Delhi HC Issues Notice On Plea Seeking E-Registration Of Documents & Digitisation Of Sub-Registrar's Office

The Delhi High Court on Thursday issued notice in a plea seeking establishment of a system for re-registration of all documents in order to dispense with the physical presence of all the parties.

The Division Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan issued notices to the Centre, the Delhi Government, the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, and the Director of Controller of Accounts, Delhi Secretariat.

Moved by Mr DC Tuteja, the petition seeks a direction to be issued to the Respondents to formulate policy and bring in line the e-registration of the documents , which shall avoid the unnecessary rush at the Sub-Regsitrar's office, and ensure the ease of registration of the documentation, the effective manner of registrations and also avoid any red-tapeism or any manner of corruption which may have been existing at the Sub-registrar office.

It is the case of the Petitioner that the COVID19, and the resultant lockdown, has seriously affected the process of registration of documents concerning property, transfer of interests, lease, deeds, etc. which has seriously affected the rights of duties of the citizens.

For instance, the Petitioner submits, the system of electronically calculating the stamp duty before submitting the document to the Sub-Registrar can be made public so that people could be saved from last minute hassles, corruption would be checked, and the instances of wrong calculation of stamp duty would minimize.

The petition states:

'The Physical presence of the parties can always be done virtually by making the Sub-Registrar equipped with the virtual portals which would allow the parties to be virtually present before the Sub-Registrar and save the time, money, energy and also the spread of COVID. The said Practise would also reduce the footfall at the Sub-Registrar's office which can become the breeding ground for spread of COVID-19 or any other such disease in future.'

The submission of secret documents, the Petitioner argues, can still be continued to be done through physical presence.

The Petitioner has further submitted that the Sub-Registrar office also can become a single window transaction issue where the documents can be collected and deposited.

'Documents which are uploaded on the System would itself be proof enough of the execution of the same by the parties and verification of the person executed can be done at the time the parties present themselves virtually before the Sub-Registrar', the Petitioner mentions.

The Petitioner in this case was represented by Mr Gaurav Bahl