What is Puducherry Land Records?
Definition
Puducherry's land records run on Nilamagal (nilamagal.py.gov.in), the UT's online land records portal, serving the patta and chitta, mutation and certified copies under the revenue administration. The encumbrance certificate issues separately through the Puducherry registration department. Verify current portal coverage for your region before relying on any online step.The working mental model is a small head office with four branch territories. The rules and the record pattern, patta and chitta, are identical everywhere; the serving machinery is strictly local, so a Karaikal parcel's file lives in Karaikal and a Yanam succession is Yanam's business. Every check in this hub therefore starts the same way: name the region, then name the record.
The UT's inheritance is quietly remarkable. The old town sits on a French cadastral fabric, R.S. numbers laid down under a survey culture that prized precision, while the countryside runs the patta pattern shared across the region, and one small administration keeps both traditions serviceable across four disconnected pieces of coast.
Two limits matter. Money history is not here: the EC comes from the registration department, its own office in each region. And online coverage is the UT's moving part, so every guide below pairs the portal route with the taluk-office route that works regardless.
Land records or registration: where each service lives
Two departments split the UT's land memory, and the four-region geography multiplies the counters. The table settles who answers what.
| Question | System | Service |
|---|---|---|
| Who holds this land, and what class? | Puducherry Land Records | Patta / Chitta view |
| What land sits under a family name? | Puducherry Land Records | Owner name search |
| What was registered against it? | Registration department | Encumbrance Certificate |
| How does the record change hands? | Region's taluk machinery | Mutation |
| What will a bank act on? | Region's taluk machinery | Certified patta copy |
| May farmland change its use? | Revenue + planning authorities | NA conversion |
The habit to build: record questions to the land records side, money questions to the registration side, and every filing to the parcel's own region, never a neighbouring one.
All Puducherry Land Records services, with a guide for each
Six guides across the two departments. The REG DEPT badge marks the registration department's service; everything else runs through the land records administration and the regional taluk offices.
Records & extracts
3 guidesThe register and its issues, served online where coverage exists and at every region's taluk office regardless.
The core extract: holders, extents and classification, read against the region that actually serves the parcel.
Search by owner nameFrom a remembered holder to a patta number to parcels, the recovery route for the UT's far-flung families.
Certified patta copyThe authenticated issue banks and registrars act on, ordered from the parcel's own region after repairs.
Registration side
1 guideThe other department: the registered money history, from the UT registration machinery in each region.
Ownership change
1 guideMoving the account after deeds and deaths, through the parcel's own taluk.
Conversion
1 guideThe farmland-to-plot question, with the coastal layer that a seaside UT cannot skip.
Getting started on the portal
Every guide assumes you can name the parcel precisely, and in this UT that means three coordinates, not two.
Region, village, and survey or R.S. number
The region comes first, because it picks the serving machinery. The village and survey number then pin the parcel, with the patta number reading the holder's whole account, and old-town parcels answering to R.S. numbers from the cadastral fabric. Any old receipt or extract carrying the patta number shortcuts everything.
| Step | Online | Offline |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Access | Open the UT's land records portal; verify your region's coverage | The region's taluk office serves and explains the registers |
| 2. Identify the parcel | Region, village, then survey or R.S. number | Carry an old extract so staff match the exact parcel |
| 3. Use the service | Pick the service; its guide above walks the rest | e-District and CSC counters file requests and print copies |
| 4. Keep evidence | Save views; request certified issues for institutions | Only the authenticated extract carries standing |
Offline Puducherry runs through each region's taluk office, with e-District and CSC counters for filings and prints, and the Tahsildar deciding what the counter cannot, corrections, successions and disputes included.
Which service do you actually need?
Six services answer eight buyer intents; find yours and follow the link.
| You want to | Use this service | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| Confirm who holds a parcel | Patta / Chitta view | Patta Chitta |
| Check the wet or dry classification | The record's class entry | Patta Chitta |
| Recover family or lost land | Owner name search | Name search |
| Check loans and the title chain | EC from the registration dept | EC guide |
| Move the record after a deed | Mutation, tracked to the extract | Mutation |
| Transfer an inherited holding | Mutation by succession | Mutation |
| Give a bank the record it acts on | Certified patta copy | Certified copy |
| Build on farmland lawfully | NA conversion, approvals first | Conversion |
The order a careful buyer runs these in
Puducherry rewards a fixed order because the region and the classification, settled early, decide which office and which rules govern everything after.
- Fix the region, then pull the Patta Chitta. Puducherry, Karaikal, Mahe or Yanam decides the serving office; the extract then names the holders, extent and class. Guide: Patta Chitta view
- Read the classification like a gate. Wet land answers to the narrowest rules in the UT; a paddy entry reshapes the price and the plan before anything else does. Guide: Patta Chitta view
- Order the EC across thirty years. Every registered deed and charge from the region's registration machinery, reconciled against the patta's story. Guide: Encumbrance Certificate
- Ask the conversion and coastal questions. For any build intent: planning conformity, the conversion route, and the shore's regulations where the sea is near. Guide: Conversion guide
- After the deed, watch the mutation home. Confirm the trigger at the taluk on registration day and track the file until the extract carries the new name. Guide: Mutation
- Close with the certified copy. The authenticated extract in your name, from the parcel's own region, opens the archive your next deal will lean on. Guide: Certified copy
Common issues across the portal
Four snags account for most stuck files across the UT's territories.
Requests filed outside the parcel's territory move nowhere. Name the region first; every office and register follows from it.
Portal rollout has reached the territories unevenly. Verify what your region serves online, and keep the taluk route as the certain one.
Old-town cadastre numbering is not village survey numbering. Read the deed's schedule to learn which system the parcel speaks.
Accounts here often carry several holders across scattered branches. The extract's full name list is the consent map a deal must cover.
Rules buyers should know
Records with the land records side, the EC with registration. A diligence file is complete only when both memories agree.
Wet land carries the UT's heaviest scrutiny and narrowest conversion path. Read the class entry before believing any plot-rate number.
Shore-adjacent parcels meet coastal regulation before conversion or construction questions. If the land can hear the sea, ask at the planning office first.
Certificates copy the register as it stands. Repair errors at the taluk office before paying to authenticate them.
Survey Numbers View on Map Boundaries and numbers come from published state cadastral records. See all map layers.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the Puducherry Land Records portal?
Nilamagal (nilamagal.py.gov.in), the UT's online land records portal, serving the patta and chitta. Coverage differs by region, so confirm yours at the taluk office.
Which regions does Puducherry cover?
Four territories: Puducherry and Karaikal beside Tamil Nadu, Mahe beside Kerala, Yanam beside Andhra Pradesh. Each region's offices serve their own parcels.
How do I check land ownership in Puducherry?
Pull the patta and chitta extract for the parcel's region, online where served or at the taluk office, and read every holder on the account.
Where does the EC come from?
The UT registration department: its online EC search where available, or the region's sub-registrar office. The land records portal does not issue it.
Is mutation automatic after registration?
Registration and the record are linked; confirm the trigger for your parcel at the region's taluk office and track the update to the changed extract.
What is an R.S. number?
A resurvey number from the old cadastral fabric of Puducherry town. Older urban parcels answer to it instead of the village survey pattern.
What are the offline counters?
The region's taluk office serves the registers directly, with e-District and CSC counters handling filings and printed copies across the UT.
Can farmland be built on in Puducherry?
Only after conversion and planning conformity, with coastal regulation added near the shore. Wet land faces the narrowest path; read the classification first.