Advocate S Selvakumar|Property advocates in Bangalore|Property lawyers in Bangalore
The
Ministry of rural development has proposed that, the registration of realestate leases, even those lasting less than a year is made compulsory to be
registered in an effort to improve transparency and modernise the Land Records
in the country. It also wants to use Aadhar numbers to check the identity of
the people registering the land.
The
proposed amendments to the Registration Act of 1908 have been suggested by the
Ministry’s Department of Land Records (DOLR). They were aimed at plugging
losses to the State Exchequer due to the transfer of land by passing
registration, a common practice across India. The proposed changes made it
compulsory for all manner of agreements relating to land or property to be
registered if they are to be considered as evidence in a Court of Law.
The
proposals, suggested by an Expert panel, are still in a preliminary stage. The
Ministry was unlikely to present the suggestions in the form of amendments to
the 1908 Bill during the monsoon session of Parliament. The Land Survey Records
that are in different parts of the country are still archaic.
“India
is one of the few countries in World, where record of rights on land is
presumptive; it is not conclusive unlike many other countries. They are
presumed to be the Owners of land unless proved otherwise. That is why they
have lots of disputes and lots of problems in land acquisition”.Government was
aggressively moving towards the conclusive title. But, before they do that, they
need to update their Land Records. They need to make them online and they must
ensure that the survey of the Land Record is updated. The attempts are going on
to modernise the Land Records and make them available online to avoid
fraudulent transactions and claims.
The
1908 Registration Act is a “significant piece of procedural legislation”. The
Expert panel noted that Act is rested on three principles: (i) a registered
document always invalidating an unregistered one, (ii) a registered Mortgage Deed
having precedence over an unregistered Mortgage Deed and (iii) the prevention
of commission of fraudulent transactions in the form of sale or gift by
requiring the registration of such transactions. As a result, all manner of
agreements relating to land or property need to be registered if they are to be
considered as evidence in a Court of Law. The Committee noted that the
complexities of land acquisition are among the deterrents to investments in
India, especially in infrastructure. A new Bill to replace the archaic land,
the acquisition Bill is pending in Parliament and is expected to be taken up in
the ongoing monsoon sessions.
The
panel had advocated the redefinition and registration of leases as the
provision had been exploited repeatedly, particularly in land disputes. Autonomy
is given to the State to specify the floor amount for such registration. The
1908 Act does not require leases for a period of less than a year to be
registered.
To
ensure that all registrations are open to scrutiny, the panel has recommended
the amendment of Section 18 of the 1908 Act that will ensure that the registrations
are made open and available to inspection by the Public at all times.
Another
section of the 1908 Act says that the panel has proposed to amend is Section
28, which states that, if a person has immovable properties in more than one State,
they can get the documents related to their transfer registered in any of those
States. Since, there is no provision as yet for active computerisation of Land
Records, the Expert panel suggested that Registration Officers to be empowered
to use the Unique Identification Authority of India’s Aadhar numbers to check
and verify the identity of the persons appearing for the registration of the
property.
The
charges are expected to encourage and facilitate the creation of a database,
with a new provision being made to allow applications online. To ensure gender
equality, the panel has also recommended compulsory registration of adoption of
daughters. So far, under the 1908 Act, only the registration of adopted sons
was required.
The
absence of a Comprehensive Law has allowed many loopholes in land registration
and documentation, which has led to many unrecorded transactions as well as
false claims of possession. While the last land survey in Bihar was held in
1907, in Andhra Pradesh it was in 1931 and in Uttar Pradesh in 1957. The Central
Government has been funding the States for modernisation of Land Records. Under
the Constitution, Land is a State subject. The Centre has launched a land
record modernisation exercise in 267 districts and the process is expected to
be completed by 2017.
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