Land registration trips on strict rules, revenue dips
NEW REPORT High court has directed officials to verify land and property documents before registration; number of registrations declines
JAMSHEDPUR: The Jharkhand registry department recorded a steep drop in revenue following a recent directive of the high court’s to verify land and property documents before registration, a report has revealed.
According to the latest report compiled by the Jharkhand Automated Registration System (JARS), the state has recorded more than 60% of drop in the number of registered deeds while the revenue have dropped by 21.50% during the past three months in comparison to the corresponding period in 2014.
Only 8, 611 deeds were registered in the last three month compared to the corresponding period in 2014, when more than 21,220 deeds were recorded, the report revealed.
The revenue during the corresponding period dropped from Rs 60.03 crore to Rs. 47.12, a loss of Rs. 12.91 crore, the report said.
However, the drop in revenue was comparatively less as the value of land and assets rose by 10-15% in the wake of the new land value index coming into effect from August this year, it said.
The high court bench of justice S Chandrashekhar had ruled that deeds for land and assets against public interest be denied henceforth under section 22 (A) of the Registration Act-1908.
Following the High Court’s order on May 19, the registry department had on September 5 directed all the deputy commissioners, sub-registrars deputy commissioners and district subregistrars to check the tile of the land or property before registering any deed.
They were also asked to check survey map, khatiyan (records of right), mutation papers, Chotanagpur and Santhal Paragana Tenancy Acts, apart from records of government land, Majrua and Gair-Majurua land.
Copy of the HC order was sent to the district officials along with the directive.
According to the JARS report, the worst hit districts were Hazaribag, Palamu and Giridih.
Hazaribag saw the number of registered deeds falling to 138 from 1,773 with the revenue dropping to Rs 68.42 lakh from Rs 3.44 crore.
Jamshedpur, however, emerged relatively unscathed with deeds dropping to 604 from 869 and revenue dropping to Rs 7.20 crore from Rs 7.88 crore for corresponding periods in 2014 and 2015.
In Dhanbad, the number of registered deeds dropped to 828 from 1377 and revenue dropped to Rs 3.96 crore from Rs 4.83 crore .