Par panel clears bill that seeks to expedite land registration

Advocating caution, a Parliamentary panel has suggested a number of modifications while giving its nod to a bill which aims at making land registration process faster, transparent and accurate by introducing provisions including online registration.
The ninth report of the Standing Committee on Rural Development chaired by P Venugopal, which was presented in Parliament wanted a cautious approach while implemeting the concept of 'anywhere registration in the country' even as it gave its go ahead to the The Registration (Amendment) Bill, 2013.
The bill seeks to amend The Registration Act, 1908, a central law which was enacted to consolidate the laws relating to the registration of documents.

The panel recommended that the existing provision under section 28 of the Act, that provides for registering documents related to land in the office of the local sub registrar should be retained.
The bill seeks to omit the above section of the principal Act.
"The committee's analysis, however reveals that the demographic composition in the country, the status of avalialbility of infrastructure and typical topography of locations throughtout the country clearly indicate that some time is still needed to go into the concept of 'anywhere registration in the country'.

"Because introduction of any new concept without well-preparedness on the ground level will, in all likelihood, create problems to the genuine people on one hand and give rise to fraudulent registration on the other hand," the panel noted.

It said that the committee "strongly recommend" that section 28 need to be retained.
The panel also recommended that states may be persuaded to develop appropriate infrastructure facilities and complete the computerized land record data base with the technological upgradation of all registration offices so that the concept of anywhere registration could be materialised in near future.
Observing that the bill proposes to substitute section 32, whereby a provision is made for presentation of documents by electronic means for registration, the panel noted that the proposed provision would facilitate the increased use of electronic means for registration, which in turn would reduce corruption and ensure transparency in the proceedure.

Striking a note of caution, it however, added, "The Committee, however, observes that the identity and genuineness of the executants in case of electronic registration can be ascertained and proved only through biometric identification and other similar mechanism without which the possibility of fraudulent registrations cannot be ruled out.
"The Committee therefore recommend the Department of Land Resources to impress upon the states to allow electronic registration only when all sub-registrar offices are well-equipped with the facilities of not only on-line registration but also for full-proof identification of genuineness of executants," it said.