Property law wire
Daily property law news for India: title judgments, stamp duty revisions, land record notifications, SARFAESI and RERA updates. Tagged by topic and by state.
Fri, 18 Sept
Telangana RERA ordered a builder to refund Rs 79 lakh with 10.7 percent annual interest after a villa in Pasumamula remained unfinished. The authority also imposed a Rs 1.03 crore penalty for marketing and selling units without project registration; the case proceeded without the builder and agent after they failed to appear.
The Times of Indiasource
Thu, 17 Sept
The Rajasthan High Court directed police to restore a mortgaged property to IndusInd Bank after borrowers allegedly retook possession despite SARFAESI action. The report matters for lenders because it treats post-possession interference as an enforcement problem that may require police assistance, not a fresh title dispute.
LiveLawsource
The Madras High Court held that pending SARFAESI proceedings before the DRT could not be used by a university to halt the academic growth of a pharmacy college if statutory conditions were otherwise met. The report is relevant to secured creditors and borrowers because it separates property recovery proceedings from unrelated regulatory permissions over the same institution.
Taxscansource
Wed, 16 Sept
The Rajasthan High Court held that refusing a borrower the chance to approach the DRT while challenging a bank's SARFAESI possession measures ignores the borrower's constitutional right to property under Article 300A. It set aside a DRAT order that had rejected an appeal on a technical limitation ground, holding that Section 17's limitation period must be read liberally and run from the date of the last challenged action.
LiveLawsource
Tue, 15 Sept
The Supreme Court allowed an auction purchaser’s appeal in a SARFAESI matter where the High Court had entertained a writ petition despite the statutory remedy framework. The ruling is relevant for lenders and bidders because it concerns finality after full payment and issuance of the sale certificate.
LawTextsource
Mon, 14 Sept
The RBI issued the Reserve Bank of India (All India Financial Institutions - Responsible Business Conduct) Third Amendment Directions, 2026, updating conduct rules for recovery agents engaged by All India Financial Institutions in collecting loan dues. The amendment takes effect from 1 January 2027.$s6$, NULL, 'https://rbi.org.in/Scripts/NotificationUser.aspx?Id=13671&Mode=0', 'Reserve Bank of India', ARRAY['banking-regulation','secured-lending'], ARRAY['CENTRAL'], '2026-08-06T00:00:00+05:30', 'https://rbidocs.rbi.org.in/rdocs/notification/PDFs/NT229A19B0E3435284F00831B68A9482B6ABD.PDF', 'notification', 'rbi-issues-third-amendment-to-recovery-agent-conduct-directions-for-all-india-fi-52a190' ), ( $t7$RERA Registration Extension Does Not Extend Agreed Possession Date: Telangana REAT Dismisses 31 Vasavi Realtors Appeals$t7$, $s7$The Telangana Real Estate Appellate Tribunal held that extending a project's RERA registration does not automatically extend the possession date promised in the agreement of sale, and a promoter cannot change that date without the buyers' consent. It dismissed 31 appeals by Vasavi Realtors and upheld 10.70% annual interest payable to homebuyers of the Vasavi Lake City-West project for delayed possession.
LiveLawsource
The Madras High Court rejected an auction purchaser’s challenge after the purchaser encashed refund drafts issued on cancellation of a SARFAESI e-auction. The ruling affects auction purchasers and lenders because acceptance of refund consideration may defeat later claims to revive or challenge the sale process.
Taxscansource
The Maharashtra Real Estate Appellate Tribunal ordered demolition of an additional wing in the Parshvadhara project at Ambernath, holding that promoters could not proceed without informed consent of allottees. The order is relevant for conveyance, redevelopment and project-title review because it treats deviations from sanctioned plans and allottee consent as enforceable RERA issues.
The Times of Indiasource
Wed, 9 Sept
The Supreme Court held that a revenue entry recording land as held for religious or charitable purposes does not by itself prove a completed dedication or determine the nature of possession. It also ruled that long, uninterrupted possession is not adverse possession unless the possessor proves hostile intent, openly asserted against the true owner and to the owner's knowledge.
Gujarat amended Section 135D of the Land Revenue Code so a mutation entry from a registered sale deed is certified the same day, skipping the standard notice period, when the land's Record of Rights has been unchanged for a year, every recorded owner has signed the deed, and no dispute is pending. Mutation entries ordered by a court or tribunal are now certified immediately too, without separate notice.
DeshGujaratsourcenotification
A Delhi government committee is finalising the first revision of property circle rates since 2014, with a hike of up to 35% under discussion across locality categories A to H and a proposed new top A+ category. As of mid-September 2026 no revised rate notification has been issued, so the 2014 rates still apply.
RealtyPromoosource
The Department of Land Resources launched DILRMP 3.0 (2026-2031), a Rs. 565.50 crore central scheme that assigns a 14-digit Bhu-Aadhaar (ULPIN) number to every land parcel and builds a GIS-enabled National Land Stack linking maps, ownership records, registration and court cases. It also rolls out end-to-end paperless property registration and upgrades 75 Sub-Registrar Offices into digital Registration Seva Kendras.
Press Information Bureausourcenotification
Tue, 8 Sept
The Supreme Court held that Section 35 of the SARFAESI Act's overriding effect lets a secured creditor, including an Asset Reconstruction Company, invoke SARFAESI measures for a debt even where the Debts Recovery Tribunal has already passed a decree for the same debt. It rejected the borrower's argument that the cause of action had merged into the decree and could only be enforced by executing it.
Sun, 6 Sept
The Calcutta High Court held that the Debts Recovery Tribunal can decide whether a bank's SARFAESI action against an MSME borrower was legally valid in light of the RBI's framework for revival and rehabilitation of stressed MSMEs. It set aside orders dismissing two companies' writ petitions and sent the question back to the DRT, without finally ruling on whether the framework applied.
LiveLawsource
Sat, 29 Aug
The Supreme Court held that the government cannot use summary eviction to settle a genuine, long-standing dispute over who owns land, and must go to a regular civil suit instead. Where private parties hold registered sale deeds and mutation entries over decades of possession, the state's later claim of assigned or government land has to be proved, not asserted.
LiveLawsource
Fri, 28 Aug
The Supreme Court held that a revenue record entry is only a rebuttable presumption and does not by itself create or extinguish ownership of immovable property. A title check that relies on the latest mutation entry alone, without checking the earlier chain and the reason for the change, can miss a live ownership dispute.
The Supreme Court quashed sixteen Lok Adalat awards apportioning land acquisition compensation because not every claimant with a competing interest had signed or consented to the settlement. It sent the compensation dispute back for a fresh hearing, holding that a Lok Adalat award binds only the parties who actually agreed to it.
The Karnataka Real Estate Appellate Tribunal held that consumer law principles on a promoter's obligations can apply to RERA proceedings, and ordered a developer to pay interest for delayed possession plus a monthly sum for an incomplete clubhouse. It rejected the developer's argument that a paid third-party facility could substitute for an amenity promised in the sale agreement.
The Maharashtra Real Estate Appellate Tribunal ruled that a promoter's duty to pay interest for delayed possession under RERA continues until the flat is physically handed over, not until the Occupancy Certificate is obtained. It rejected COVID force majeure and other delay excuses because the contractual possession date had already lapsed before the pandemic began.
SquareFeat Indiasource
The Bombay High Court held that a promoter must make the mandatory pre-deposit under Section 43(5) of RERA before an appellate tribunal will even hear an application to condone a late-filed appeal. It ruled that a condonation application has no separate existence from the appeal itself, so the same deposit bar applies at both stages.
The Reserve Bank of India issued nine circulars on 6 August 2026 replacing scattered recovery-agent instructions with one framework covering banks, NBFCs and housing finance companies from 1 January 2027. The rules fix recovery contact hours, mandate call recording and a published agent list, and ban device-locking as a recovery tool except in narrow, conditioned cases.
TaxUpdatesourcenotification
Tamil Nadu has made 'Presence-less Registration' compulsory for the first-time registration of housing plots and apartments in multi-storeyed buildings, extending an earlier 'anywhere registration' facility. Buyers and developers can now complete first-sale registration without visiting a sub-registrar office in person.
The Hindusource
The Karnataka legislature passed the Registration (Karnataka Amendment) Bill, 2026, allowing registration of compulsorily registrable property documents without either party being physically present at a sub-registrar office. The Bill also creates a centralised virtual system for issuing certified copies of registered documents.
The Hindusource
Thu, 27 Aug
Karnataka's Registration Amendment Bill lets sub-registrar offices operate virtually and allows documents to be presented and admitted for registration electronically without personal appearance. It also bars registering any property transfer document unless the original land records are fetched through electronic integration with the state's property databases, and requires the khata, sanctioned plan and conversion order as supporting documents for a sale.
Karnataka Legislative Assembly (via PRS Legislative Research)sourcenotification
