process step by step.

Can a wrong jamabandi entry be corrected?

Yes, through the revenue authorities, on an application supported by documents. A surveyor's drawing can support such an application but cannot change the record.

Why does the jamabandi area differ from my measured area?

Field boundaries move, killas are rarely perfect rectangles, and older entries were rounded. A measured survey, using GPS signals corrected from a reference station, records what is on the ground today.

Does the jamabandi cover urban plots?

Mainly agricultural and rural land. Plots in planned sectors are recorded by the development authority or municipal body once the land has been acquired and laid out.

Is a jamabandi copy enough to start a boundary survey?

It is a good start, but we also need the village map or shajra, and ideally any mutation orders since the jamabandi year, before marking corners on the ground. On site, the base is tied to Survey of India's ground-based reference stations so the corners match the national grid.

What is the jamabandi year?

The agricultural year in which that edition of the record was prepared. Changes after it appear as mutations until the next edition.

Written by Saniya Parveen · Technically reviewed by Rahul Rai · Updated 8 November 2026