As the government prepares to introduce the Land Registration Bill in the forthcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament, experts are offering mixed opinions on its potential effectiveness.
The Ministry of Rural Development has released a draft of “The Registration Bill” for public comment, aiming to replace the pre-Constitution Registration Act of 1908 with a modern, online, paperless, and citizen-centric system.
The draft proposes five key features: facilitating online registration, expanding the scope of compulsory registration, reinforcing legal and procedural rigor, institutional strengthening and governance reforms, and accessible and citizen-centric processes.
Digitisation and Centralisation
Vivek K Chandy, Joint Managing Partner, JSA Advocates and Solicitors, noted that apart from digitising the registration process to improve accessibility and transparency, the Registration Bill 2025 appears to address strategic and regulatory challenges. He explained that identification and acquisition of properties for government and private projects will become more efficient with updated and digitised property records being more easily available. The bill will also promote centralisation of land records and reduce States’ monopoly over property record management.
“A digitalised and tamper-proof registration system could reduce litigation significantly as many disputes in India are connected with unclear titles,” he said.
Execution Challenges
Sonam Chandwani, Managing Partner at KS Legal & Associates, acknowledges that the draft is leap towards modernising India’s archaic land registration framework. However, she says that it’s a reform “teetering on the edge of great promise and potential pitfalls”.
Chandwani sees the shift to a digital, paperless system with Aadhaar-enabled verification and expanded compulsory registration as is a visionary move to curb the rampant fraud that has plagued property transactions for decades. She says it is attempt to empower citizens with transparency and streamline economic activities like mortgages and real estate, which could inject vitality into a sluggish sector.
the Conversely, Chandwani warns that “the devil lies in its execution”. Without foolproof cybersecurity and rigorous training for registering officers, this could devolve into a bureaucratic nightmare, leaving vulnerable citizens exposed to data leaks or exploitation by tech-savvy fraudsters. The government’s intent to centralise records might also raise eyebrows among privacy advocates, and I’d argue it’s a double-edged sword that needs judicial oversight to prevent it from morphing into a surveillance tool,” she said.
Another important aspect of the Bill is its potential to curb benami transactions.
Chandy said: “The Bill can be an initiative in curbing benami and black money transactions. By mandating digital records and linking Aadhaar and PAN, the Registration Bill 2025 makes it harder to conceal ownership or utilise unaccounted funds in property transactions.”
However, Chandwani is not so optimistic. She feels that the Bill’s alignment with anti-benami efforts is intriguing but incomplete, reflecting a half-hearted stab at tackling illicit property holdings. The enhanced documentation requirements and digital audit trails could, in theory, arm agencies like the Income Tax Department with the tools to sniff out benami transactions, but the absence of explicit provisions targeting such practices leaves a gaping hole.
“As a legal observer, I’d say this is a missed opportunity to fortify the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act imagine the impact if the Bill mandated cross-verification with financial records,” she said.