Tamil Nadu’s Revenue Department has begun examining a statewide process to correct errors in digitised patta and other land records, 26 years after the computerisation of revenue documents began creating problems for property owners.
The errors affect older records such as patta, chitta, adangal and land maps that were uploaded to computers during the digitisation process. While newly created revenue documents are now generated digitally, historical records were entered into the system from physical documents, resulting in incorrect details in several locations, according to a report by Dinamalar.
Many property owners discover the discrepancies only when they attempt to sell or transfer land. The errors can also obstruct applications connected to building permissions and other property-related transactions, the report said. Residents have been submitting individual petitions to correct the records, but complaints about the issue have continued since the digitisation process began in 2000.
An official from the Revenue Department’s land administration division said people across Tamil Nadu had complained about mistakes in records converted into digital form. The official said transactions and construction-related approvals could not proceed when the underlying documents contained incorrect information.
The department is considering holding camps at the taluk level to identify and correct the errors. The proposed process is expected to involve local residents in checking the digital entries relating to their land, particularly because many owners may not know that their property details have been recorded incorrectly in the computerised system.
The official said the department was discussing the issue with district collectors and that details of the corrective measures would be announced soon. The proposed taluk-level camps would shift at least part of the burden away from individual petitioners and create a system for checking records with the participation of affected landowners.
The problem highlights a practical difficulty in the digitisation of land administration: converting an old record into a digital format does not automatically verify whether the original entry was accurately captured. When an error remains undiscovered, it can surface years later during a sale, development application or other transaction requiring official land records.
The report does not provide a statewide count of affected records, the number of complaints received, or a timeline for completing the proposed review. It also does not specify whether corrections will be carried out through a common statewide platform or through separate district and taluk-level procedures. The Revenue Department’s next announcement is expected to clarify the scope, locations and operating process of the proposed camps.
