Madras HC raises 12 queries to registration dept for ill preserving documents
Chennai: Expressing surprise and shock over the documents, which have to be preserved permanently, have been maintained in a bad condition by the registration department, the Madras high court has raised 12 queries to be answered by the officials of the registration department.
Justice N. Kirubakaran also made it clear that if the reply given to the queries is not satisfactory, then the court will pass appropriate orders for larger enquiry, as many title dee-ds of innocent citizens are getting destroyed/damaged.
Originally, T. Bhoopathy filed a petition to direct the registration department to hand over the documents registered before the sub-registrar, Pammal. When it came up for hearing on October 3, it was alleged that several documents were either damaged or destroyed. It was also brought to the notice of the court that 9.63 acres of land in Chemmencheri village, which was said to have been the subject matter of conveyance between two private parties in the year 1967, has been found to be a government land.
When the case came up for hearing on Wednesday, the additional advocate general confirmed that the pr-operty was a government land.
The judge said prima facie, it was clear that an attempt has been made to stealthily introduce survey number 394 of Chemmancheri which was a government property in the old document, which has been substituted with a new document as if it was a private land. “This court is of the view that this is part of a large scale attempt made by real estate mafia in various registration offices to unlawfully occupy or loot government properties and also the properties owned by other citizens. This kind of illegal acts could not be possible without connivance and support of Registration Office staff who have the custody of property documents”, the judge added.
When the judge asked the district registrar, Saidapet, who was present in the court about the document relating to Chemmancheri property, it was stated that the document has been damaged. When asked about the volumes as the documents would be preserved in two volumes, the officer produced a big cover containing some loose sheets, which cannot be sorted out.
Wondering as to whether the properties, which have been conveyed through those documents were safe or not, the judge said it was not only mere damaging of documents, but the title of the owners, who were entitled to the properties covered under those documents and who were innocent property owners, have been made a questionable one. The officials were paid only for the purpose of doing their official duties and they were supposed to act as per the powers conferred under the statute and rules. The Registration department was a specialised department, well versed with registration of documents and preservation of deeds, which were registered with them so that, in case of any difficulty by the parties regarding title or by the court, can summon those documents and verify the same, as it was a reservoir of all title documents of parties under the jurisdiction of particular registrar, the judge added.
The judge said, “When the basic documents themselves are being damaged/destroyed, it could be safely assumed that nobody's property is safe, as only the documents would speak before any court of law”.
When such was the importance attached to Registration department, it was not known as to how these documents have been damaged, the judge
added.
HC: Raids should be conducted every week in registration dept
Terming the surprise checks, number of persons arrested and the amount seized during the surprise checks in the registration department by the DVAC for the past 10 years, an eye-wash, the Madras high court has said raids in the registration department should be conducted regularly at least every week.
Passing further interim orders on a petition filed by T. Bhoopathy, Justice N. Kirubakaran raised five queries relating to raids in registration offices and directed the inspector general of registration to be present in the court on November 1 along with the reply to his queries.
Noting that only 155 raids have been conducted from the year 2006 to 2017, the judge said it has been brought to the notice of this court that a number of Registrars were allegedly leading a luxurious life owning imported cars, which was in the public domain as they were said to be travelling in those cars to the office regularly. In such a situation, DVAC should have taken into consideration all these aspects and should have conducted raids. “It seems from the details given, for the past 10 years, as regards the number of surprise checks and number of persons arrested and the amount seized during the DVAC surprise checks and enquiry only appear to be eye-wash and they are not doing their work properly by conducting regular surprise checks, especially, when people are of the opinion that Registration department is the bedrock of corruption. It is common man's view that no documents could be registered without payment. In view of that raids should be conducted regularly at least every week. Otherwise, the very purpose of DVAC would be diluted and corruption would continue to rule”, the judge added.
