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What a banakhat is
A બાનાખત is an agreement to sell. The buyer pays earnest money — બાના — and the parties fix the price, the description and boundaries of the property, the payment schedule, the date for possession, the date by which the sale deed will be executed, and what happens if either side defaults.
It does not transfer ownership. Ownership passes when the વેચાણ દસ્તાવેજ — the sale deed — is executed and registered. The banakhat is the contract that obliges the parties to get there.
In everyday Gujarati the two words are used interchangeably for an agreement to sell — સાટાખત is commoner among some practitioners and in some districts, બાનાખત in others. Ask for either; you will get the same document. We do not draw a legal distinction between them and you should be wary of anyone who does.
Section 17(1A) of the Registration Act, 1908 provides that a document containing a contract to transfer immovable property for consideration for the purposes of section 53A of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882, executed on or after 24 September 2001, must be registered — and if it is not, it has no effect for section 53A purposes. Section 53A is the doctrine of part performance: the protection that lets a buyer already in possession resist being put out by the seller. Delivery of possession is an ingredient of section 53A itself. So the practical rule at this counter is simple: possession passing means the agreement gets registered.
Cancelling a registered banakhat
A registered banakhat cannot be quietly abandoned. Following a Gujarat High Court ruling, cancellation of a registered banakhat requires both parties to be present, with a registration fee on the cancellation. Plan for it: if a deal may not complete, the exit route needs to be in the document, and both sides need to understand that walking away is a two-signature exercise.
What the document must contain
- The property, described exactly as the revenue record describes it — survey or city survey number, area, boundaries and the title documents relied on. A description that does not match the record is the commonest defect we see.
- Title recitals — how the seller came to own it, and whether anyone else has an interest. Where the property is inherited, whether every heir is a party.
- Price, earnest money paid, and the payment schedule, with dates and the mode of payment recorded.
- The date for execution and registration of the sale deed, and whether time is of the essence.
- Possession — whether it passes and when. This clause decides whether section 17(1A) applies.
- Consequences of default on each side — forfeiture, refund with or without interest, and the right to seek specific performance.
- Who bears stamp duty, registration fee and outstanding dues — property tax, society charges, electricity, any loan on the property.
- Encumbrances, and what happens if one emerges.
Before you sign one as a buyer
- Search the title at the Sub-Registrar over thirteen or thirty years. Cheaper than the alternative by several orders of magnitude.
- Check the revenue record — 7/12 and 8-A for agricultural land, the property card for urban property — and check the mutation entries actually reflect every transaction in the chain.
- Check NA permission if the land is agricultural and you intend to build.
- Check who the heirs are where the property came by inheritance. A banakhat signed by three of five heirs is a problem waiting to happen.
- Do not pay in cash without record. When the dispute comes, the payment schedule and the proof of payment are what you have.
We do not publish duty figures on this website. The Gujarat Stamp Act, 1958 was amended in 2025 and several articles were restructured; a rate printed on a web page goes stale and costs somebody money. As a Government authorised e-Stamping centre we confirm the duty currently prescribed for your specific document and issue the e-stamp against it, at face value. The notarial fee is separate and capped by law — ₹35 to attest execution, ₹35 to administer an oath or take an affidavit, under Rule 10(1) of the Notaries Rules, 1956. The full fee table →
Drafted here, in Gujarati or English
Drafted by an advocate of 35+ years rather than filled into a downloaded template, e-stamped at a Government authorised centre, and notarised in the same visit. If the parties read Gujarati, the document is drafted in Gujarati — not translated out of an English form, because legal Gujarati has its own settled vocabulary and a literal translation frequently means something looser.
What to bring
- Title documents for the property
- 7/12 and 8-A extract, or the property card
- Photo ID for buyer and seller
- Agreed price, earnest money and payment schedule
- Whether possession is being handed over, and when
- Details of every co-owner or heir with an interest