Chennai: The government has informed Madras HC that it is not possible to include English in the index in the online registration of deeds, as it is the policy decision of the government.
Regarding this, the government made the submission before the Division Bench comprising Justice S. Manikumar and Justice Subramonium Prasad when a petition filed by high court advocate Veangai I.Prakash Raj came up for hearing on Monday.
The petitioner said the registration department introduced a new software STAR in the online portal for registration of property documents online last year. Initially there were difficulties to adopt to the new online registration mode. Later due to continuous sessions and back-end support provided by the department the online registration system gained momentum across the state.
He said recently an updated version of the software was released which mandated filling of details such as executants, claimants, witness, their name, father name, address, age, profession, email, property details, boundaries and previous document details in the indexing column.
These details has to be fed compulsorily only in Tamil and also the documents to be registered has to be compulsorily drafted only in Tamil. Every individual who purchase a property has to go through the sale deed, clarify the contents in the deed and then sign the documents to get property registered in their favour. Due to the new rule it has become difficult for the executants and claimants to even read out their name and find whether the deed has been executed, he added.
He sought for direction to the state government to permit registration of deeds drafted either in English or Tamil through online registration mode. He prayed the court to direct the authorities to allow registration of sale deeds of the properties that are indexed and drafted either in English or Tamil by utilising the online STAR (Simplified and Transparent Administration of Registration) Registration.
When the matter came up for hearing on Monday before the bench, the government submitted that it is not possible to include English in the index in the online registration since it is the policy decision of the government.
The bench has directed the government to file reply if it is possible to include English in the application forms for the registration of documents. Later, the bench also directed the petitioner to handover the programme developed by him to the authorities for their scrutiny and posted the matter for further hearing to August 30.
