Karnataka govt okays Aadhaar use for land, property deals

The state government has allowed the use of Aadhaar to authenticate the genuineness of property buyers and sellers, a wide-ranging move that not only promises to detect impersonation during land deals, but also streamlines processes that are otherwise cumbersome.

At present, sub-registrars rely on government-issued identity documents and signatures by witnesses to authenticate property buyers and sellers. This still leads to impersonation during sale of immovable assets.

On May 18, the government issued a notification allowing the Survey Settlement & Land Records (SSLR), Bhoomi and Urban Property Ownership Record (UPOR) wings of the revenue department to seek Aadhar authentication "for the purpose of establishing the identity of citizens for various land and property related transactions".

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The notification was issued after the union government approved the use of Aadhaar authentication for all land or property transactions in April.

"Apart from curbing impersonation, the move will help when there is more than one owner on a survey number," SSLR commissioner C N Sreedhara told DH. "When measurement is on for a survey number with multiple owners, Aadhaar authentication will help us identify and notify the right owner."

Through this, the government is integrating various databases with Aadhaar.

"This will help automatically enter the names of legal heirs in RTC without submitting any application, upon death of the owner," secretary (e-Governance) V Ponnuraj told DH.

"Civil litigations by parties not having direct rights will be eliminated totally as software of courts will get integrated with Bhoomi (land database) and Aadhaar. This will stop anybody else from filing cases," Ponnuraj said, adding Aadhaar can cut land-related litigations by 40-50 per cent.

The use of Aadhaar will also prepare ground for registering properties without visiting sub-registrar offices, Ponnuraj said. For farmers, he said, Aadhaar authentication will help them obtain crop loans from banks in 15 minutes and settle insurance claims without visiting any office. "Fertilizer subsidy can be directly credited to farmers' bank accounts or e-vouchers can be given," he added.

Karnataka has 6.82 crore Aadhaar numbers.

"Anybody can print an Aadhaar. But verification is done only when Aadhaar number is keyed in and fingerprint or iris scan returns as yes. That's when identity of a person is verified. Identity crisis can be resolved only with Aadhaar," a senior official from the department of stamps and registration said.