How private land got trapped in 22A — and what we demand

What Section 22A is for

Section 22A of the Registration Act, 1908 lets the State notify certain categories of land as prohibited for registration — chiefly government land, assigned land given to the poor, endowment property, and Waqf Board land. In Andhra Pradesh the provision was re-introduced through Amendment Act 19 of 2007. Its purpose is legitimate: to stop the illegal transfer of public and protected land. Once a survey number is on the list, Sub-Registrar Offices block every sale, mortgage, gift, partition and transfer tied to it, and banks refuse loans against it.

We support that purpose. Genuine government, assigned, forest, endowment and Waqf Board land must stay protected. The fight is not against 22A itself — it is against the wrong inclusion of private patta land that was never meant to be on the list.

How this happened

The harm is largely a by-product of land-record digitisation, not a deliberate policy against owners. As old paper records were converted into the Webland / MeeBhoomi systems, classification errors were carried over and hardened into the database that Sub-Registrars now treat as final.

1. The manual era before ~2017Registration decisions rested on physical registers and document history. Errors existed, but an owner could argue their case at the local office with original records.
2. Statutory basis 2007Amendment Act 19 of 2007 re-introduced Section 22A in Andhra Pradesh, giving legal force to notified lists of prohibited property.
3. Digitisation of records ~2017 onwardLand records were migrated into Webland (the officials' backend) and MeeBhoomi (the public view). Reports from affected owners date the mass inclusion of patta lands in the 22A list to this digitisation, done without informing the landowners.
4. Errors became "the truth" Old or unclear classification entries — and blunt rules such as flagging an entire survey number when only a fraction was disputed — caused private parcels to display as government, inam, or otherwise restricted. Because banks and SROs trust only what is locked in the database, the digital error became decisive.
5. Owners discover the block Most families learn of the problem only when a sale, loan, gift or partition is refused at the registration office — often years after the entry was made, with no notice ever served and no hearing offered.
6. Partial relief begins 2026The State has acknowledged wrongful inclusion and moved to remove certain categories from the prohibited list, with faster correction drives. This is welcome — but it remains category-by-category and discretionary, not a guaranteed right to notice, hearing and a reasoned order.

Dates reflect the pattern reported in press coverage and affected-owner accounts (including the 2017 digitisation timeline cited by landowners). Confirm exact GO numbers and dates against the source documents in the Evidence Room before publication.

• No parcel goes on the 22A list without notice to the owner and a hearing first.
• Fix the Webland / MeeBhoomi-era classification errors at the source — not parcel-by-parcel litigation by citizens.
• Decide any removal or objection within a fixed, published deadline.
• The burden of proof rests with the State, not the citizen.