ADVOCATE TITLE OPINION REQUEST
Request date: 1 April 2026
To XYZ Law Chambers.
Applicant: Aarav Sharma, Sector 21, Panchkula. Property: Plot 118, Sector 35-A, Chandigarh (Plot/land), Plot 118, Sector 35-A; prior deed no. 2345..
PURPOSE
Opinion required for: Purchase decision.
MATERIAL SUPPLIED
Documents and searches supplied: 2010 allotment, 2018 sale deed, mutation, Jamabandi, tax receipts..
QUESTIONS
Please address: Is title transferable and free from disclosed charge?.
Required opinion format: Reasoned legal opinion with qualifications and document gaps. Known issue requiring specific treatment: Original 2018 deed is held by lender.
Please distinguish verified title facts from assumptions, missing documents, qualifications and conditions that should be completed before reliance on the property title.
LEGAL BASIS
In Punjab a title search runs the fard for every quinquennium in the period, then the mutation register behind each change, the order of the Circle Revenue Officer behind each mutation and the roznamcha rapat behind that, then the shajra and any tatima; on top of the revenue record it runs an index search and certified copies at the office of the Sub-Registrar, a Non-Encumbrance Certificate through rcms.punjab.gov.in and a property-under-litigation search on the same portal. An entry in the record of rights is presumed true only until the contrary is proved (section 44 of the Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887), and section 45 sends the aggrieved owner to a declaratory suit, so a fard proves an entry, not ownership. For a sector property in Chandigarh there is no jamabandi, no fard and no mutation by the Tehsildar: nearly all urban land was sold or leased by Government under the Capital of Punjab (Development and Regulation) Act, 1952, the Estate Officer's allotment file is the title record, and the search runs on estateoffice.chd.gov.in through Know Your Property, Know Your Dues and the User Account Statement. In Punjab, a promoter developing a colony or a building of apartments must disclose title certified by an advocate (section 3(2)(a) of the Punjab Apartment and Property Regulation Act, 1995).