Section 22-A Prohibited Lands in AP
Last updated: June 2026
Found a plot that looks perfect on paper, only to have the Sub-Registrar's system reject the registration the moment the survey number gets entered? That's almost always a Section 22-A flag. It's one of the most common reasons a land deal collapses at the last step, and it has nothing to do with the seller's intentions — the government itself has frozen that survey number against registration.
Andhra Pradesh declared 2026 the "Bhumi Nama Samvatsaram" (Year of Land Reforms), and a large part of that effort has gone into correcting decades of wrongly listed private land under 22-A. Here's what the section actually covers, the five categories it blocks, how to check a survey number yourself, and what changed this year.
What Section 22-A Actually Does
Section 22-A of the Registration Act, 1908, gives the state government the power to stop registration of documents involving land that's "opposed to public policy." In practice, this means the Sub-Registrar's software is programmed to reject any sale, mortgage, or lease application the moment the survey number matches an entry on the prohibited list, with no manual override at the counter.
The Five Categories Under Section 22-A(1)
| Clause | Category | What It Covers |
|---|---|---|
| 22-A(1)(a) | Assigned Lands | Land given to landless poor families for farming or housing under the 1977 Assigned Lands Act; generally non-transferable |
| 22-A(1)(b) | Government Lands | Property directly owned by the State or Central government; private registration is barred outright |
| 22-A(1)(c) | Endowment & Wakf Properties | Land belonging to religious or charitable trusts and Wakf boards; sale or long-term lease needs statutory approval |
| 22-A(1)(d) | Ceiling Surplus Lands | Land declared "surplus" under land reform acts and earmarked for redistribution |
| 22-A(1)(e) | Notified Government Interest | Property where the government has an accrued interest, such as court-attached land; requires a formal Gazette notification |
How to Check If a Property Is Under 22-A
- Visit the IGRS AP portal.
- Select Prohibited Properties Search.
- Enter the District, Mandal, and Village.
- Input the Survey Number or Door Number you want to check.
- If the property is listed, the system shows the reason for prohibition and the notifying authority.
Run a parallel check on Meebhoomi's Adangal and 1-B for the same survey number. If Meebhoomi shows the land as privately held but IGRS flags it as government land, that mismatch is exactly the kind of data error the 2026 reforms are meant to fix.
2026 Reforms: Five Categories Removed From the List
On January 1, 2026, the Revenue Department authorized the immediate deletion of five major categories from the 22-A prohibited list:
- Defence Personnel Lands — plots assigned to serving and retired soldiers.
- Freedom Fighters' Lands — properties granted in recognition of national service.
- Political Sufferers/Victims — land granted as compensation for past political or social injustice.
- Pre-1954 Assignments — genuine assignments made before June 18, 1954, since these original grants often carried no non-alienation clause.
- Wrongly Included Private Patta Lands — private titles mistakenly flagged as government land due to data errors during Webland digitization.
Removal from the list doesn't mean an instant, unrestricted sale in every case. Lands assigned to ex-servicemen or freedom fighters still carry a 10-year lock-in from the date of assignment before they can be resold.
A second change worth knowing: in the past, if even a small disputed portion of a large survey number was flagged, the entire number got blocked. The 2026 guidelines now require authorities to subdivide the survey number, so only the disputed portion stays prohibited while the rest is freed for registration.
How to Apply for Removal From the 22-A List
The government now accepts any one of these document types as sufficient proof for a deletion request:
- 10(1) Registers
- Adangal or Pahani records
- Settlement Fair Adangal (SFA)
- Old Assignment Registers
- D-form (DKT) Pattas
- Record of Holdings
- Registered Registration Documents
- 8-A Registers
- Apply through MeeSeva or at a village-level Revenue Conference.
- Attach one valid proof document from the list above.
- Wait for processing: simple clerical errors clear in 15 to 45 days; assignment review cases can take 1 to 3 months.
- Collector approval: the District Collector is the final authority for removals under clauses (a), (b), (d), and (e).
What Happens If You Buy 22-A Land Anyway
- Registration is blocked automatically — there's no workaround at the Sub-Registrar's counter.
- If a sale slips through by mistake, courts generally treat it as illegal and can annul the registration later.
- Banks reject loan applications outright on any survey number that shows up on the prohibited list.
- Market value collapses for listed plots, since buyers and lenders both treat the listing as a red flag.
FAQs
Can I buy a property listed under Section 22-A in AP?
No. The registration system automatically blocks any document involving a survey number listed under Section 22-A, regardless of what the buyer and seller have agreed.
How long does it take to remove land from the 22-A list?
Simple clerical errors on private patta lands are usually resolved in 15 to 45 days. Assignment review cases that need the District Collector's sign-off can take 1 to 3 months.
Is checking the prohibited properties list free?
Yes. Searching a survey number on the IGRS AP Prohibited Properties Search is free of cost.
Can ex-servicemen or freedom fighters sell their assigned land immediately after removal?
No. Even after a category is removed from the 22-A list, lands assigned to ex-servicemen or freedom fighters carry a 10-year lock-in from the date of assignment before they can be sold.
Saanvi Rao
Content Writer & Web Developer
A software engineer with 15+ years in web development, Saanvi writes and maintains this independent Meebhoomi guide to help landowners and buyers in plain language.