Revenue dept begins crackdown on property registration frauds

Those who submit fake documents or indulge in such frauds during property registration will now face criminal action.

Waking up from its slumber, the Department of Stamps and Registration has  started booking criminal cases against those who submit fictitious documents for property registration. So far, authorities have booked 15 cases across the state.

“This is the first time we are booking cases,” Inspector-General of Registration and Commissioner of Stamps Manoj Kumar Meena said. “Under Sections 82 and 83 of the Registration Act, 1908, we have permitted sub-registrars to book cases against parties who submit fake documents,” he said. “We are proactively writing to police superintendents, asking them to take our complaints seriously.”

Of the 15 FIRs, four have been filed in Nelamangala in Bengaluru Rural district with one each in Gundlupet (Chamarajanagar) and Belagavi. The rest are in Bengaluru urban district.

According to Meena, all the FIRs pertain to cases where parties had submitted bogus khatas or had indulged in impersonation. “Bogus khatas get detected when our officials check the authenticity of the document with the concerned agency that has issued it. Impersonation is usually caught at the time of mutation, when change or transfer of ownership title gets entered in records,” he explained.  

At present, citizens can check genuineness of documents such as Forms 9, 11 (for property in gram panchayat limits) on the e-Swathu portal and Records of Rights, Tenancy and Crops (RTC) on the Bhoomi portal. The two portals are linked with the Karnataka Valuation and e-Registration (Kaveri) software of the Department of Stamps and Registration.

There is no mechanism with which citizens can verify a khata in the Bengaluru municipal limits at the click of a button. That is because Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP) database is not linked with Kaveri. In March this year, the civic body announced an e-Khata system with which citizens can get khatas online. “I fully agree that integration of our software with Kaveri will help crack down on bogus khatas. We are in the process of issuing khatas online,” BBMP Commissioner N Manjunath Prasad said.

Another reason frauds take place is due to the presumptive nature of ownership. “We need an urban property ownership records (UPOR) system, in which ownership of a particular property is determined after inviting objections from the public. We should move towards absolute ownership,” Meena said.

Checking fraud

* In a first, sub-registrars empowered to book cases against property registration frauds.

* 15 FIRs registered so far.

* Most cases registered in Bengaluru.