Encumbrance Certificate in Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (NGDRS e-Search and Civil Registrar-cum-Sub-Registrar)

What is an encumbrance certificate in Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu?

An encumbrance certificate in the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu is a record of every transaction registered against a property for a period you specify. An encumbrance is a registered claim that limits an owner's freedom to sell clean, a bank mortgage, a court attachment, a registered lease, a gift, a partition, a release or an earlier sale.

The Union Territory does not use a numbered Form 15 or Form 16, the way Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh do. Here the same information is obtained under the Department of Revenue of the UT Administration in two ways:

• Electronic search of registered documents on NGDRS at ngdrs.dnh.gov.in, the National Generic Document Registration System instance for the UT, operated under the Department of Land Resources and the UT's Department of Revenue. The portal provides electronic search of registered documents, property search, citizen login and registration, organisation login, and appointment and dashboard viewing. It was designed and developed by the National Informatics Centre.
• Certified copies and search reports from the Civil Registrar-cum-Sub-Registrar, the UT office that acts as Sub-Registrar for document registration and verifies documentation at the time of registration. This is the only output that is a document rather than a screen.

The Union Territory is small but administratively split across three districts, Dadra and Nagar Haveli with its headquarters at Silvassa, Daman and Diu, and the register is held office by office. A search run against the wrong office returns nothing and is easily misread as a clean record.

Who can apply for an encumbrance search here?

You can apply if:

• You are the owner of the land, flat, house, shop or industrial plot.
• You are a prospective buyer verifying the property before paying advance money. This matters unusually often in this UT, where industrial and residential plots in and around Silvassa and Daman change hands with outside buyers.
• You are a bank or housing finance company appraising a loan against the property, or an advocate issuing a title opinion.
• You are a legal heir establishing what a deceased relative owned and what charges attach to it.
• You are any member of the public. Registered documents are public records under the Registration Act, 1908, and the UT does not require the owner's consent, a power of attorney or a stated reason.

You cannot apply if, the constraints are on the record, not the person:

• You cannot search without a property identifier. A survey number with sub-division, or a plot, flat and building number with the village or ward, is what the index is built on. A postal address alone returns nothing.
• You cannot cover undigitised years online. The NGDRS register starts later than the paper registers, so an older trace needs a manual search at the office.
• You cannot find unregistered dealings. An unregistered agreement to sell, an oral family arrangement, an unregistered will, or a pending suit that has not been registered as an attachment.
• You cannot treat an e-search screen as a certificate. Only the certified copy or the certified search report from the Civil Registrar-cum-Sub-Registrar is a document a bank or a court will act on.

How to check encumbrances in Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu

1. Collect the property particulars first — survey number with sub-division, or plot, flat and building number, the village or ward, and the district: Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman or Diu. Take them from the last registered deed rather than from memory.
2. Identify the Civil Registrar-cum-Sub-Registrar office with jurisdiction over that village or ward, because the register and the search are office-specific.
3. Open ngdrs.dnh.gov.in and register as a citizen user with your name, mobile number and email. Verify the OTP and set a password, then log in.
4. Use the e-search or property search facility, selecting the district and the registering office and entering the property or document particulars the form asks for, along with the period to be searched.
5. Read every result row. Each is a registered document with its number, date, parties and nature; sale, gift, mortgage, lease, release, partition or attachment. Note any mortgage that has no matching release entry.
6. Apply at the Civil Registrar-cum-Sub-Registrar office for a certified copy of the deeds that matter and, where the period predates digitisation, for a manual search of the register.
7. Combine both outputs. The NGDRS search results and the certified copies: into one chronological history of the property. That combined history is what stands in for an encumbrance certificate in this Union Territory.

How to apply at the Civil Registrar-cum-Sub-Registrar office

1. Go to the office for the district in which the property lies, Silvassa for Dadra and Nagar Haveli, or the offices at Daman and Diu.
2. File a written application describing the property by survey number with sub-division, extent and boundaries, naming the village or ward and district, and stating the deed number and year if you have it or the exact period to be searched if you do not.
3. Attach your identity proof and a copy of the title document if you hold one.
4. Pay the notified fee at the counter and take a printed receipt bearing the application number.
5. Collect the certified copy or the search report on the date given on the receipt.

The counter route stays essential in this UT because digitisation on NGDRS does not reach back to the older Portuguese-era and post-liberation records that some Daman and Diu properties depend on, and because the office is where a manual index search actually happens.

How do I check the status of a request?

• Online: log in to your NGDRS citizen account at ngdrs.dnh.gov.in and open the dashboard or application view, where appointments and requests are listed.
• By email: write to helpdesk.ngdrs@nic.in, the help desk address published on the NGDRS portal, quoting your reference number.
• In person: at the Civil Registrar-cum-Sub-Registrar office counter with the receipt.
• Escalation: the Civil Registrar-cum-Sub-Registrar, then the district administration, then the Department of Revenue, UT Administration of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

How long is the search valid?

An encumbrance search in this Union Territory carries no expiry date, but it is only true up to the last date of the period it covers. A mortgage registered the day after the search period ends does not appear in it.

Banks and buyers' advocates therefore want a freshly run search, usually days or weeks old rather than months, and a careful buyer repeats a short search covering only the intervening period immediately before the deed is presented for registration. There is no renewal, you run the search again for the new period, which costs a fraction of a full 30-year trace.

Why do encumbrance searches go wrong here?

• Wrong registering office. With three districts and a small number of offices, it is easy to search Daman for a property that is registered at Silvassa.
• Wrong survey number or sub-division, particularly on land that has been subdivided for industrial plotting around Silvassa.
• Village or ward spelt differently in the register from the deed, so the selection misses.
• Expecting the online register to cover old years. Anything before digitisation is a manual search at the counter.
• Reading an empty result as clean title rather than as an absence of digitised entries for that identifier in that office for that period.
• Ignoring a mortgage with no release entry. A loan repaid but never released in the register still stands as a live charge and will block a sale or a fresh loan.
• Skipping the parallel checks. The revenue land record and mutation, land-use and industrial-plot allotment conditions, and any lease or occupancy condition attaching to allotted plots, which are common in this Union Territory.

What does it cost, and what should you refuse to pay?

The NGDRS e-search is an online public search service, and a certified copy or certified search from the Civil Registrar-cum-Sub-Registrar is charged at the notified counter fee, against a printed receipt. Ask for the current fee at the office before paying, because counter fees are revised by notification, and always insist on the receipt.

Agents and document writers offer to "get the encumbrance certificate" for a fee several times the counter rate. They are running the same NGDRS search and filing the same counter application that you can. No officer can create or delete an entry in the register for money, and there is no paid priority queue. Register on NGDRS yourself, run the free search first, then pay only the notified counter rate for the certified copies you actually need, and never hand your NGDRS login or OTP to an agent.

Grievance and support route

• NGDRS help desk: helpdesk.ngdrs@nic.in
• Portal: ngdrs.dnh.gov.in, for e-search, citizen login, appointments and user manuals
• Local level: the Civil Registrar-cum-Sub-Registrar office holding the record
• District level: the district administration for Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman or Diu
• UT level: the Department of Revenue, UT Administration of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu

Carry the application or transaction number to any of these. Without it, no office can trace the request.

Common reasons for rejection

The written application at the Civil Registrar-cum-Sub-Registrar office is not automatically accepted just because a fee was paid at the counter. It can be returned or held up for reasons that are specific to how the register is organised in this Union Territory.

• Property description does not match the register. If the application quotes a survey number without its sub-division, or a plot number without the village or ward, the office cannot locate an entry and returns the application for correction rather than issuing a "nil" result. Fix it by copying the description exactly from the last registered deed, not from a tax receipt or an oral description.
• Application filed at the wrong district office. An application for a Silvassa property filed at the Daman or Diu counter is refused outright, since each Civil Registrar-cum-Sub-Registrar office holds only its own district's register. Confirm the correct office, Silvassa for Dadra and Nagar Haveli, or the Daman or Diu office, before filing.
• Search period left vague or unstated. An application that says "search from the beginning" without a deed number or year to anchor it is often sent back for clarification, because a full-history manual search needs at least an approximate starting point. State either the deed number and year you already hold, or a specific period to be searched.
• Missing identity proof or title copy. An application without the applicant's identity proof, or without a copy of the title document when the applicant claims to be the owner, is held pending until the paper is supplied. Attach both at the time of filing rather than after a query is raised.
• Fee paid without matching the notified rate. Counter fees are revised by notification, and an application accompanied by an outdated fee amount is not processed until the difference is settled. Ask the counter for the current fee before paying, and keep the receipt.
• Confusing an NGDRS e-search printout with a certified application. A screenshot or printout from the NGDRS portal is not itself a request for a certified copy or search report. If what is needed is a document a bank or court will accept, a separate written application must still be filed at the counter; the online search does not substitute for it.
• Old, undigitised years requested as if they were online records. An application that assumes NGDRS already covers Portuguese-era or early post-liberation records is misdirected. These years require a manual register search at the office, which takes longer and should be requested as such rather than as a routine e-search follow-up.