Status as on- 10/08/2020

Taking a much awaited step, the government of Haryana is going to bring an ordinance to amend the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act, 1975. Since last month the Haryana government had temporarily stopped the registration of land transfer deeds. This was done after considering the complaints of malpractices due to existing flaws in the procedure for registration of deeds for the transfer of land.

Introduction

The Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act, 1975 was passed to regulate the use of land. This was done in order to prevent ill-planned and haphazard urbanization in or around towns. However several shortcomings were noticed when it came to the execution of the Act. Therefore now, the Haryana government is planning to amend section 7A of the Act which deals with registration of certain documents for sale of land. It has also been amended once in 2017, but considering the persistent complaints of malpractices in the current procedure for registration of the deeds for the transfer of lands. The government is all set to bring an ordinance to amend the same to halt the theft of revenue as well as to protect the interest of buyers and bring transparency in the procedure.

Steps to be taken

The departments concerned with the registry of the land will coordinate among themselves to create an online system so that there is no theft of revenue from the state government and people are not duped. Also, once all the documents are ready as per state regulations, while preparing the system, the registry should not be delayed. The authenticity of the buyer, seller and the witness shall be checked at the time of registry so that no other person than the actual owner of the land can sell it and strict action to be taken against the officers and employees who disregard the rules for the same.

It has earlier been said that the Gurugram divisional commissioner had also been directed to submit a detailed inquiry report regarding the officials who have allegedly changed the entries of land from agricultural to non-agricultural with “malafide intent” so as to facilitate the registration of deeds in violation of the act. As the monsoon session of Vidhan Sabha has been delayed due to the pandemic situation, the government is working to bring an ordinance to tackle this situation promptly.

Conclusion

Therefore, the above-mentioned decision by the Haryana government reflects upon the existing limitations of the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act, 1975. The move is a welcome step towards switching on to an IT based platform and providing ease in doing transactions.  Furthermore, it will curtail fraudulent acts which results in loss of revenue to the state government, by creating more transparency. Moreover, the temporary occlusion of registration is creating troubles for the buyers and sellers.  Therefore the need to bring ordinance becomes more necessary.

Disclaimer – The above articles is based on the personal interpretation of RERA and related laws. The readers are expected to take expert advice before putting reliance on it. For any clarification and issue please reach us at support@centrik.in