New law for property soon to make titles clear

NEW DELHI: The film ���Khosla Ka Ghosla��� was an iconic depiction of Delhi���s ugly property disputes. But a new title law that is on the cards may make disputes like these history. The first draft of the Delhi Urban Property Registration & Titling Bill is ready. Once it becomes law, registration certificates will be replaced by title deeds and the latter will only be issued once a central authority ��� that will have a database of all properties in the city (with some exceptions ) ��� is convinced about the ownership.

���The draft talks of awarding provisional registration in more complicated cases such as unauthorised colonies and old pre-independence constructions like those in the Walled City in the first seven years from the time the Act comes into force as it will take that much time to put a central database in place. Then, permanent registrations will be awarded,��� chief secretary Rakesh Mehta explained.

After the seven-year window, registering with the titling authority will become mandatory. The authority will conduct its own survey to ascertain ownership and also issue notices asking property owners to submit relevant documents to prove their ownership. For very old properties like those in the Walled City where documents may not always be available, registration will continue to be done by the sub-registrar .

In India, only Andhra Pradesh has a titling law, which was enacted recently. The Centre has been encouraging states to put such a law in place.