Assembly adopts Bill that provides for registration of properties without visiting sub-registrar’s office

Soon, people will be able to register their property without visiting the sub-registrar’s office if it is bought from statutory authorities such as the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA). The Legislative Assembly on Wednesday adopted the Registration (Karnataka Amendment) Bill, 2024, which provides for ushering in reforms in the registration process to make it people-friendly, reduce corruption and curb the menace of registration of unauthorised revenue layouts.

Soon, people will be able to register their property without visiting the sub-registrar’s office if it is bought from statutory authorities such as the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA). The Legislative Assembly on Wednesday adopted the Registration (Karnataka Amendment) Bill, 2024, which provides for ushering in reforms in the registration process to make it people-friendly, reduce corruption and curb the menace of registration of unauthorised revenue layouts.

If this process of anytime-anywhere registration system works well, the government will think of bringing the RERA-approved projects under such a facility with some checks and balances, explained Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda, who piloted the Bill.

He explained that the Bill provides for the registration of properties and documents without coming to the sub-registrar’s offices in cases where the developer is a government-controlled body like the BDA, Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA), Karnataka Housing Board (KHB), and Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB).

Similarly, the registration of mortgage deeds and title deeds too can be done without visiting the sub-registrar’s offices if the property is being pledged with any nationalised bank.

The Minister said the main intention of the Bill was to prevent the number of footfall at these offices, which are crowded, by providing an alternative and transparent avenue.

Pointing out that though the government had earlier ordered an inquiry into fraud and financial losses to the tune of ₹400 crore for the government through registration of revenue layouts through fake khatas in Bengaluru, he said it was not possible to act against sub-registrars then due to the loopholes in the law. Hence, an appropriate amendment had now been made to make it mandatory to obtain an electronic khata, which is validated through the Kaveri software of the Stamps and Registration Department, for registration of properties, Mr. Gowda noted.

The Assembly also adopted the Karnataka Stamp (Amendment) Bill, which seeks to prohibit collection of stamp duty through demand draft and pay order by the Inspector-General of Stamps and Registration and their sub-ordinate offices and thereby prevent leakage of revenue.