The Department of Registration has tightened the land registration process by making it compulsory to submit Global Positioning System (GPS) enabled photo document for properties to register land documents.
In order to prevent the registration of fake documents and fraudulent property transactions, the department introduced a new rule mandating the affixation of a scanned copy of the document writer’s or the advocate’s photograph on the last page of the document a few months ago. The document writer and the authorised persons were asked to enter their licence number on the document, thereby certifying that the draft had been duly verified. It was introduced to prevent touts posting as document writers to draft land documents. The move is said to have reduced the registration of fake documents.
In the latest move, the Department of Registration has made it mandatory to submit coloured photos of plots or land parcels through GPS-enabled devices along with other documents for land registration. As per the order, the buyer or seller will have to visit the land concerned to take photo. It will be duly submitted along with other documents for registration.
The new rule will come into force on October 1. To familiarise the process, the Sub Registrars have been asked to insist that the land buyers submit the photo along with documents.
Deputy Inspector of Registration, Tiruchi zone, R. Ramasamy told The Hindu that the new rule would reduce fraudulent registration. Moreover, it would check the registration of documents by forbidding the actual area and location of the lands. The Government value of the lands differed from place to place. While the value of the lands on highways or main roads was high, it was lower if the lands were located in the adjacent areas of highways or arterial roads. There were people, who registered the lands by hiding the high-value locations so as to evade stamp fees. Such wilful stamp-evading transactions would be effectively prevented with the submission of photos of the land through the GPS-enabled device. The officials could ascertain the exact location of the land or plots.
Mr. Ramasamy said the certified document writers had been informed about the new rule. The Sub Registrars had also been instructed to follow the new rule strictly.
