Legal Manager

Legal Manager – Land & Title | 5–9 Years

MSR Infraa | Bengaluru

We are looking for a Legal Manager – Land & Title who can independently examine incoming land opportunities, build the title file, identify deal-breakers and give the Managing Director a clear YES / NO / CONDITIONAL recommendation — quickly and with evidence.

This is not a conventional documentation or contract-management role.

You will sit close to the land acquisition and development decision-making process, with direct responsibility for Karnataka land due diligence.

What You Will Own

1. First-Hand Land Due Diligence

Every incoming land parcel, JDA proposal or outright purchase comes to you first.

You will:

• Review title and revenue documents.
• Trace the revenue and ownership chain.
• Identify legal and documentary gaps.
• Flag deal-breakers and potential risks.
• Prepare a clear internal title opinion note.
• Give the MD a practical YES / NO / CONDITIONAL recommendation.

Target turnaround: 7–10 working days per parcel.

External senior counsel steps in after your internal file is substantially clean.

2. Build the Complete Title File

You should know exactly what to collect, where to obtain it and in what sequence.

Your work will include:

• Pahani / RTC extracts
• Mutation Register (MR)
• Akarband
• 11E Sketch
• Section 4(1) Tippani
• Index of Lands
• 10(1) Extract
• 30-year Encumbrance Certificates
• Mother deed tracing
• Survey records
• Conversion orders
• Revenue and registration records

You will own the collection, sequencing, indexing and completeness of the land title file.

3. Construct the Mother Deed Chain

You should be comfortable going deep into the ownership history of a property.

Trace and analyse:

Sale Deeds → Gift Deeds → Partition Deeds → Family Arrangements → Inheritance → Court Orders / Decrees → Current Ownership

Your job is to identify:

• Breaks in the title chain
• Unregistered transfers
• Missing documents
• Inconsistent ownership records
• Unexplained gaps
• Potentially defective transactions

A clean title chain should be understandable on one table — not buried across 200 pages of documents.

4. Karnataka Land Law – This Is Critical

You should be able to independently identify Karnataka-specific risks involving:

• PTCL Act
• Inam Abolition history
• Karnataka Land Reforms Act – Sections 79A / 79B
• Section 63 and conversion status
• Old tenancy entries in Pahani
• Land ceiling
• Gramathana vs. revenue land
• BBMP / BDA / BMRDA jurisdiction
• Mutation and survey issues
• Phodi / re-survey matters

You should see the trap before the transaction gets into it.

5. Revenue & Registry Liaison

This is a hands-on role.

You should have direct experience working with:

• Tahsildar Office
• Sub-Registrar Office
• Survey Department
• Assistant Commissioner
• Deputy Commissioner Office

You should understand which authority issues which document, what the practical turnaround is, and how to move a stuck file forward.

We are looking for someone who has personally handled these processes, not someone who has only instructed junior staff to do them.

6. Existing Project Title Files

You will maintain and close documentation gaps for our ongoing projects and upcoming projects.

When a bank, buyer, auditor or internal team asks for a document, you should be able to retrieve it quickly.

Our expectation: any critical title document should be retrievable within 24 hours.

7. Buyer Documentation

Approximately 30% of your role will involve project-level legal documentation, including:

• Agreements of Sale
• Construction Agreements
• Sale Deeds
• Tripartite Agreements with home-loan banks
• NOCs
• Cancellations
• Nomination changes

8. K-RERA Execution

You will support the execution and ongoing compliance process, including:

• Quarterly filings
• Amendment tracking
• Agent registrations
• Documentation and records

Major drafting and registrations will continue to be supported by external counsel.

What You Will NOT Own

We have deliberately defined this role.

You will not be responsible for:

• ❌ Issuing formal bank title opinions — external senior counsel will do this.
• ❌ Drafting major K-RERA registration applications — external counsel handles this.
• ❌ Leading complex land litigation — external counsel leads; you manage facts and timelines.
• ❌ Tax, GST, stamp duty strategy — handled by our CA firm.
• ❌ Chasing building plan approvals — handled by the approvals consultant.

Your job is to make the land transaction legally clear enough for the business to make an informed decision.

Must-Have Experience

Qualification

• LLB from a recognised Indian university.
• Bar Council enrolment is preferred, but not mandatory.

Experience

• 5–9 years PQE.
• Minimum 4 years of hands-on Karnataka land due diligence.
• Experience in one or more of the following environments:
• Bengaluru real estate developer's land/legal team
• Property law firm handling title opinions
• Bank-panel title-search practice with developer clients

Technical Knowledge

You should be able to independently read and interpret:

• Pahani / RTC
• Mutation Register
• Akarband
• 11E Sketch
• Section 4(1) Tippani
• Phodi / Podi records
• Revenue records

You should have working knowledge of:

• Karnataka Land Revenue Act
• Karnataka Land Reforms Act
• Sections 79A / 79B
• Section 63
• PTCL Act
• Inam Abolition Acts
• Karnataka Stamp Act
• Registration Act

One Non-Negotiable

Kannada reading is required.

Original Karnataka revenue records are frequently in Kannada. We need someone who can read and interpret them directly without depending on a translator for routine diligence.

We Would Particularly Value

• Experience drafting and negotiating Joint Development Agreements (JDAs).
• Experience with Gramathana / revenue-site / conversion disputes.
• Record-of-rights rectification and mutation corrections.
• Phodi / re-survey issues.
• Land aggregation involving 4–6+ acres and multiple landowners.
• Experience with land in Bengaluru's growth corridors and peripheral zones such as Jakkur, Thanisandra, Yelahanka, Hennur, Doddaballapur Road, Sarjapur and Whitefield periphery.

What Success Looks Like

Within your first year, we want to see a land legal function where:

Every incoming parcel is screened systematically.

Deal-breakers are identified early.

Title files are complete and structured.

The MD gets a clear commercial legal view — not a 100-page document dump.

External counsel spends time validating and resolving the important issues, rather than discovering basic gaps.

Land acquisition decisions become faster, better documented and significantly more predictable.

If You Can Look at a Land File and Tell Us What Can Kill the Deal — We Want to Meet You.

Role: Legal Manager – Land & Title

Experience: 5–9 Years

Location: Bengaluru

Industry: Real Estate / Land Acquisition

Focus: Karnataka Land Due Diligence & Title

Apply with your CV and a brief note highlighting your experience in Karnataka land title diligence.

Shortlisted candidates may be asked to share a sanitised sample of an internal title opinion note.