Challenges in digitization of land records

  • In India, we have a system of registered sale deeds and not land titles.
  • The Transfer of Property Act, 1882, provides that the right to an immovable property (or land) can be transferred or sold only by a registered document.
  • These documents are registered under the Registration Act, 1908. Therefore, the transaction gets registered, and not the land title.
  • This implies that even bona fide property transactions may not always guarantee ownership, as earlier transactions could be challenged.
  • Land ownership is established through multiple documents maintained by different departments, making it cumbersome to access them
  • For example, sale deeds are stored in the registration department, maps are stored in the survey department, and property tax receipts are with the revenue department
  • These departments work in silos and do not update the data in a timely manner, which results in discrepancies. One has to go back to several years of documentation to find any ownership claims on a piece of property, which causes delays.
  • The cost of registering property is high and, hence, people avoid registering transactions
  • While registering a sale deed, the buyer has to pay a stamp duty along with the registration fee.
  • In India, stamp duty rates across states vary between 4% and 10%, compared to 1% and 4% in other countries. The registration fee is an additional 0.5% to 2%, on an average.
  • Under the Registration Act, 1908, registration of property is not mandatory for transactions such as the acquisition of land by the government, property leased for less than one year, and heirship partitions