A proposal to modify India’s land registration law
to make for clear titles and help the government to fairly compensate
owners if their land was acquired for industrialization was tabled in
the Rajya Sabha.
The amendments to the Registration Act, 1908,
mainly relate to ensuring transparency and digitization that will help
establish clear land ownership. The Registration (Amendment) Bill, 2013,
was cleared by the cabinet in June.
Land acquisition is a
complex and contentious subject in India due to the lack of
documentation and the absence of contemporary land records. This has
been causing problems for investors trying to buy land for
infrastructure projects.
The proposed amendments include
registration of documents relating to the adoption of a daughter to
ensure gender equity, opening of the miscellaneous register that
contains details of all registered documents to public scrutiny, and
promotion of electronic registration of documents.
“Documents
such as power of attorney, developers/ promoters agreements and any
other agreements relating to the sale or development of immovable
property now need to be mandatorily registered. This is being done with
the intention of minimize cases of document forgery,” the ministry said.
“A new section 18A is proposed to be inserted (into the Act) to
provide for prohibition of registration of certain types of
properties,” it said. This is to prevent unauthorized people from
obtaining false registrations.
In addition, the government has
proposed the deletion of section 28 of the 1908 law, which allows a
person with immovable property in more than one state to register
documents relating to transfer in any of these states.
Many of
the changes proposed will also help in the award of compensation to land
owners under the proposed Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency
in Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill, 2012, which
is pending before Parliament.
(Source: Mint Newspaper dated 09-08-2013)
