Will replace the present system of ‘paper or hand-written khata’ with electronic documents

Bengaluru: Aiming to prevent illegal registration of properties in urban areas in the State, the Karnataka Assembly on Wednesday passed the Registration (Karnataka Amendment) Bill which will replace the present system of ‘paper or handwritten khata’ with electronic documents.

Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said the legislation also aims to simplify the registration of documents such as mortgage deeds and pledge deeds without the physical presence of both parties at Sub-Registrar offices.

As per the amendment, the Kaveri 2.0 software will automatically check the database of City Corporations and Municipal Corporations and access the Khata information and registrations will be cleared only for those Khatas that have been registered. There will be no place for paper khata.

e-registration and remote registration

“Presenting documents electronically will first be tried with scheduled and nationalised banks besides with State Government agencies and public sector undertakings to enable e-registration and remote registration of some compulsory registrable documents without the physical presence of either party in the Sub-Registrar’s Offices,” he explained.

Henceforth, e-Aasthi registration would be mandatory and the department was also planning to do away with the option of “Other” in the property registration software in order to prevent misuse, the Minister said.

Whether paper khata is issued from agencies like Bengaluru Development Authority, Karnataka Housing Board, Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board or any such agencies, they will not be accepted to register the properties across urban areas in the State, as per the amendment.

The initiative will prevent property fraud and save buyers from swindlers who try to sell a piece of land or property several times. The new e-Aasthi software is expected to prevent real estate fraud and property disputes to a great extent and improve management of property records.

“Under this system, impersonation during registration is not possible as the digital khata certificate will have 47 types of information, including photo of the property owner. The documents will be digitally signed, barcoded and uploaded onto DigiLocker.

Scanning of deeds

Frauds, disputes and litigations have always been a pain for land owners. Many land records date back to the colonial era and the ambiguity over ownership often helps criminals shortchange the system. Having a streamlined land record management system can help tackle a whole host of scams. Effective prevention of encroachment of Government property, tracking of tax defaulters and easing pressure on courts are the cherries on the cake.

The State Government has also taken up the scanning of deeds as old as 100 years in a war-footing and planned to accomplish the project in a year. Once all old deeds are converted into electronic format, the State government will completely stop accepting any paper document.

In a related development, the Assembly also passed the Karnataka Stamp (Amendment) Bill, which prohibits the Stamps and Registration Department from collecting stamp duty charges through demand draft or pay order to prevent pilferage of collection. The State Government will now permit the Department to collect the stamp duty through UPI payment system.