Two recent circulars of the revenue department have dragged down registration of property sale deeds at the three sub-registrar offices in the city. Registration figures fell by 30% at the sub-registrar offices at Polytechnic campus, Vadaj and Nikol, senior revenue officials said.
The first circular warned revenue officials of disciplinary action if they register sale deeds first and keep them “pending'' for the documents required to execute the deed. The second circular which made it mandatory for citizens to submit non-agricultural (NA) permission with the layout plan, municipal building use (BU) permission for the property and the 7/12 8A entry form, providing the history of ownership of the land or property.
On average, some 2,200 sale deeds are registered every day in the city, which has come down to around 1,600, say district collectorate officials. Three of the city's busiest sub registrar offices at the Polytechnic college campus, Vadaj and Nikol, have witnessed a significant drop in registrations. At these offices, a 100 sale deeds would be registered every day.
The daily number is now about 70 for the past few weeks. There are 14 sub-registrar offices in the city, 12 deal with property, two deal exclusively with agricultural land. “Citizens have begun to argue with us at sub-registrar offices on why we have begun demanding NA and layout plans. About 40% of stamp duty revenue for the state government comes from Ahmedabad city alone. “In each of the sub-registrar offices, two or three posts are vacant, which also adds a lot of pressure,” said a senior collectorate official.
The superintendent of stamps, via the June 28 circular, even said that action be taken against officials who not comply with the ‘no pending’ documents order in accordance with the Registration Act 1908, the Rules of Registration 1970, the Stamp Act 1958, and the Rules for Fixing the Market Price, 1984.
According to the circular no sale deed registration will be carried out unless details such as the layout plan, BU permissions or order of non-agriculture (NA) of land, are submitted. Most of these details are being sought under Form 1 at sub-registrar offices.
