The Land Record — Registered is not the same as owned

India registers transactions, not titles. The registry proves that a sale took place, not that the seller had any right to sell. Ownership therefore has to be established by tracing a chain of earlier documents, which is why property disputes fill Indian courts and why land records are being digitised state by state.

• Countries with a title system have the state guarantee ownership outright. India is moving that way through the digital land records programme, slowly and unevenly.
• Before any property changes hands, the document chain, the encumbrance certificate, and the mutation record all get checked. Skipping that is how families lose everything.