Indian real estate law · 44 lawyers

A whole firm.
One matter.
Yours.

A Managing Partner, six departments and thirty-six specialists, opened for the single instrument you need drafted. Answer the questions a partner would actually ask you, and take away the brief the firm works from — the routing, the stamp position, and everything your document will need before a word of it is written.

Building Vision. Delivering Growth.

0Lawyers on the roster
0Departments, every matter
0Specialist practices
0Instruments drafted
0Quality gates before issue
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Nothing is sent anywhere. Your matter is saved on this device and you can pick it up where you left off.

Intake

Open a matter

Nothing here is busywork. The State fixes the stamp, registration, tenancy and revenue law that applies. The tenure decides whether the deal is possible at all. Your role decides which side of every clause you sit on. A partner would ask you all three before saying a single useful thing.

01

What do you need drafted?

Pick the instrument. The questions below change to match it, and so does the firm.
Write it the way you would say it to a partner. If none of the instruments below fits — a co-development between two developers, an unusual structure, something you are not sure has a name — say so here. This is read first, and it governs. The instrument below only routes the matter to the right practices.
02

Who is instructing the firm?

The person the Managing Partner reports back to. This goes on the face of the brief.
Recorded on the brief so the draft comes back to the right person.
Decides which side of every clause the drafting sits on.
03

The parties

Every person who will sign, in whatever capacity — vendors, purchasers, landowners, confirming parties, guarantors. Most deals have several on one side; add each of them. Their capacity decides the party block, the recitals and who warrants what.
No parties added
04

The land

The State and the tenure come first — the firm answers nothing until they are fixed. Then add every survey number the document covers.
Fixes stamp, registration, tenancy, revenue and RERA law. There is no generic answer without it.
"Don't know" is a real answer, and it changes the workplan.
One row per survey / Gat / CTS / Khasra number. Areas total automatically, and the totals drive the schedule, the stamp base and the share calculations.
No parcels added
05

The deal

One value drives stamp duty, deemed income and GST. State it once.
06

What could go wrong

Tick honestly. Each of these pulls a different specialist onto the file.
Tick as many as apply. If the thing that worries you is not a chip, type it — the firm reads this before it reads the ticks.
Tick as many as apply. An approval whose condition has lapsed is worse than no approval, so add the date where you know it.
07

Documents you already have

Record-of-rights extracts — 7/12, RTC, khatauni, khasra, patta, property card — prior deeds, search reports, approvals, earlier drafts.
Drop files here, or click to browse
Recorded on the brief. Text files are read in full; everything else is listed by name so the original gets asked for.
08

What you actually want

A partner asks for the commercial objective, then for the thing that is really worrying you. They are usually different.

Your matter brief

What the firm will produce

    What to put your hands on first

      Flagged on intake

      The brief — hand this to THE EDGE
      The firm

      Instructions flow down.
      Work flows up. Nothing skips a level.

      Every matter is worked by all six departments — that is the house rule, and it holds on a pure transaction as much as on a dispute. What changes from matter to matter is which specialists get called in. Fill in the intake below and this chart lights up for your instrument.

      Managing Partner

      Equity Partner · the only client-facing role

      Owns the client, sets strategy, commissions the departments, resolves the conflicts between them, and gives final sign-off. Does not do the legal work — directs it, and owns it.

      Senior Partner

      Equity Partner · never client-facing

      Owns legal accuracy. Reconciles six departmental notes into one position, resolves every contradiction, rates the risk red, amber or green, and reports upward.

      The roster

      Twenty-five named seats.
      Each with a mandate.

      The firm runs forty-four lawyers. These twenty-five are the partners and the principal practice seats — each with a name, a designation, a reporting line and the key result areas it is measured on. The rest are specialist seats within these departments, listed under their practice. Open any card to see what that person owns, what they are held to, and the standing procedure they work by.

      Sequence

      How a matter moves

      Five steps, in order, every time. The brief you build below is the input to step one.

      Reconciliation

      Departments contradict each other.
      Six questions settle it.

      Before anything leaves the office the Senior Partner answers these six — one answer each, every contradiction resolved. This is the step most drafts skip, and it is where the money is lost.

      THE EDGE

      Twenty years of building.
      Now the legal desk, too.

      THE EDGE has delivered 45 landmark projects and ₹8,500 crore of sales across two decades in Indian real estate. Lawyer AI is the newest desk — the same experience, turned into a firm anyone can instruct.

      Vertical 01

      EDGE Developments

      Branded plots and luxury villas, developed and delivered end to end.

      Vertical 02

      Corporate Advisory

      Business strategy and guidance for developers, landowners and investors.

      Vertical 03

      E-Learning

      Real estate training and knowledge programmes for teams and partners.

      Vertical 04

      Spotlight

      Brand building and creative storytelling, with Thoughtrains.

      Vertical 05 · New

      Lawyer AI

      A full real estate law firm, opened for one matter at a time.

      Questions

      The eight questions everyone gets wrong

      These are the points on which Indian real estate transactions most often fail — not because the law is obscure, but because the document was named before it was decided. General information on Maharashtra practice, not advice on your matter.

      Do I need an MOU or a development agreement?

      It depends on what the document actually does, not what you call it. An MOU that recites consideration, delivers possession or grants development rights is, in substance, an agreement to sell or a development agreement — and it is read and charged as one. If you want an exploratory document, it must be drafted deliberately on the non-binding side of that line, with an express anti-possession clause and no grant of development rights. If you want the deal tied up, use a binding term sheet or go straight to the development agreement.

      Does the heading on a document decide its stamp duty?

      No. Stamp duty follows the substance of the instrument, not its title. Where two descriptions could apply, the higher duty is generally charged. This is the single most expensive drafting error in Indian real estate: a document labelled 'MOU' that in substance transfers development rights is assessed as a development agreement, at conveyance rates, on the market value of the land.

      Is a mutation entry proof of title?

      No. A mutation entry in the record of rights is a fiscal record maintained for revenue purposes. It does not by itself create, confer or extinguish title. Title comes from the registered instruments in the chain. Revenue entries corroborate; they do not prove. Any diligence that stops at the 7/12 extract has not investigated title.

      Is a landowner a promoter under RERA?

      Often, yes. Where a landowner shares revenue or built-up area in a project, they are commonly treated as a co-promoter under the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, and must be disclosed as such in the registration. The practical consequence is that the landowner carries promoter obligations to allottees even though the developer runs the project — so the allocation of that liability has to be papered expressly.

      What is pot-kharaba, and does it count as developable land?

      Pot-kharaba is the uncultivable portion of a survey number recorded in the revenue record. Class (A) is at the holder's disposal. Class (B) is land set apart for a public purpose and is not at the holder's disposal — it cannot be developed unless it is converted to Class (A) and the record of rights is updated. Class (B) must be deducted before anyone relies on an area or prices a per-acre rate.

      Can a non-agriculturist buy agricultural land in Maharashtra?

      Generally not without permission. The Maharashtra Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act, 1948 restricts the transfer of agricultural land to a person who is not an agriculturist, and a transfer made in breach can be challenged. Where land was acquired by a tenant under the tenancy legislation, a further restriction on transfer attaches and a separate permission is required. Both need to be checked before the structure is fixed, not after.

      What is the difference between a lease and a leave-and-licence agreement?

      Exclusive possession. If the occupier has exclusive possession of the premises, the document is a lease in substance whatever it is called, and the lease consequences follow — different stamp duty, compulsory registration above the statutory term, and tenancy protection. Calling a document a licence does not make it one.

      When must a development agreement be registered?

      A development agreement is compulsorily registrable and, in Maharashtra, is commonly charged at conveyance rates. Under the Registration Act, 1908 it must be presented for registration within four months of execution, extendable on payment of a fine. An unregistered instrument that ought to have been registered cannot be received in evidence of the transaction it records — which is exactly when the client needs it.

      Written for the State of Maharashtra and current as at August 2026. Stamp rates, reckoner values and circulars change; nothing here is a substitute for a Partner's opinion on your facts.