Digitization and Reformation of Land Records

 Introduction :- 

The Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme (DILRMP)—the erstwhile National Land Records Modernisation Programme—seeks to improve the quality of land records in the country, make them more accessible, and move towards government-guaranteed titles.

A land title is a document that helps determine land ownership. This will be achieved through complete computerization of the property registration process and digitization of all land records. The scheme completed a decade in operation in August this year.

The DILRMP is being implemented across all states with differential progress. As of August, while two states (Karnataka and Odisha) and three Union territories have completed 100% computerization of land records, four states are yet to start the process. The remaining states have computerized between 80-90% of the records. Nineteen states/Union territories have started issuing digitally-signed record of rights (RoRs), a record that shows how rights on land are derived for the land owner, and records the property’s transactions from time to time.

These states have also started linking RoRs to cadastral maps (a record of the area, ownership and value of land). Out of these, three states (Goa, Odisha and Tripura) have almost completed this process.

Impact of poor land records:-

• Nearly two-thirds of all pending cases in Indian courts are related to property disputes.NITI Aayog has said that such property cases take an average of 20 years to settle.The result is that millions of Indians cannot use their principal asset as collateral to borrow from the formal financial system. The poor suffer the most.A large proportion of government land lies unused.
• A large part of the unused land is high-value property in prime areas in major citiesLand hoarding by government agencies has created artificial scarcity and is one of the main drivers of skyrocketing urban real estate prices.
• 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 departmentThese 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.

Land Ownership and Reformations :- 

While the scheme so far has looked at the digitization of land records, it has not addressed issues around land ownership. It is well known that land records in India are unclear and do not guarantee ownership. Such unclear land titles are there because of a variety of reasons, some of which are discussed below.

• First, 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.
• Second, 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. Further, 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.
• Third, 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. Further, registration fee is an additional 0.5% to 2%, on an average.
• Fourth, under the Registration Act, 1908, registration of property is not mandatory for transactions such as acquisition of land by the government, property leased for less than one year, and heirship partitions. Thus, several property divisions are not recorded and, hence, do not correctly reflect the ownership of the property. This often leads to litigation related to rightful ownership.

Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme (DILRMP):- The main aims of DILRMP are to usher in a system of updated land records, automated and automatic mutation, integration between textual and spatial records, inter-connectivity between revenue and registration, to replace the present deeds registration and presumptive title system with that of conclusive titling with title guarantee. The DILRMP has 3 major components :- Computerization of land record ,Survey/re-survey and  Computerization of Registration.

The citizen is expected to benefit from DILRMP in one or more of the following ways:

• Real-time land ownership records will be available to the citizen.
• Since the records will be placed on the websites with proper security IDs, property owners will have free access to their records without any compromise in regard to confidentiality of the information.
• Free accessibility to the records will reduce interface between the citizen and the Government functionaries, thereby reducing rent seeking and harassment..
• Public-private partnership (PPP) mode of service delivery will further reduce citizen interface with Govt. machinery, while adding to the convenience.
• Abolition of stamp papers and payment of stamp duty and registration fees through banks, etc. will also reduce interface with the Registration machinery.
• With the use of IT inter linkages; the time for obtaining RoRs, etc. will be drastically reduced.
• The single-window service or the web-enabled “anytime-anywhere” access will save the citizen time and effort in obtaining RoRs, etc.
• Automatic and automated mutations will significantly reduce the scope of fraudulent property deals.
• Conclusive titling will also significantly reduce litigation.
• These records will be tamper-proof.
• This method will permit e-linkages to credit facilities.
• Market value information will be available on the website to the citizen.
• Certificates based on land data (e.g., domicile, caste, income, etc.) will be available to the citizen through computers.
• Information on eligibility for Government programs will be available, based on the data.
• Issuance of land passbooks with relevant information will be facilitated.

By: Shashank Shekhar