Registration Bill 2025: Breaking Colonial Legacy, Embracing Digital Governance;

As India marches toward its 100^th year of independence in the year 2047, we have seen in the recent past that India is making attempts to shed off its colonial legacy. Be it replacing the Macaulay’s Indian Penal Code, 1860 and Sir James Fitzjames Stephen’s Indian Evidence Act, 1872 with Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam respectively; or highlighting our countries ancient name “Bharat” along with modern name i.e. “India” in the G20 Summit held in New Delhi in September 2023; or moving into the new “Sansad Bhawan” from the Parliament building of the British era.  

In furtherance to ditching of its colonial heritage, India have made tremendous development in the infrastructure space post the liberalisation of the economy, which is further propelled by the recent government schemes such as Smart City Initiative and Bharatmala Pariyojana. This has not only improved the infrastructure of the Metropolitan cities, Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities but also contributed to the overall socio-economic upliftment of the population. Further, the government’s Digital India initiative has led to the penetration of the internet in far-fetched areas of our country, introduction of e-governance, digitisation of government records, improvement in authentication system, and augmentation of overall digital literacy.

To address the emerging challenges resulting from advancements in both tangible and intangible infrastructure in the country, the century old Registration Act of 1908 has increasingly demonstrated its shortcomings. Recognizing the need for an updated legal framework, the Department of Land Resources under the Ministry of Rural Development has recently introduced the Registration Bill, 2025, aimed at replacing the outdated colonial era legislation.

The new Registration Bill 2025 has tried to modernise the registration framework by reflecting the change in the country’s administrative structure and it is striving to bring greater uniformity across all states and union territories.

Some of the key features of this registration bill, 2025 are as follows:

Institutional Strengthening

• The role of the Inspector General of Registration (“IGR”) has been expanded in the new bill. In order to streamline the work flow depending upon the size of the jurisdiction and accordingly to determine the role and responsibility of the officer, the Appropriate Government has been given the power to appoint one or more Additional / Joint / Deputy or Assistant IGR, depending upon the territorial challenges in each jurisdiction. Further, the Appropriate Government may prescribe the terms and conditions of service and the duties of the officer appointed under section 4(4) and authorise them to exercise all powers and duties of the IGR.
• The IGR in line with the power of general superintendence over the registration offices in its territories, have now been exclusively entrusted with the responsibility to appoint a government officer to fill up the vacancy of the Registrar. Earlier the Judge of the District Court also had the power to make the appointment of Registrar, however, now the role of Judge of the District Court has been done away with.
• IGR has also now been entrusted with the power to cancel the registration of any document, if the same is registered on the basis of false information; in contravention of the provision of this bill; or if the transaction in the document is against provision of any applicable law by a competent court or authority, provided that he adhere to the principles of natural justice.

Expansion of scope of compulsorily registrable documents

The new Registration Bill 2025, expands the range of documents that must be compulsorily registered, compared to the previous legislation. This change takes into account the new kinds of transaction documents which are being executed among the parties to create rights, interest or title in an immovable property or otherwise. List of additional documents with respect to an immovable property, which are required to be compulsorily registered are as follows:

• Any document which purports or operates to effect any contract for sale of immovable property, including an agreement to sale, developer’s agreement, or promoter’s agreement, by whatever name called, for development of any property or construction of structure;
• Power of attorney authorising transfer of immovable property, with or without consideration;
• Documents setting out terms and conditions for a mortgage by deposit of title deeds;
• Sale certificate issued by the competent officer or authority under any Central Act or State Act for the time being in force;
• Instrument in respect of amalgamation, reconstruction, merger, and demerger of companies and transfer of immovable property at the time of formation of companies pursuant to any order passed under the Companies Act, 2013; and
• Instruments which purport or operate to create, declare, assign, limit, extinguish any right, title or interest, whether vested or contingent, in immovable property pursuant to any decree or order or any award made by a court.

Digitization and E-Governance

As discussed in the introduction of this Article, the changes in the Registration Bill 2025 from the previous legislation are proposed keeping in mind the adoption of the digital infrastructure in the governance setup. Some of modification made in the Registration Bill 2025 over the previous Act are as follows:

• For the registration of the document affecting immovable property, the option of appearance in the sub-registrar office through electronic means has been prescribed in addition to the requirement of physical presence, if necessary.
• Option of electronic signature under the Information Technology Act, 2000 or any other form of digital signature is also introduced for the person presenting any document for registration.
• Option for Aadhaar based authentication or consent based verification through officially valid e-documents under applicable law, are also introduced, along with the traditional ways of authentication for any person not having an Aadhaar number.
• Creation of necessary infrastructure such as computers, scanners, and cloud storage is also proposed for facilitation of registration through electronic means and for storage of the registration documents with the Registrar offices.

Standardisation in the Registrable Documents

It is proposed that the Appropriate Government will notify the standard templates of the documents which are compulsorily required to be registered under section 12 of this Bill. Further, the non-testamentary document relating to the immovable property shall contain the appropriate details for the correct identification of the immovable property like unique identification number; property bounded details; existing and former occupancies; number of houses on the street where the subject property is situated; government maps or surveys etc.

Role of Banks and Financial Institutions

In the Registration Bill 2025, all banks, financial institutions, and other creditors, who are granting loan on the basis of mortgage by deposit of title deeds, are now mandatorily will be required to file a copy of the title deed with the registering officer within the local limits of whose jurisdiction the whole or part of the property so mortgage is situated and notify such officer about mortgage on the property.

Shortcomings and Suggestions:

Although the Registration Bill 2025 is proposed to be aligned with the modern infrastructure and the e-governance framework and seek to be citizen-friendly in several respect, it still contains notable shortcomings which can be addressed before the final version of the Act is passed by the legislation. Some of the suggestions that could cater to the shortcomings of registration process are:

1. Unlike section 18 of the Registration Act, 1908, section 13 of the Registration Bill, 2025 lacks clarity and certainty, as it is difficult for a common man to ascertain the instruments that are optionally registrable. Therefore, it is suggested that the language of the section 18 of the Registration Act, 1908 be retained in the bill as well.
2. It is suggested that a provision be added requiring the Registrar/Sub-registrar to provide an opportunity to the registering parties to rectify any errors curable in nature, and then if the parties fail to do so, refuse registration of the document presented for registration. This will ensure that there are no unnecessary appeals under section 60 of the Bill.
3. It is suggested to add a provision for providing English translated versions of documents written in regional language to ensure accessibility for persons all over India.
4. It is suggested that the central govt. to prescribe a standard template with respect to every compulsorily registrable document as prescribed under section 12. Moreover, a table shall be prepared on the front page of each registrable document containing the details of both the parties; details of the transaction; consideration paid; details of the subject property; details of stamp duty and registration charges as paid on the transaction etc.
5. Owing to the increase in digitalization, and further to curb the problem of changing unique property identification numbers upon every survey, it is suggested to add a provision mandating Geo Tagging as a part of the description of property. As any other address may be dynamic but Latitude-Longitude band information is permanent.
6. As of now, there is neither a timeline prescribed to register/refuse any document presented for registration nor a timeline for disposing off the appeals arising out of an order for refusal of registration. Therefore, it is suggested to fix timelines with respect to the registration process, as well as the appellate process to eliminate any such delays.
7. Even in the age of digitalization, it is very difficult to trace details of mortgages by deposit of title deeds. Therefore, it is suggested that a provision may be added mandating the registering officers to maintain record of all mortgages by deposit of title deeds in Book – 1 or a separate book may be created for the same, as undertaken by the banks, and financial institutions, to enhance transparency and prevent fraudulent or conflicting claims over the same property.
8. It is suggested to bring a change in section 35 of the Bill, as the language understood by the registering officer can be different from that of the official language under Article 343 of the Indian Constitution, and vernacular/official language of that state. Therefore, the words “language not understood by the registering officer” shall be substituted with language that take into consideration the official language under Article 343 of the Constitution of India, vernacular language of the region or the official language of the State, which would be in better interest of the citizen of that region.
9. Further, to strengthen the immovable property registration process, there can be a provision mandating the concerned registering officers to link all the immovable properties with the PAN Card or Aadhaar Card of the owner. This will reduce Benami properties and further will make it easy for the govt. departments and the banks/financial institutions to search for all properties registered in the name of a single person.

Conclusion:

The Registration Bill, 2025 symbolizes a noteworthy step in India’s legal and administrative transformation journey, in consonance with the larger national vision of shredding its colonial legacy, e-governance, and a step towards transparent administration. By revitalizing the 1908 outdated legislation, the 2025 Bill endeavours to digitize, streamline, and modernize the current property registration process thereby increasing its scope considering contemporary transactions and infrastructural realities. Digitalization, institutional restructuring, standardization of the format of documents, and enhanced responsibility of financial institutions are longed-for changes that would provide better accountability and ease of doing business in India.

Further, so long as the highlighted shortcomings are addressed, the Bill will serve to be truly effective and citizen-centric. Some of those include ensuring greater access, procedural safeguards, and time sensitive redressal mechanisms, incorporating suggestions such as linkage of properties to PAN, mandatory geo-tagging, adding multilingual accessibility, and exhaustive record-keeping for mortgages, shall not only be a significant step towards making the regime more transparent but shall also build a robust registration infrastructure for the future decades. Now, as our nation is in the “Amrit Kaal” phase, this new Registration Bill will be instrumental in catalysing change; eliminate in-efficiency; ensure justice; transparency and accountability in registration of transactions for the generations to come.

Authored by Mr. Shantanu Malik (Partner), Mr. Aeshwarya Sisodia (Senior Associate) and Ms. Sukriti Verma (Associate).