You can check most of a Karnataka plot's paper trail yourself, online, in about ten minutes, before you pay anyone. Two free government portals do the work: Bhoomi, the Karnataka Revenue Department portal that issues the RTC (also called the Pahani), and Kaveri, the state registration portal that issues the Encumbrance Certificate, or EC. Between them you can pull an RTC and an EC today, on a real survey number, and read most of the records that exist for a plot.

If you are buying land near Bangalore, or anywhere in Karnataka, this is the first-pass check you can run before you involve an advocate. It will not replace a lawyer, and this guide is honest about where it stops. What it does mean is that you walk into that conversation already knowing what the land shows on paper. These are two portals doing two different jobs, so it helps to know which one answers which question before you log in.

The short version: what to do

To check a Karnataka plot yourself: pull the RTC on Bhoomi to see who holds and cultivates the land, then pull the Encumbrance Certificate on Kaveri to see the registered money history. You need three things in hand first: the survey number, the hissa number if the plot is a sub-division, and the period of years you want the EC to cover.

Here is the limit, stated up front. The RTC shows the current owner, the nature of possession, the extent, any tenancy, the crop and recorded liabilities. The EC shows the transactions registered against the property over the period you choose. Neither portal shows unregistered claims, live litigation, PTCL grant status, or whether the title is actually clean. Those are the reasons an advocate check still follows. The rest of this guide takes each portal in turn, starting with which one answers which question.

What are Bhoomi and Kaveri, and what does each one actually check?

Bhoomi is the Karnataka Revenue Department's land-records portal, and it issues the RTC, also called the Pahani, which records who holds and cultivates a given survey number. Kaveri is the state registration portal, run by the Sub-Registrar system, and it issues the Encumbrance Certificate for a property.

The two documents answer two different questions. The RTC (Pahani) tells you who holds and works the land now. It records the owner's name, the extent, the hissa, the nature of possession, any tenancy, the crop grown and any recorded liabilities. The Encumbrance Certificate tells you what money events are registered against the land: the sales, mortgages and releases entered against that property over a chosen period.

Put plainly, the RTC is the possession-and-cultivation record, and the EC is the registered-transaction record. You will usually want both, because a plot can look settled on one and carry a surprise on the other. Before either portal will help you, though, you need three inputs ready.

What do you need before you start?

The survey number is the plot's unique Revenue Department identifier, and without it neither portal can find the land. Gather it, and a few details around it, before you log in, so neither procedure stalls halfway. These are the same inputs whether you check the RTC or the EC.

Here is what to have ready:

  • The survey number. This is the key both Bhoomi and Kaveri search on.

  • The hissa number. This is the sub-division of a survey number, used when a larger survey has been split into smaller plots. If your plot is a sub-division, you need it.

  • The location fields: district, taluk, hobli and village. Both portals ask you to select these from menus to narrow down to the right survey record.

  • The search period for the EC. This is the range of years you want the Encumbrance Certificate to cover. Each year added carries a small fee, so decide how far back you want to look.

  • The owner's or party's name, if you plan to search Kaveri by name rather than by number.

One point on older records. The online EC series runs from the 2004 computerisation. For records before 1 April 2004, the EC is reached through a separate pre-2004 option on the portal. 
With those inputs in hand, start with Bhoomi and the RTC.

How do you pull an RTC (Pahani) on Bhoomi, step by step?

The i-RTC is the digitally signed RTC option on the Bhoomi homepage, and it is the copy worth pulling because it is signed, unlike the view-only RTC that you cannot use as a formal record. Here is the path from the homepage to a downloaded RTC.

  1. Go to the Bhoomi portal at landrecords.karnataka.gov.in.

  2. Choose the i-RTC (digitally signed) option, not the view-only RTC.

  3. Register or log in with your name, mobile number, email and Aadhaar.

  4. Enter the district, taluk, hobli, village, survey number, surname, hissa number and the validity period.

  5. Select Fetch details to bring up the record.

  6. Pay the fee. It is a nominal amount, about Rs 10 (sourced from a developer guide dated August 2026; confirm the current figure on the portal, as fees change).

  7. Download the RTC as a PDF.

That gives you the signed RTC for the survey number you checked, straight from the Revenue Department online.

The RTC shows possession and cultivation. The Encumbrance Certificate shows the money history, and that is the next pull.

How do you pull an Encumbrance Certificate (EC) on Kaveri, step by step?

The Encumbrance Certificate is the registered transaction history of a property over a period, issued online on Kaveri 2.0, and it is what tells you whether the land carries a registered mortgage or sale you were not told about. This is the second check, after the RTC. Here is the path from login to a downloaded EC.

  1. Register or log in on Kaveri Online Services (the current build is Kaveri 2.0) with your name, email and mobile number.

  2. Choose Start A New Application, then Encumbrance Certificate.

  3. Search by the property or survey number, or by party name.

  4. Enter the survey number, district, taluk, village and the search period you want covered.

  5. Complete Form 22 and apply the Aadhaar e-Sign.

  6. Pay the fee. As sourced from a tax-filing guide dated August 2026: the application is about Rs 10, the first year of search about Rs 30, and each additional year about Rs 10. Confirm the current figures on the portal.

  7. Once it is processed, usually in about two to three working days, download the signed EC as a PDF from your dashboard.

Two results are possible. Form 15 is issued when the property has registered encumbrances, meaning entries such as loans or claims were found. Form 16 is issued when none is found, which is a Nil EC. Hold on to what a Nil EC does and does not mean, because that matters later.

Now read what each document actually tells you.

How do you read what comes back?

Column 4 of the RTC is the recorded owner's name, and the seller's name must appear there, or the seller has no standing to sell the land. That single check is the first thing to do with a fresh RTC. One caution on the name: if a recent sale has not yet completed mutation, the RTC can still show a previous owner, so confirm the record is current.

On the RTC, read these fields:

  • The nature-of-possession column tells you whether a tenant, rather than the owner, occupies the land. An owner selling land that someone else has a tenancy claim on is a problem to raise early.

  • The liabilities and remarks columns flag mortgages, court orders and the conversion status of the land. Anything noted here is a question for the seller.

On the EC, the Encumbrance Certificate, the read depends on which form you received. A Form 15 lists each registered transaction, and you read it in date order to follow the chain of sales, mortgages and releases. A Form 16, the Nil EC, means only that no registered entry was found for the period you searched, and nothing more than that.

The name check and these columns tell you a great deal about the records you pulled. But a record that looks clean can still hide things the portal never shows, and that is the part most guides skip.

What do Bhoomi and Kaveri NOT show you?

A clean RTC and a Nil EC are presumptive records, not proof of title. They lower your risk, but they cannot clear a plot on their own. This is the part almost every other Bhoomi and Kaveri guide leaves out, and it is where the online check stops being enough.

Here is what the two portals do not show you:

  • A Nil EC (a Nil Encumbrance Certificate) does not cover unregistered agreements, oral partitions or private disputes. It reports only what was registered for the period you searched, so an unregistered transaction leaves no trace here.

  • The online EC series runs from the 2004 computerisation. Anything before that period needs the separate pre-2004 search, so a short online period can miss older dealings.

  • The RTC does not show the mother deed or the full chain of prior title. It shows current possession, not how the title travelled to get here.

  • Neither portal flags PTCL grant history. Land granted to SC or ST families under the PTCL Act carries restrictions, and since the 2023 amendment those restoration claims have no time-bar and apply retrospectively, so even an old, clean-looking chain can be challenged. 
  • Neither portal confirms DC conversion validity, or whether a plot is A-Khata or B-Khata. Those are separate records the portals do not carry.

  • The RTC is presumptive evidence of possession, not conclusive proof of ownership.

  • Pending litigation and court attachments may not appear in either online record. 
  • Neither portal tells an NRI, OCI or PIO whether they are even permitted to buy. Under FEMA, NRIs cannot purchase agricultural land, plantation property or a farmhouse in India, and no portal will stop or warn them.

None of this means the online check was wasted. It means the check has a boundary, and knowing the boundary is what keeps you safe. And sometimes the online record simply disagrees with the paper one.

What happens when the online record and the physical record disagree?

Mutation is the process that updates the RTC after a sale, and until it is completed the RTC can still show the previous owner, so a recent buyer's name may be missing from the online record. A lag between the sale and the mutation is normal, but it is also the most common reason the online RTC and the real position on the ground do not match.

The pattern to watch is straightforward. If a plot changed hands recently and the mutation has not gone through, the Bhoomi RTC and the survey record will still carry the previous owner's name. That does not always mean something is wrong, but it does mean the record is not current, and you should not read it as final.

When the online RTC and the paper record differ, treat it as a question to resolve, not a detail to ignore. The way to resolve it, in order:

  1. Cross-check the Mutation Register, the MR, which records the mutation entries behind the RTC.

  2. Check the registered deed for the latest transaction against what the RTC shows.

  3. Ask the Sub-Registrar office, or your advocate, to explain any gap before you go further.

A mismatch is not automatically a deal-breaker, but it is a reason to slow down. When you have the records and the questions in hand, gather the set and take it to the person who clears the deal.

What should you hand your advocate?

Your advocate is the person who clears the deal, and owners across reviews name their own lawyer, unprompted, as the one who did that job. An advocate works fastest when the document set is already assembled, so the self-check you have just done is what puts you ahead. Hand over a complete document pack, indexed, and you save days.

Gather these before the first meeting:

  • The RTC, the signed i-RTC copy, for the survey number.

  • The Encumbrance Certificate for the full period you were able to pull.

  • The Khata, whether A-Khata or B-Khata, and the DC conversion order, which the portals do not carry.

  • The mother deed and the earlier title documents, again not held on either portal.

Then ask your advocate for the checks the portals will never do for you: a PTCL or non-granted-land check, and a reading of the title chain end to end. No portal flags PTCL status, and that is exactly the kind of gap a lawyer is for.

A complete, indexed set of records, produced without friction, is what a good advocate wants first. It is also the slowest thing for most buyers to put together, which is why having it ready changes how the whole review goes.