The State government has informed the Kerala High Court that e-payment facility will be introduced in all the sub-registrar offices in a month after studying the feasibility of a pilot project launched at the registration office at Sasthamangalam in Thiruvananthapuram.
The government submitted that in the context of demonetisation, it had directed all sub-registrars to accept registration fee by way of demand draft of any nationalised /scheduled bank.
The Registration Department had taken steps to receive registration fee on e-payment. It had launched a pilot project of e-payment facility on January 5, 2017 at the sub-registrar office, Sasthamangalam, with technical support of the National Informatics Centre (NIC). The government said the department needed some more time to introduce the facility in other registration offices.
The government made the submission when a writ petition filed by Veena Raveendran of Kochi seeking a directive to permit payment of registration fee through NEFT/RTGS facility or any mode other than cash payment came up for hearing.
The petitioner had pointed out the difficulties faced by her in registration of documents as the registering authorities were asking her to pay the fee in cash.