Property Mutation (Dakhil-Kharij) in Assam — Mutation under Mission Basundhara

Property mutation in Assam is the entry of a new owner's name in the Jamabandi, the state's Record of Rights, after land has been sold, gifted or inherited. Assam delivers it online through Mission Basundhara at basundhara.assam.gov.in, which forms part of ILRMS, the Integrated Land Records Management System of the Revenue and Disaster Management Department. Mission Basundhara describes itself as an online delivery system for land-related services including land mutation and updating of land records, delivered to people at their homes without their coming to government offices.

What is mutation in Assam and who does it?

Mutation in Assam is defined by the Revenue and Disaster Management Department as the registration of the name of a person in the Record of Rights, that is the Jamabandi. For a sale, Mission Basundhara describes it as the process of recording the change or transfer in the title of ownership after the property has been transferred or sold, on which the name of the new owner is recorded and land revenue is charged from the rightful owner. For a death, Mission Basundhara runs a distinct service; mutation by right of inheritance, under which ownership is transferred from the recorded land owner to the legal heir, following Section 53A(1) of the Assam Land and Revenue Regulation 1886.

The office that decides the case is the Circle Office of the revenue circle in which the dag lies, headed by the Circle Officer, with the Lat Mandal doing the field verification. The record itself lives in Dharitree, the system that revenue officials use to update land records online, while citizens view the Jamabandi through LandHub. Assam's record is organised by district, revenue circle, mouza, village, patta number and dag number, and any application that gets those identifiers wrong will not match the record.

Who can apply for mutation in Assam, and who cannot?

Any purchaser of patta land under a registered deed can apply for mutation after deed registration, supported by the deed copy and the No Objection Certificate issued by the Deputy Commissioner, which Mission Basundhara lists as the two required documents. Legal heirs of a deceased pattadar can apply for mutation by right of inheritance with the death certificate and proof of heirship. Every recorded proprietor or landowner in actual possession of the interest in respect of which partition is desired may apply for partition of an undisputed holding, which is the companion service when co-heirs want separate pattas rather than a joint entry.

You cannot apply for mutation on land you hold under an unregistered agreement, nor on the strength of possession alone. You cannot mutate government land, and land classes that are not transferable in the ordinary way, annual patta land before conversion to periodic patta, for instance — do not behave like ordinary patta land, which is why Assam runs a separate Basundhara service to convert Annual Patta to Periodic Patta. In tribal belts and blocks notified under Chapter X of the Assam Land and Revenue Regulation, transfers to persons outside the protected classes are restricted, and mutation cannot be used to give effect to a transfer that the law does not permit. Land under a court stay or a pending title dispute is left alone until the court decides.

How to apply for property mutation in Assam online

1. Open basundhara.assam.gov.in and go to the list of services, then choose "Mutation after deed registration" for a sale, gift or exchange, or "Mutation by right of inheritance" where the recorded pattadar has died.
2. Read the service guideline shown against that service, it states the legal basis, the documents and the fee position, and Assam publishes "No user fees for the service" against both mutation services.
3. Click "Apply Now / Track Application" and register or log in with your mobile number, which is used for OTP and for later tracking.
4. Enter the land identifiers exactly as they appear in the Jamabandi: district, revenue circle, mouza, village, patta number, dag number and area. Check them first on LandHub through ilrms.assam.gov.in.
5. Upload the documents the service asks for, for a sale, the deed copy and the Deputy Commissioner's No Objection Certificate; for inheritance, the death certificate and a next of kin certificate, or a gaon pradhan or ward member certificate, or a probate where there is a will, or a relationship affidavit, plus the consent of any next of kin opting out.
6. Submit the application and save the acknowledgement and application number.
7. Track the application on the same portal. The case goes to the Circle Office, the Lat Mandal verifies possession on the ground, notices are served, and the Circle Officer passes the order.
8. After the order, view the corrected Jamabandi on LandHub and check the patta number, dag number, area and land class against your deed.

How do I apply offline through the Circle Office?

1. Go to the Circle Office of the revenue circle where the land lies and ask at the mutation section.
2. Carry the original deed with copies, the Deputy Commissioner's No Objection Certificate, the current Jamabandi copy, your identity proof and the latest khajana receipt, and in inheritance cases the death certificate and the heirship document.
3. File the application and obtain the acknowledgement carrying the reference number.
4. Attend the Circle Office when notice is issued, since the hearing of objections is where an absent applicant loses time.

Assam also runs Basundhara camps and assisted counters at various points in each mission phase. These are the same services delivered face to face; they do not create a separate fee.

What does mutation cost in Assam?

Mission Basundhara states plainly that there are no user fees for the mutation services: both mutation after deed registration and mutation by right of inheritance carry the line "No user fees for the service" on the portal, as do partition for undisputed cases and reclassification of agricultural land below one bigha. That makes the cost question simple in Assam: the government charge for the mutation service itself is nil.

That also makes any demand for money conspicuous. Mission Basundhara records the position in its own instructions: if any official involved in the process of service delivery asks for or demands any undue favour from citizens in cash or kind, it must be reported to the Grievance Section of the RTPS Portal or to the helpline number 1800-345-3574 so that corrective measures can be taken. Middlemen who quote a "circle office fee" for a service the state provides free are charging for nothing. Land revenue arrears are separate and legitimate, and can be paid online through the Ekhazana service on the same portal.

How do I check the status of my Assam mutation?

Use the "Apply Now / Track Application" route on basundhara.assam.gov.in with your application number. The Sewasetu helpdesk on 1800-345-3574 is published on the Basundhara portal for support. Once the order is passed, the change appears in the Jamabandi, which you can view free with transliteration through LandHub from the ILRMS portal at ilrms.assam.gov.in.

Assam has also begun issuing a Digital Patta, which integrates verified pattadar details, land attributes and boundaries with ULPIN, Aadhaar, mobile and address seeding, and which the department states carries full legal validity as a Record of Rights. The portal's own eligibility conditions for it are instructive for mutation applicants too: the applicant must be a recorded pattadar in Dharitree, land revenue records must be updated with a digital revenue receipt available, the land should be free from ownership disputes or stay orders, and a ULPIN must be generated or capable of generation. Those four conditions describe exactly the clean record that a completed mutation is supposed to produce.

Why do Assam mutation applications get rejected?

Assam mutation applications commonly fail where the Deputy Commissioner's No Objection Certificate is missing for a deed-based mutation, where the dag or patta number does not match the Jamabandi, where the seller is not the recorded pattadar because an earlier transfer was never mutated, or where the area sold does not reconcile with the area recorded. Inheritance cases fail where heirship is not properly evidenced or where a co-heir who has not consented objects. Applications are also refused where the land class or the belt-and-block restrictions bar the transfer, where revenue is in arrears, and where a stay order is in force.

Where do I take a grievance?

The route Assam itself names is the Grievance Section of the RTPS Portal, or the helpline 1800-345-3574. Administratively the escalation runs from the Circle Officer to the Sub-Divisional Officer (Civil) and to the Deputy Commissioner of the district, with the Revenue and Disaster Management Department above them. Carry the application number, the date of filing and the acknowledgement to every escalation. Where the real question is who owns the land rather than how long the file has taken, the forum is a civil court, the Circle Officer records rights but does not decide title.