Panchayat Khata Explained: Form 9, 11A and 11B, and What Buyers Near Bangalore Should Verify
Buyers shopping for a plot or villa outside Bangalore often find that the property has no city khata at all. Villages are run by gram panchayats, and the property record comes from the e-Swathu portal in the shape of Form 9, 11A or 11B. This article explains how much each paper is worth, what the 2025 legal changes did and which checks guard against a bad purchase.
What Each Form Tells You
The number printed on the form is the first filter. It reveals whether the panchayat considers the property lawful or merely taxable.
An extract from the panchayat's own register, Form 9 is granted to a built or site property, never farmland, that satisfies the legal tests. Details printed on it include the owner, property number, survey number, dimensions and use. Three kinds of property qualify.
The first is a plot in the original village core known as gramathana, with a sketch certified by the Tahsildar. The second is a site on converted land within a layout the planning authority has passed. The third is a site or house allotted by the government under a housing programme.
Form 11A is the companion extract showing the tax demanded, collected and still due on that same property. When sellers mention a panchayat "A khata", they mean a property holding both of these extracts.
Form 11B is for buildings and vacant sites that cannot obtain Form 9. Examples include unconverted land, layouts without approval and buildings raised against the rules. A separate register tracks the tax the panchayat collects on them, and sellers call this a "B khata".
How Much Weight to Give Them
Holding Form 9 and 11A together shows the panchayat regards the land as lawful and bills the named person. That is a good base. Ownership, however, is proved by registered deeds, and the panchayat register merely follows them.
Form 11B is a much weaker paper. All it does is list the property for tax, and the 2025 law is explicit that payment creates neither title nor legal standing. Lenders tend to want the full set, including the conversion order and layout plan, which makes a loan against such property hard and resale slow.
E-Swathu Versus E-Aasthi
These two portals do not overlap. A property belongs to one of them depending on the body that governs the land.
| Question | E-Swathu | E-Aasthi |
|---|---|---|
| Governing body | Gram panchayat | City corporation, municipal council or town panchayat |
| Run by | The state's rural and panchayat department | The urban local body |
| Document | Form 9, 11A or 11B | Khata, issued as an e-khata in the city |
| Usual stock around Bangalore | Village plots, villas and layouts | Apartments, houses and sites within Greater Bengaluru Authority limits |
Panchayats still govern many villages at the edge of Sarjapur, Anekal, Hoskote and Devanahalli, so buyers there meet e-Swathu forms often. If a seller offers a city khata for panchayat land, or the opposite, the document does not match the property.
Farm land is not part of e-Swathu. It stays in the RTC kept on the Revenue Department's Bhoomi portal until it is converted and cut into sites. So when an RTC is offered for a "site", the panchayat does not yet see a site.
What the 2025 Amendment Changed
In 2025 the state amended the Panchayat Raj law of 1993 and added Sections 199B and 199C. Section 199B limits new records: a village panchayat can open a khata or property number for a building site only after the planning authority has approved the layout plan. Where no local planning area covers the village, the approval must come from a senior state planning officer, namely the Director of Town and Country Planning or someone authorised by that Director. Officials who issue a khata for an unlawful plot are liable to penalties.
Section 199C deals with existing properties that lack approvals. The panchayat may tax them at double the normal rate in the first year and at the ordinary rate afterwards. Three limits matter:
- Only properties that existed before the section took effect are covered, and nothing created later is added.
- Structures standing on land that belongs to the government, a forest authority or a statutory body are excluded.
- Paying earns no claim to regularisation, nor to title, ownership or any legal status, and the owner can still face legal action.
The state also introduced e-Swathu 2.0 in December 2025. On the new portal both these forms are digital e-khata documents. Officials expect it to bring some 95 lakh rural properties onto the tax rolls, and a Form 11B account is to be issued in 15 days instead of 45.
Villages Absorbed by a City
Sometimes a corporation or municipality absorbs a village, and the property records then shift to the urban khata system. In the gap an owner may hold only an e-Swathu form, so ask who controls the land today and whether the new khata has been issued.
Within Bangalore's corporations no sale deed gets registered without a final e-khata. Land that has joined the city but still carries a panchayat form has an outdated record, and the seller must first secure the new one.
Before Handing Over an Advance
Work through the following for any property sold on panchayat papers:
- Name the village and its local body, then confirm that body is the one that issued the record.
- Note whether the papers are the 9 and 11A pair or a 11B, which marks property taxed without approvals.
- Search for the form by document number on e-Swathu, and compare the owner, survey number and size shown there against the sale agreement.
- Ask to see the order converting the land and the layout plan sanctioned by the planning authority, with the site number marked on it.
- Trace the title through registered deeds, back it with an encumbrance certificate covering the whole period and have a lawyer read it.
- Check that tax on Form 11A is paid to date.
- Find out from a bank if it would finance the purchase.
A layout or villa project that holds Karnataka RERA registration has filed its conversion and layout permissions already. The registration number should match the one on the RERA portal.
