LAND LAW ASSIGNMENT

TOPIC: IS THERE NECESSITY IN IMPROVING LAND RECORDS?

SUBMITTED BY
S.SRRINITHI
123087050
BA LLB(Hons.)
 Abstract
Because it is man's natural home, land must be used extensively for the benefit of the nation's
economy, society, and environment. It has always been difficult for the tax agency to maintain
this huge database of land records, which includes cadastral maps and alphanumeric data
providing record of rights and crop statistics. The National Informatics Center and Ministry of
Rural Development developed a plan to use IT to manage this massive database of land records
data. That will be a huge effort because it calls for the use of cutting-edge technologies like GIS,
Web, Open Source, smartcards, and data warehousing for the administration, distribution, and
analysis of land data at all phases, including capturing, retrieving, disseminating, and utilising
the data. The efficacy and efficiency will increase as a result of the development of such
infrastructure.
INTRODUCTION

Despite being a part of man's natural inheritance, ownership patterns govern who has access to
land. Land is divided for administrative and commercial reasons, and it is put to a variety of uses
and transformations. Policy makers, resource planners, and administrators who make decisions
regarding the land today must all take into account population expansion, technical and social
risks, and environmental degradation. They require more in-depth land data than what has
previously been provided. Computerized systems offer better ways of gathering, storing,
analysing, and retrieving such information, even though printed maps are still useful.Recent
years have seen a rise in major global concerns over the need for thoughtful and cautious
stewardship of the land, as well as the increasingly intense use and management of its resources.
This has caused both the demand for knowledge about the land and the techniques and
programmes that might deliver it to be reevaluated .Spatial data is being used extensively on a
daily basis by policy makers, planners, land managers, and ordinary residents who all have a
need for knowledge about the land. To use and conserve natural resources wisely, one must have
correct understanding of them, as well as an accurate description and record of that knowledge.
For making decisions about land investment, development, and management, knowledge about
the land is essential. Information helps to discover and understand issues, which decreases
ambiguity.Then, plans for overcoming obstacles could be made and put into action. The quality
of the information and the method in which it is made available have a direct impact on the value
of the information and the efficiency of the decision-making process. The entirety of the land
records information maintenance system and technologies now in use are covered in the report.
Because they serve as the foundation for the assignment and settlement of land titles, land
records are crucial and must withstand judicial scrutiny.

Why Government Will Have To Work Fast To Improve The Land Records
System?
Without precedent for 1540, Sher Shah Suri acquainted a framework with keep up with land
records in India. Around then, it was a proficient and viable framework. Suri's property record
framework was subsequently embraced by the English in 1848 after essential changes and
revisions.

This Patwar framework actually makes due in the subcontinent, including Jammu and Kashmir.
With an expansion in populace, the ground conditions have totally changed. The quantity of
record holders was in the hundreds and presently there are a large number of record holders
being kept as of now. So the refreshing of records is getting convoluted step by step, and the
significant essential specialist who keeps this record, the Patwari, is additionally losing his height
and position in managing these difficulties.
Aside from the Land Records Framework presented by the English very nearly a long time back,
an Official or Collectorate Framework (which is still stylish in the subcontinent) was likewise
settled to run the regulative and managerial undertakings.

Under this framework, where the English government got an ever increasing number of financial
honors and advantages, individuals likewise got proprietorship privileges through these changes.
The landholders got the information of land possession alongside significant and significant
subtleties connected with specification, individual subtleties of proprietors, depiction of harvests,
method for water system, tax assessment, and significant record of field estimations and
cadastral guides of the land.

In the wake of understanding and understanding the positive side of the present-day prerequisites
and the effect of advanced innovation in each circle of life, the old and obsolete frameworks
have either been supplanted or the cycle has totally been enhanced, everywhere. The Patwar or
Land Framework winning in the Indian subcontinent in this period of present day innovation is
being portrayed as extremely outdated, blocked off, feebly scattered and incapable. As per global
examination directed in 2013, 90 percent of individuals connected with this framework need to
change the standards and standards connected with proprietorship the executives and guideline in
information, overviews and method of enrollment. Likewise, in fact talking, changes are
unavoidable in an extremely old framework comprising of exceptionally old guides and land
records. The World Bank's 2006 report likewise depicted the Patwar Framework in India and
Pakistan as extremely obsolete, blocked off, inadequately scattered and inadequate.

Perhaps of the greatest change in the Land Records Framework is the course of computerization
or digitization of land records or Patwar records. Around 63% of the world's 200 economies have
electronic land records and, universally 60.50 percent land related reports are automated.

For quite a long time, the arrangement of land records was composed on pages of paper and
afterward enlisted. Albeit this enrollment framework was successful, yet, the turn of events and
quickly changing ground conditions requested that this framework ought to be deserted and a
new and effective framework presented. A well established Patwar framework or land
framework is losing its utility, impact and believability because of which potential open doors
for double-dealing and defilement are being given. The option is the requirement for a
functioning, effective, present day, secure, available and solid framework, which could fulfill the
needs of the time and furthermore give productive and straightforward admittance to land
records.

Settlement operations
Settlement Activity in Jammu and Kashmir through ETS was shut after the foundation of new
authoritative units in 2014. Over the most recent eight years, around 80% of the land records of
the past state would have been brought under activity, however the Public authority under the
Public Land Records Modernization Program (NLRMP) re-appropriated the agreement to an
Indian privately owned business RAMTECH to digitize land records.

RAMTECH has checked large number of duplicates of old records and furthermore digitized
records of two regions of Jammu and Srinagar. In another significant government request in
2022, the assignment of digitizing land records was shared with the Income Division and at the
essential level, the exceptionally specialized and significant undertaking was given to Patwari
with practically no preparation and vital extras and gear. A group of something like 3000
Patwaris was depended with the incredibly troublesome errand of digitization of records all
through the Kashmir and Jammu territories on a crisis premise. Plus, the public authority drew in
educators, PC administrators and a few different representatives for this work and today
practically every one of the records have been digitized. However, the story doesn't end there.

Issues Included

Land records are the premise of living on this land and the records of a more modest or a bigger
part of land having a place with any more modest or a greater landholder are exceptionally
significant. While the digitization of land records is an extraordinary drive without even a trace
of a few significant and essential offices to the Patwar organization, practically every one of the
records of Jammu and Kashmir have been digitized.The landholders have the feeling that land
modernization and digitization have made their property secure and their territory records
simpler to get to, at the same time, that isn't true. The significant and essential functionary of the
Income Division, the Patwari, with his little height and position, has constantly, innovatively and
steadily digitized the current and accessible records. Yet, there could be issues included.

Allow to attempt to cover a portion of the specialized provisos so the landholders can know and
the higher-ups at the public authority level can take this matter in a positive way and do whatever
it takes to make the records of the land more open, dependable, straightforward and precise.In
the accessible and existing records, the record of the land covered under the Agrarian Changes
Act is still there regardless of the invalidation and conclusion of the said Act. Many passages of
Segment 4 and Segment 12 are still in the records and a similar land has been distanced without
redressing the records and the record is either for the sake of the State or for the sake of the past
proprietors.

Orders for erasing of State Land, Shamilat Sec-4 passages have been given and the question of
State Land is subjudice with the Hon'ble High Court. Great many landholders have traded the
said land and private houses, markets, shopping buildings, plantations and different
developments are remaining on the land. Great many honest uneducated landholders actually
assume that they have the privileges and title over such land.
The passages of thousands of kanals of land are kept for the sake of occupants through changes
like Sehat-e-Indraj Girdawari and Sehat-e-Kaasht. Great many kanals of land are for the sake of
the ongoing area occupiers, however according to the records they are not the proprietors and are
having just belonging. Clearly, because of trading huge number of kanals of such land without
the holder having any privileges or title, the land record is totally problematic according to
record and ownership.

There are additionally many passages in the land records where we find words like Muzare
Mouroos, Muzare Gair Maroos, Muzare Mehfooz, Muzare Gair Mehfooz, Murtahin and so on.
Furthermore, the ongoing owner on spot has no privileges or title over such land, and generally
speaking such terrains have additionally been estranged to second or outsider.

After the finish of agrarian changes and the exchange of another land, there are many proprietors
in the possession section of land records who have no land on the spot, and correspondingly,
there are many proprietors who have less land displayed in proprietorship segment however have
more land on spot than in record, which in both the cases intends that there could be finished
obstacles in moving/estranging such bundles of land.

Many changes couldn't be integrated during the digitization interaction due to the rushed and
hurried orders for digitization. Additionally, post-digitization of the records, many the validated
changes have not been consolidated.Because of the previously mentioned specialized issues, the
ongoing record whether it is manual, checked or digitized, isn't exact by and large, and a
landholder won't have total data on the Apni Zameen Apni Nigrani entryway, because of which
the generally scandalous Patwari will confront a brunt in the future.

Developments in Framework

The Extremely old Halqa and Girdawar Circle framework winning in the income division is
additionally becoming old and unimportant with the advancement of time. With the expansion in
human populace and huge expansion in government work, new authoritative units were laid out
on the suggestions of the Mushtaq Ganai Commission, Bloria Commission and different
commissions. The foundation of new locale, Tehsils, Nayabats comprising of a couple of towns
was likewise finished be that as it may, the Patwar Halqas and Girdawar Circles were kept as
they are, while the change ought to have occurred at the lower and essential level.

A little town has a few Anganwadi focuses, a few government schools and different workplaces,
and shockingly, a Patwari is endowed with the obligation of more than one Halqa comprising of
10 or 8 towns generally speaking, and it is extremely difficult to do equity to the consistently
expanding strain of government work and discontinuous record composing and refreshing. There
is a desperate requirement for the constitution of new Patwar Halqas and Girdawar Circles, so
the ranchers and landholders get the necessary administrations inside a brief timeframe and
bother free.

In such a circumstance, the public authority ought to accomplish a commendable achievement by

resolving the central points of contention of the division and eliminating the specialized
blemishes in Land Records and the cutting edge program of saving area records to make them
accessible to each landholder.Further, steps ought to be taken for another Settlement Activity, for
which the public authority has proactively concocted an arrangement. Yet, this will call for
investment, human apparatus, high level gear and complete preparation. For this reason, it is
totally important that a lot of Patwaris ought to be enrolled, in light of the fact that a little group
of 3,000 Patwaris in the entire of the recent State is in no way, shape or form adequate for an
extremely durable and new Settlement activity.

Digitalisation of land records: A progress so far

In the late 1980s, one of the goals of the Indian government was to make land records accessible
to everyone in order to prevent or contain property fraud. The Indian government introduced the
Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme (DILRMP) in August 2008 to address the
issue. The program's main goals were to update all settlement records, computerise all land
records, including mutations, improve transparency in the system for maintaining land records,
digitise maps and surveys, and reduce the likelihood of land disputes. In order to facilitate
quicker transactions, digitization would provide transparent titles of land ownership that could be
easily monitored by government officials.Additionally, this will shorten the developer's overall
budget and construction schedule, which will benefit the consumer and raise the allure of real
estate prices.

Under the "Bhoomi Project," Karnataka was the first Indian state to computerise land records.
Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu soon followed. The three states had computerised their village
property records by the year 2007. The Karnataka government also created property cards, which
authenticate the ownership data, area, and location of each property in addition to mapping it, in
a move to protect property owners' rights. But many states still lack the tools needed to survey
the land. Some lands have not undergone a survey in more than a century. Although the
government wants to completely digitise land records, there are differences in the data registered
at different levels of government due to a lack of sufficient and clear data as well as poor
management among the various agencies that handle land records. Statistics. According to
statistics from the DILRMP, the digital land record database and the digitised land registration
database are not synchronised in the majority of states.
ADVANTAGES OF DIGITALISATION:
The government's Digital India initiative will benefit immediately from the digitization of land
and property records. The entire area of land that a person owns can be determined using a
comprehensive computerised compilation of land data, starting with the original owner and
ending with the current state of the land and incorporating an image of the property and the
landowner for identification. Every piece of land should undergo a new survey on a regular basis
to keep the records up to date. Additionally, this will serve to clarify the distinction between
public and private lands. It will be more difficult for the general people to dodge property tax
thanks to transparency brought on by digitization.The acquisition of land can be accelerated by
digitization, making it simpler for the government to further its Smart Cities mission or plan
industrialization. Digitization will provide accurate information on the owner of a certain
property for home purchasers. A buyer can also find out if a lawsuit is pending over the property.
If a buyer intends to purchase a property from a developer, he or she may verify that the structure
complies with all requirements. Similar to this, digitization would make it easier for a buyer to
verify transparent market-based price before purchasing a land parcel.

DIGITAL INDIA LAND RECORD MODERNISATION PROGRAMME :

Recently, “Bhumi Samvaad” – the National Workshop on Digital India Land Record
Modernization Program – was launched by the Ministry of Rural Development (DILRMP).The
National Generic Document Registration System (NGDRS) portal and Dashboard were also
released by the Ministry.

Launch:

On August 21st, 2008, the Cabinet approved the DILRMP.

A redesigned initiative, the National Land Records Modernization Programme (NLRMP),

currently known as the Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme (DILRMP), has
been developed to modernise the nation’s land records system.The strengthening of revenue
administration and updating of land records (SRA&ULR) and the computerization of land
records (CLR), two centrally financed programmes, were combined.

About

It is a Central Sector programme that has been extended to 2023–2024 in order to meet both its
initial goals and broaden its scope by adding a number of new schemes.In order to create a
suitable Integrated Land Information Management System (ILIMS) across the nation, it tries to
build on the similarities that exist in the field of land records across different States. On top of
this, different States can also add State-specific needs as they may consider relevant and
appropriate.

ILIMS: The database includes data on a variety of topics, including parcel ownership, land use,
taxation, location borders, property value, encumbrances, and more.The Department of Land
Resources is executing it (Ministry of Rural Development).

Aim

Introduce a system of updated land records, automated and automatic mutation, textual and
spatial record integration, revenue and registration interconnection, and replace the current deeds
registration and presumptive title system with one of conclusive titling with title guarantee.

Components

 Land records have been computerised.

 Survey/re-survey.
 Registration computerization.
 At the tehsil, taluk, circle, and block levels, there are modern record rooms and land
records management centres.
 Building capacity through training.

Benefits

 The public will have access to real-time land ownership records.

 Free access to the information will lessen interactions between the public and government
officials, which will decrease harassment and extortion.
 The Public-Private Partnership (PPP) style of service delivery will increase convenience
while further reducing citizen interaction with government apparatus.
 The citizen will save time and effort by using the single-window service or the web-
enabled “anytime-anywhere” access to receive RoRs (Record of Rights), etc.
 The breadth of fraudulent property agreements will be greatly reduced by automatic and
automated mutations.
 Additionally, conclusive titling will drastically cut down on court cases.
 The citizen will have access to certificates based on land data (such as domicile, caste,
income, etc.) via computers.
 With this approach, e-linkages to credit facilities will be possible.
 Information about government programme eligibility.
 Based on the data, information on programme eligibility for the government will be
accessible.
Other related initiatives

National Generic Document Registration System

 It is a significant change from the current manual registration approach to online

registration of all land transfer and sale activities.
 It is a significant step in the direction of “One Nation One Software” and national
integration.

Unique Land Parcel Identification Number

 It is referred to as “the Aadhaar for land” and is a number that would be used to identify
each parcel of property that has been surveyed and stop land fraud, particularly in rural
India’s hinterlands where land records are out-of-date and sometimes challenged.

Challenges in digitization of land records

 Instead of using land titles, India uses a system of registered sale deeds.
 According to the Transfer of Property Act of 1882, only a registered instrument may
transfer or sell the right to an immovable property (or piece of land).
 These papers are recorded in accordance with the Registration Act of 1908. As a result,
the transaction rather than the land title is recorded.
 This indicates that even legitimate property transfers could not necessarily ensure
ownership because earlier deals might be contested.
 It is difficult to access the many documents that show land ownership because they are
kept by separate departments.
 For instance, the registration department keeps sale deeds, the survey department keeps
maps, and the revenue department keeps property tax receipts.
 There are disparities because these departments operate in isolation and fail to update the
data on time. Any ownership claims on a piece of property must be traced back via years
of documents, which adds time.
 People avoid registering transactions since it is expensive to register property.
 The buyer must pay a stamp duty in addition to the registration charge when registering a
selling deed.
 In India, state-by-state stamp duty rates range from 4% to 10%, as opposed to 1% to 4%
in other nations. The additional registration price is from 0.5% to 2% on average.
 The Registration Act of 1908 states that some transactions, such as the government's
acquisition of land, the leasing of property for less than a year, and heirship partitions, do
not require the registration of property.
OPINION
The need for digitizing land records in India.

Hernando de Soto, a Peruvian economist, has frequently emphasised the need for a robust system
of property rights in a modern market economy. On this front, India is a shambles. Land titles are
just tentative and not definitive. The Hindi film Khosla Ka Ghosla offers insightful perspectives
on the harm caused by faulty land titles.

This is one of the reasons why some people have claimed that property conflicts account for
approximately two-thirds of all cases currently pending in Indian courts. According to NITI
Aayog, it takes an average of 20 years to resolve these property cases. As a result, millions of
Indians are unable to borrow money from the official financial system using their primary asset
as security. The impoverished suffer the most.

For almost a decade, the Union administration has been working hard to find a solution to this
issue. The National Land Records Modernization Programme was launched in August 2008 by
the Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance administration. It is now a part of the
government of Narendra Modi's signature Digital India initiative. The general goals are to
modernise land records administration, lessen the potential for property disputes, increase
transparency in land records, and move toward final property titles. In other words, the idea is to
bring a system from the zamindari era into the present.

Uneven growth has been made over the previous ten years, with certain states performing better
than others, including Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu,
and Maharashtra. However, as a recent field study by Sudha Narayanan, Prerna Prabhakar,
Gausia Shaikh, Diya Uday, and Bhargavi Zaveri discovered, there are difficulties even in
developed states like Maharashtra. Their analysis of 100 property parcels scattered across five
villages and two tehsils revealed that while the new digitised land records are better at reflecting
ownership of land, they fall short when it comes to encumbrances and parcel size.

State governments have done some of the most intriguing work in resolving the land titling
problem, as has been the case.

First, even before the Union government became involved, the Bhoomi Project in Karnataka set
the standard. At the turn of the century, the state government began to digitise land records.
Kiosks have made the required document—the record of rights, tenancy, and crops—available.
In government offices, there is no longer a need to offer bribes in order to acquire this
fundamental data.

Second, in April 2016, the Rajasthan Urban Land (Certification of Titles) Act was approved by
the state's legislature. This law guarantees that the Rajasthani state government will act as a
surety for land titles and pay damages in the event that a title is deemed to be faulty. The Urban
Land Title Certification Authority, which will verify ownership of any property for a fee,
provided the certification upon which the guarantee was based.

Third, Andhra Pradesh has advanced significantly. To stop property fraud, its state government
has partnered with a Swedish company to employ cutting-edge blockchain technology.
Blockchain will enable users of a distributed ledger to verify the ownership of a land parcel, just
like in all other transactions. "If blockchain technology can empower public and private efforts to
register property rights on a single computer platform, we can share the blessings of private-
property registration with the entire world," de Soto and former US senator Phil Gramm wrote
earlier this year in The Wall Street Journal. Maybe we can bring property rights to every human
being rather than destroying private property to advance Marxist equality in poverty. If property
rights are protected,In order to achieve true stability and peace, prosperity, freedom, and wealth
ownership are necessary.

By now, the Indian effort to digitise land records and create conclusive titles rather than
presumptive ones should have been successful. The completion date has now been moved up to
2021 by the government. Although the delay could have been avoided, it is understandable.
Many restrictions will be removed by having clear land titles, including those preventing the
poor from borrowing money from the formal financial system and those preventing the abuse of
eminent domain to acquire commercial land for infrastructure projects. And even if
computerization is still advancing, new technologies like blockchain provide some promising
new opportunities.

CONCLUSION
Why not attempt combining a majority of well-managed manual tasks with a small number of
strategically placed electronic competencies? The available technologies will not only make it
possible to integrate different spatial and non-spatial datasets, but also to gather, record, store,
retrieve, disseminate, and use the data online. This will improve the effectiveness and efficiency
of land management from the viewpoints of both the average person and decision makers
carrying out land-based development activities at the grassroots level.