Porcha (RoR) download — free view or certified copy?

Two different documents, one name

Porcha, Parcha, RoR, Record of Rights, Khatian — in ordinary use these all point at the same underlying record. But on the portal they split into two services with very different requirements, and mixing them up is the single biggest source of wasted effort here.

• The free on-screen view. The Know Your Property service shows Khatian details — owner names, plot numbers, area, land classification — on screen, with no fee. You will need to be signed in to your banglarbhumi.gov.in account, but nothing is charged for looking.
• The certified copy. A signed, departmentally issued document. This goes through ROR Request under Service Delivery, then Signed ROR/PI/PLM Copy(s) to collect the output. It requires a signed-in Banglarbhumi account, and a fee applies.

What a Porcha / RoR actually records

The Record of Rights is the state's register of who holds what interest in a piece of land. For a given Khatian it typically sets out the recorded holder or holders, the plot (dag) numbers attached to that Khatian, the area of each, the land classification — sali, danga, bastu, pukur and so on — and the revenue assessed.

What it does *not* do is prove ownership in the way a title deed does. It is a revenue record, maintained for the purpose of collecting land revenue, and it reflects what the department has recorded rather than adjudicating who is legally entitled. A registered sale deed, a partition decree, and the RoR are three different instruments, and a clean RoR alongside an unclear deed history is not the reassurance it looks like.

When you actually need a certified copy

A screen view is a screenshot; a certified copy is a document the department has signed. You need the signed version when some institution has to rely on it, which in practice means:

• Bank or housing loan. Lenders taking land as security require a certified RoR as part of the title documentation. A printout of the on-screen search will not be accepted.
• Litigation. Anything filed in court — a title suit, a partition matter, an objection in a mutation proceeding — needs the certified document.
• Sale or transfer. Registration and the buyer's own due diligence generally require a current certified copy.
• Government schemes and subsidies. Agricultural credit, crop insurance and several state schemes ask for proof of recorded holding.

The free route, step by step in one paragraph

Open banglarbhumi.gov.in and sign in, go to Citizen Services → Know Your Property, choose your District, Block and Mouza, then search by Khatian number or by Plot (Dag) number. Solve the CAPTCHA and the record appears on screen. No payment and no application number — but do expect the portal to want you signed in. The menus and the District and Block dropdowns load while you are signed out, which makes the site feel more open than it is; ask it for an actual record and it takes you to the sign-in page. The neighbouring services — RS-LR Plot Information, Mutation Case Status, Mouza Information, Query Search — sit alongside it and are reached the same way.

If the search returns nothing, that is usually an identifier problem rather than a missing record: an RS number entered into an LR search, a mouza whose portal spelling differs from local usage, or a sabek dag that has since been renumbered.

The e-District alternative

Banglarbhumi is not the only channel. West Bengal's e-District platform also delivers certified land-record copies, and some users find its application flow more tolerable — particularly people who already hold an e-District account for other certificates.

The underlying record is the same either way; the difference is the delivery channel and its queue. If a Banglarbhumi request stalls without explanation, it is worth knowing the other route exists rather than assuming the document is unobtainable.

Common Service Centres and Bangla Sahayata Kendras will also file these requests on your behalf. They charge for the assistance on top of the departmental fee, which is a reasonable trade if the portal is defeating you.

The fee, and what we won't tell you

A fee applies to a certified RoR. You will not find an amount on this page, and you should be wary of pages that do — departmental fee schedules are revised, and a stale number sends people to the counter with the wrong money.

The portal carries an Online Fees Calculator, and it displays the applicable fee at the payment step. Payment flows through eChallan Generation, which returns a GRN worth recording in case the payment succeeds but the status doesn't update.

For the same reason we don't state how long a request takes, or how long a certified copy stays acceptable to a bank or court. Both vary, and both are questions for the portal's own status screens and for the institution asking for the document.

On apps generally, including ours: unofficial apps such as Bhumir Tathya are useful for the record lookups — Khatian and plot details, mutation status — which they reach by signing in with your own banglarbhumi.gov.in account. A certified copy is not in that category. No third-party app can bypass the government's sign-in or its fees.