Someone Has Encroached on Your Land: Legal Steps, Timelines and Costs

If someone has encroached on your land, act fast and in order: get an official demarcation, file a police complaint for criminal trespass under section 329 of the BNS, and, if you were pushed out, sue under section 6 of the Specific Relief Act within six months. After that you still have 12 years to sue on title. Waiting is what turns a trespass into an adverse-possession claim.

Key takeaways

• Evidence comes first. A revenue demarcation report showing where your boundary lies is the document police, magistrates and civil courts all ask for.
• Criminal trespass under BNS section 329 (formerly IPC sections 441 and 447) carries up to three months' jail or a Rs 5,000 fine, or both; house-trespass up to one year.
• A section 6 suit restores possession on proof of prior possession alone, but only within six months of dispossession, and there is no appeal from it.
• Beyond six months, a suit on title under section 5 of the Specific Relief Act has a 12-year limit under the Limitation Act.
• If the encroacher is a government body, the Supreme Court held in Vidya Devi (2020) that the state cannot claim your land by adverse possession.

First, prove where your boundary is

Most encroachment fights are not about who owns the land but about where one person's land ends. A neighbour who has pushed a wall two metres onto your plot will say the wall is on their side. Before you go to the police or a lawyer, get the land measured officially by the revenue or survey department, with notice to the neighbour. The process, fees and timelines are in how land demarcation works.

Alongside the report, assemble a file: your registered deed and the chain behind it, the mutation in your name, the latest jamabandi, 7/12 or equivalent record, property-tax receipts, and dated photographs and video of the encroachment as it happened. Remember that registration alone does not settle title (see why registration does not prove ownership), so the full chain matters.

The police complaint

Criminal trespass is entering property in someone else's possession, or remaining there after a lawful entry, with intent to commit an offence or to intimidate, insult or annoy the person in possession. Since 1 July 2024 it is section 329 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which replaced IPC sections 441, 442, 447 and 448.

File a written complaint at the local police station and keep the receiving copy. Police often call land cases "civil disputes" and decline to act. If they refuse to register an FIR for a cognizable offence, you can go to the Superintendent of Police and then apply to the magistrate under section 175(3) of the BNSS (formerly CrPC 156(3)), with an affidavit, asking for an investigation to be ordered. The magistrate now has to consider the police's reasons for refusing before ordering one.

The punishment is light and the offence bailable. The complaint's real value is a dated record that you objected, which matters if the encroacher later claims long, peaceful possession.

The executive magistrate's route

Where a land dispute is likely to cause a breach of the peace, section 164 of the BNSS (old CrPC 145) lets the executive magistrate call both sides, take written statements on who is in actual possession, and pass an order protecting that possession until a civil court decides the rights. It is quick relief on present possession, not a decision on title, so it helps most while you are still on the land.

Civil remedies: which suit, and when

Section 6: the six-month fast track

If you have been dispossessed without your consent and otherwise than in due course of law, section 6 of the Specific Relief Act lets you recover possession just by proving you were in possession and were wrongly thrown out. Title is irrelevant: the encroacher cannot defend by claiming a better title. The catch is the deadline: the suit must be filed within six months of dispossession. No appeal lies from the decree and no review is allowed, which makes it fast, but the loser can still bring a separate suit on title.

Section 5: the suit on title

Past six months, you sue for possession on the strength of your title under section 5, and you must prove ownership. The Limitation Act gives you 12 years: Article 64 for a suit based on previous possession (12 years from dispossession) and Article 65 for a suit based on title (12 years from when the defendant's possession became adverse to you). In a title suit, once you prove title, the burden shifts to the defendant to prove adverse possession.

Injunctions

With either suit, apply for a temporary injunction under Order 39 Rules 1 and 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure to stop further construction or a sale while the case runs. The court looks for a prima facie case, irreparable injury and the balance of convenience, the three tests the Supreme Court set out in Dalpat Kumar v Prahlad Singh (1992). Where a structure is already up, you ask for a mandatory injunction ordering its removal. Courts can also appoint a local commissioner under Order 26 Rule 9 to measure the land jointly.

A worked example: the timeline and the stakes

Suppose your neighbour moves a wall 5 feet into your 60-foot-deep plot on 10 January 2026. The encroached strip is 5 x 60 = 300 sq ft, or about 33.3 sq yards. Assume land in the area trades at Rs 60,000 a sq yard (an illustration, not a quoted rate): the strip is worth about Rs 20 lakh.

• By 10 July 2026 you can file a section 6 suit on possession alone. File by then and you avoid having to prove title.
• From 11 July 2026 you need a section 5 suit on title, which is slower and needs your full chain of documents.
• If you did nothing, the neighbour could start to claim adverse possession once 12 years of open, continuous and hostile possession run, that is, around January 2038. The law on that claim is in adverse possession law in India.

Every police complaint, legal notice and suit you file breaks the "peaceful" and "uncontested" story the encroacher would need.

Absentee and NRI owners

Encroachment falls hardest on owners who are not around. Keep the land fenced and visibly used, pay property tax in your name, and ask someone local to photograph it every few months. If you live abroad, appoint a trusted person under a specific power of attorney to file complaints and suits for you; see power of attorney for NRIs. Some states have dedicated channels. Punjab Police runs an NRI Affairs Wing headed by an ADGP-rank officer with NRI police stations, and has said around 60% of NRI complaints it receives concern property; Punjab also has a State NRI Commission that hears NRI complaints.

When the encroacher is a government body

Local bodies and departments sometimes build roads or drains over private land without acquiring it. In Vidya Devi v State of Himachal Pradesh, decided on 8 January 2020, the state had taken a widow's land for a road around 1967-68 without acquisition. The Supreme Court held the state cannot perfect title by adverse possession against its own citizen, and that forcible dispossession without due process violates Article 300A. The remedy is usually a writ petition in the High Court seeking acquisition and compensation.

Where this gets hard

Civil suits in India take years, and a section 5 title suit through appeals can outlast the patience of most owners. Encroachment on land in a lal dora area or an unrecorded village abadi is harder to prove because there may be no individual record to measure against; see lal dora property in Delhi. Criminal complaints can be turned around: the other side may file a counter-complaint, and courts quash FIRs that dress a civil boundary dispute up as crime. And if you are buying, not defending, check for existing boundary litigation first with how to check court cases on a property. A plot with a live encroachment dispute is not a bargain.

Frequently asked questions

Can the police remove an encroacher from my land?

Not by themselves in most cases. The police can register an FIR for criminal trespass under BNS section 329 and investigate, but removing a structure or restoring possession usually needs an order from a civil court or, where there is a risk to peace, from the executive magistrate under BNSS section 164. The complaint still matters as dated evidence that you objected.

How long do I have to take action against encroachment?

Six months from dispossession for a quick section 6 suit under the Specific Relief Act, where you only prove prior possession. After that, 12 years under Articles 64 and 65 of the Limitation Act for a suit based on possession or title. Do not rely on the outer limit: the longer you wait, the stronger an encroacher's story becomes.

What evidence do I need to prove encroachment?

An official demarcation report is the core, backed by your registered deed and chain of title, the mutation and current land record in your name, property-tax receipts, and dated photographs or video. Witness statements from neighbours help. In court, you can also ask for a local commissioner to measure the land jointly under Order 26 Rule 9 of the CPC.

Can I demolish an encroacher's wall myself?

It is risky and usually a mistake. Self-help can lead to a criminal complaint against you for mischief or trespass, and it hands the other side a grievance. If you are still in possession and the construction is fresh, the safer route is a police complaint and an urgent injunction application in the civil court, which courts can take up urgently.

What if a municipality or state department has built on my land?

You can seek compensation or acquisition through a writ petition in the High Court. In Vidya Devi (2020), the Supreme Court held that the state cannot claim private land by adverse possession and that taking property without due process violates Article 300A. Collect proof of title and the date the work began before you file.

If you own land you cannot watch closely, or are checking a plot for boundary trouble before buying, the Realty Hunting team is happy to help you think it through.