8.2.19

Somewhere in Maharashtra....

From next month, home buyers in Maharashtra will be able to register their properties on the basis of Aadhaar cards and will not have to think about getting two witnesses for the process. An amended Section 32A of the Registration Act, 1908, has enabled the new system.

“The Aadhaar verification will fulfil the requirements of Section 32A of the Registration Act, 1908, which relates to compulsory affixing of photograph,” an official said.

Though the necessary amendment was made to the Registration Act in 2018 and approval gained from the state cabinet, the mechanism could not be implemented immediately because of the Supreme Court verdict on Aadhaar.

Officials said the department had followed the directives of the Unique Identification Authority of India after the SC order and would roll out the new process next month.

A “registered device” may be used for new property registrations without witnesses from March 1, said officials on Thursday.

“Citizens need not tag along two witnesses at the time of new property registrations as Aadhaar credentials for property deals will be enough,’’ said deputy inspector general of registrations Supriya Karmarkar.

She said the reliability of the witnesses was always a question and a large segment of the population had Aadhaar cards.

The notification introducing Aadhaar aims at ending benami and fraudulent transactions. It would be a step closer to a fully online registration system and help speed up the process all over the state, where over 7,000 documents are registered daily and about 23 lakh a year.

No comments: