Registration IG tells Madras HC: 14 cases ended in conviction in 10 years

Chennai: The Inspector General of Registration has informed the Madras high court that a detailed circular has been issued on December 8 reiterating the practice of cashless transaction in sub-registrar offices and to prevent third parties/outsiders/touts/brokers in entering the office premises.

J. Kumaragurubaran, the Inspector General of Registration, stated this in his affidavit filed in response to the queries raised by Justice N. Kirubakaran.

Not satisfied with the contents of the affidavit, Justice Kirubakaran asked the IG of Registration to file, a better affidavit and directed the DVAC to file its response to the queries raised earlier by the court. 

The judge posted to  December 20, further hearing of the petition filed by T. Boopathy.

In his affidavit, Kumaragurubaran said out of 578 sub-registrar offices, the DVAC conducted surprise raids in 155 offices for the past 10 years and arrested 77 persons, 14 cases ended in a conviction for the past 10 years.

 Hence the rate of conviction was 19 per cent. The total amount seized during the surprise check for the past 10 years was Rs 70.01 lakh. 

One person has been arrested twice on the charges of demanding and accepting a bribe. Now, he had already been placed under suspension, he added.

Listing out the steps taken to curb the employment of private persons and for preventing corrupt activities through third parties, 2 delinquent officers have been awarded the punishment of dismissal from service and in many cases, major punishments were awarded to the delinquent officers.

As and when DVAC raids were conducted and reported, the entire staff was being transferred. Recently, on November 13, 2017, the department framed charges against a sub-registrar, Pallavaram for the reason of employing private persons, he added.

He said control access system could not be installed at the entrance of the sub-registrar office since registrants and witnesses have to come into the office for document registration.

A comprehensive web-based software-Star 2.0 being implemented as a pilot project in 154 sub-registrar offices across the state under various phases from July 17, 2017.