Cadastral surveys in Andhra Pradesh adhere to specific guidelines and principles crucial for land delineation and ownership. Understanding these principles is essential for accurate land administration and maintenance.

1. Survey should be done from whole to part. Outer boundaries should be fixed first or control points should be surveyed with great precision.
2. Survey should be done as per rules for formation of survey numbers given in the Survey Manual in the case of initial survey or resurvey and as per FMB in the course of maintenance. Subdivision survey should be done as per possession/ occupation/enjoyment with due regard to description of boundaries mentioned in the document. Enjoyment in government lands and poramboke lands should be marked as encroachment. Old village boundaries should be followed.
3. No survey shall be conducted without planting stones as per Rules issued under the S&B Act.
4. No survey shall be conducted without giving adequate notice to all the affected parties.
5. No survey record shall be finalised without calling for objections and disposing of objections received, if any, by conducting a summary enquiry and passing a speaking order.
6. Survey officer cannot decide title. Nor can he decide the right of way or any other easement right. There is no provision in the S & B Act for conducting enquiry into rights over land. Operations performed under the Settlement Manual and Final Check Operations are not statutory in character.
7. Survey officer cannot dispossess anybody. Nor can he induct anybody into possession. Survey is an innocuous fact-finding exercise.
8. Boundary prevails over extent.
9. Extent calculated after survey prevails over extent mentioned in documents and Revenue records (vide Rule 14 of RoR Rules) subject to provisions in BSO relating to rateable adjustment of areas and area errata.
10. Statutory records such as RoR have greater sanctity than non- statutory records such as RSR or town survey register.
11. Older records have greater sanctity than non-statutory records prepared subsequently. RSR and SFA have greater sanctity than any other subsequent non-statutory records.
12. Copies of survey reports, records, sketches shall not be denied to any affected party.
13. No Revenue officer shall pass an order in respect of any land for which there is no sketch before him. If the order is proposed to be passed in respect of part of an entire survey field or part of a subdivision, survey should invariably be done.
14. Entries in Revenue records prove presumptive title or provisional title only. They are not conclusive proof of title.
15. Nobody including the courts has the power to decide absolute title. Even the decrees of the courts are binding only on the parties to the court proceedings.
16. Registration transfers rights only if the vendor is the real owner.
17. In case of accretions to Lanka lands, rights accrue to the original owner only if such accretion occurs gradually. If the accretion is sudden, the added land belongs to the Government.
18. Lands for which there are no claimants belong to Govt under AP Escheats and Bona Vacantia Act, 1974.
19. All lands except lands held under ryotwari tenure (patta land) and certain other categories of land mentioned in AP Land Encroachment Act belong to the Government.
20. Survey can be done as per map plotted to scale if no measurement data is available.
21. Legal formalities under S&B Act need not be observed during maintenance except in the cases of stone renewal, LA and block splitting.
22. Survey officer should not do any survey except under the order of the competent Revenue officer or court.
23. Counting the number of trees or determination of the age/girth of the trees in LA is not the duty of the surveyor.

Understanding these principles is pivotal for surveyors, land administrators, and individuals involved in land transactions. These guidelines establish a framework ensuring fairness and accuracy in cadastral surveys across Andhra Pradesh.