Government of Tamil Nadu Welcomes You

The Registration Department is the third largest revenue earning department , next to the Commercial Taxes and Prohibition and Excise departments. The Registration Department is serving the Public for the past 139 years. In an effort to ensure transparency and speedy service, the department is taking steps to modernise its functioning by harnessing Information Technology and by launching innovative measures.

The Inspector General of Registration is the Head of the Department. He also functions as :

The staff set-up at the Headquarters consists of the following officers who assist the Inspector General of Registration in the discharge of his functions:

iv) Additional Registrar (Chits & Societies) (in the cadre of Additional Inspector General of Registration)

v) Personal Assistant (General) (in the cadre of Deputy Inspector General of Registration)

The entire State is divided into nine registration zones each under the control of a Deputy Inspector General of Registration with headquarters at Chennai, Vellore, Cuddalore, Tiruchirapalli, Coimbatore, Madurai, Tirunelveli, Salem and Thanjavur. The Deputy Inspector General of Registration looks after the overall administration of the zone, reviews revenue mobilisation, makes surprise inspection of registration offices and conducts enquiries under various Acts and Rules. He is also the Joint Registrar of Chits under the Chit Funds Act 1982 and the Appellate Authority against the orders of the Assistant Inspector General of Registration or District Registrar in respect of appointment of Stamp vendors.

Five Regional Assistant Inspectors General of Registration with headquarters at Chennai, Thiruchirapalli, Madurai, Tirunelveli and Coimbatore are looking after the inspection of Sub Registrar Offices, conduct of enquiries on petitions, test check of the audit work of District Registrar (Audit). They also inspect Societies and Chit fund companies.

For the sake of administrative convenience, the State is divided into 50 Registration Districts each headed by a District Registrar (Administration). Considering the volume of work as well as the complexity of the nature of work twelve registration districts are headed by the officers in the cadre of Assistant Inspector General of Registration . The District Registrars also act as Registrar of Societies, Deputy Registrar of Chits, Registrar of Marriages and Registrar of Firms. They are also the appointing authority for Stamp Vendors.

The Department has the distinction of having a time tested system of internal audit to ensure cent percent audit of all the documents registered in the registration offices. There are 45 audit units each headed by a District Registrar(Audit).

There are 600 Sub Registrar Offices in the State. In addition to registration of documents, the Sub Registrar also acts as the Registrar of Marriages under the Hindu Marriages Act,1955 and the Marriage Officer under the Special Marriages Act, 1954. They also act as Assistant Registrars under the Chit Funds Act, 1982.

In the year 1996, the Institute was started to impart training to the Registration Officers and other staff in the Department in order to enable them acquire functional knowledge of the various provisions of the Indian Stamp Act, the Registration Act and other Acts administered by the Department. The Institute is headed by a Director in the cadre of Deputy Inspector General of Registration. Two lecturers, one in the cadre of Assistant Inspector General of Registration and another in the cadre of District Registrar, constitute the faculty of the Institute. 2275 personnel have undergone training so far in this Institute. Imparting of knowledge on Information Technology to the trainees is also under consideration.

Consequent on the abolition of the Board of Revenue, the Inspector General of Registration is also the Chief Controlling Revenue Authority under the Indian Stamp Act, 1899. In that capacity he is vested with the powers of control and revision over the functions of a Collector under the Indian Stamp Act, 1899. He is also the appellate authority against the orders of the Collectors under Section 47(A) of the Indian Stamp Act. He is also empowered to review suo motu the orders of the Collectors under Section 47(A) of the Indian Stamp Act.

In order to ensure that the market value is truly set forth in the document, the Registering Officers have been provided with "Guideline Value Registers" which show the likely market value of lands.

A ‘Guideline Cell’ under the Chairmanship of Additional Inspector General of Registration(Guidelines) prepares the Guideline Value Registers, revises them periodically and also sets right anomalies in the guideline values. The District Registrar (Guidelines) functions as the Secretary of the Cell with the respective Zonal Deputy Inspectors General of Registration and District Registrars as Members. As part of the effort to enable the Cell fix the guideline value more realistically, the District Revenue Officer of the concerned Revenue District has also been included as a member in the Guideline Cell.

Revision of guideline values is done annually, in respect of areas falling under Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority, Municipal Corporations, Municipalities, Town Panchayats and Villages falling within the notified Local Planning Area as per Sec. 10(1) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1971. In respect of Village Panchayat areas, revision is done once in three years. The Guideline Values of Urban and Rural areas were revised on 1-4-2003.

Copies of guide line value registers are supplied to Chambers of Commerce, Agriculturist Associations and Village Panchayats to enable the public to have easy access to them. Moreover, the Guideline Value in respect of all the areas of the State are also available on the web site @ http://igregn.tn.nic.in/ Consequently, guideline value in respect of any piece of land in any part of the State can be ascertained from the web site from any part of the world without the help of the Registration Department.

Appeals against the guideline value fixed by the District Registrars, Assistant Inspectors General of Registration and Deputy Inspectors General of Registration can be preferred to the Inspector General of Registration within a period of two months.

To find out suppression of facts relating to valuation of buildings mentioned in the documents and resulting in loss of stamp duty , the Intelligence Cell headed by Additional Inspector General of Registration (Intelligence) has been formed. Eight District Registrars, four Sub Registrars and two Assistant Executive Engineers assist him in this assignment. In order to clear huge backlog and to ensure quick return of documents, all the registering officers have been authorised to take up field inspection to detect whether there is prima facie under valuation of building.

Due to effective supervision and vigil exercised by the officers of the department, the revenue mobilisation through collection of stamp duty, registration fee, etc., has registered a sharp increase from Rs. 40 Crores in 1968-69 to Rs.1264.20 Crores in 2001-2002.

Year	Documents Registered	Amount (Rs. in Crores)
1991-92	11,38,541	400.45
1992-93	10,98,115	440.85
1993-94	11,51,150	460.62
1994-95	12,65,287	586.34
1995-96	13,61,036	748.50
1996-97	12,89,947	748.58
1997-98	13,32,377	806.26
1998-99	13,69,688	854.30
1999-2000	15,03,181	1019.71
2000-2001	13,83,593	1094.14
2001-2002	13,90,394	1264.20
2002-2003 (upto Feb '03)	14,11,721	1444.31
2001-2002 (upto Feb '02)	12,42,023	1107.17

The percentage of revenue growth 2002-2003 in comparison to the revenue mobilisation for the corresponding period in the last year is 30.45%. This is indeed a very impressive performance of the Department.

ii) Documents referred to Special Deputy Collector (Stamps) under Sec.47-A(1) of the Indian Stamp Act

The executants of the documents are required to indicate the true market value of the property in the document. To ensure that market value of the property has been truly setforth in the document, the registering officers refer to the Guideline Value Registers supplied to them. If there is any difference between the value setforth in the document and the value arrived at by following the Guideline Values and if the executant does not agree to pay the stamp duty for the difference in value, the registering officer on satisfaction of prima facie under valuation, is required to refer the document to the Special Deputy Collector(Stamps) under Section 47-A(1) of the Indian Stamp Act, for determining the market value of the property. The Special Deputy Collector(Stamps) inspects the property and conducts local enquiries to fix true market value. There are 2 posts of District Revenue Officer(Stamps), one at Chennai and the other at Coimbatore and 9 posts of Special Deputy Collectors (Stamps) at Tiruchirapalli, Madurai, Salem, Vellore, Cuddalore, Thanjavur, Tirunelveli, Thoothikudi and Virudhunagar for undertaking this function.

An analysis of the performance of the above officers, revealed pendency of a large number of documents for determination of market value of the property for years together. It was also noticed that the number of documents being referred to them has been on the increase year after year. On account of this, the Public are put to much inconvenience as the registrants have to wait for years to get back their registered documents. Besides, revenue due to Government in terms of stamp duty and registration fee running into several crores of rupees had remained uncollected for considerable period of time. With a view to bringing about an improvement in the situation, the Government announced the Samadhan Scheme 2002. Besides, in order to ensure that these problems do not occur again, the Government have decided to notify the Revenue Divisional Officers/Sub-Collectors/ Assistant Collectors as Collectors under section 2(9)(b) of the Indian Stamp Act to function under Section 47(A) of the said Act for determination of market value of the properties.

In respect of documents of sale, exchange, gift, mortgage with possession, transfer of such mortgage and leases in perpetuity, transfer duty at the rate of 5% is also collected in addition to stamp duty. In the case of Municipalities and Corporations, out of the amount collected as transfer duty, 5 % is retained as collection charges by this Department and the remaining 95% of the transfer duty is allocated to the Corporations and Municipalities concerned. In respect of Town Panchayats and Village Panchayats, 3% is retained as collection charges by this Department and 97% is allocated to the Town Panchayats and Village Panchayats concerned.

Indents for the required quantity of judicial and non-judicial stamp papers, (other than postal stamps) for the whole of Tamil Nadu is prepared by the Superintendent of Stamps, Chennai and forwarded to the Controller of Stamps, India Security Press, Nasik and National Security Press, Hyderabad. The Regional Deputy Director of Treasuries and Accounts, Chennai is the ex-officio Superintendent of Stamps. He is assisted by an Assistant Superintendent of Stamps. All possible efforts are being taken to ensure the availability of Stamps to the Public and also to prevent unscrupulous elements from creating artificial scarcity of stamps.

Franking of documents in lieu of use of stamp papers is allowed in the interest of Public. For this purpose, franking machines have been installed in 15 Sub-Registrar Offices.

(a) For selling stamp papers to the Public, stamp vendors are appointed by the Department. The activities of the stamp vendors are supervised and regulated by the District Registrars and other higher officers in the Registration Department.

All the sub registrars act as ex-officio stamp vendors to sell stamp papers. They are also empowered to affix adhesive stamps on instruments and are authorised to accept cash under section 41 of the Indian Stamp Act, in lieu of non-judicial stamps without any monetary ceiling in respect of some instruments. The ceiling limit of stock of non-judicial stamp papers in the registration offices have been enhanced in G.O.Ms.No.22, Commercial Taxes Department, dated 10.3.2003 so as to enable the public to get the stamp papers without any difficulty. The enhanced limits are as follows:

Sl No.	Nature of Office	Earlier limit	Enhanced limit
1	Sub-Registrar offices	Rs.30000	Rs.60000
2	Sub-Registrar Offices in the cadre of District Registrar	Rs.50000	Rs.100000
3	Original Records Branch in the District Registrar Offices	Rs.75000	Rs.150000

For speedy delivery of certified copies of documents to registrants, 40 Photocopier machines will be installed in registration offices in 2003-04 at a cost of Rs.46.60 lakhs.

As per the Indian Registration (Filing of True Copies) Rules 1967, every document presented for registration shall be accompanied with a copy of the document. The document shall be hand-written or typed neatly, legibly and correctly. "The Tamil Nadu Copy Writers Licence Rules 1971" which came into effect from 2.4.1971, provides for issue of licences to persons who have passed the test prescribed for Copy Writers and to Typists who possess the required qualification to prepare copies of documents.

Under the Tamil Nadu Document Writers Licence Rules 1982, examination is conducted to test the knowledge in Registration Act and the Stamp Act for granting licence to write non-testamentary documents. There are three category of licences depending on the territorial jurisdiction i.e., State Licence, District Licence and Sub-district Licence.

As per the Tamilnadu Societies Registration Act 1975, the Inspector General of Registration and all District Registrars are Registrars within their respective jurisdiction. The Inspector General of Registration is the appellate authority against the orders passed by the District Registrars. There are 1,15,803 registered Societies under this Act as on 31.01.2003.

Conduct of Chits in Tamil Nadu is governed by the Chit Funds Act, 1982 and the Tamil Nadu Chit Fund Rules 1984. The Inspector General of Registration is the Registrar of Chits. One Additional Registrar of Chits in the cadre of Additional Inspector General of Registration and one Personal Assistant (Chits) in the cadre of District Registrar assist the Inspector General of Registration in monitoring the activities of Chits. The Deputy Inspectors General of Registration and District Registrars are appointed as Joint Registrar of Chits in their respective jurisdiction under the Chit Funds Act, 1982. In addition, there are 47 Sub Registrars working as Inspector of Chits to attend to the work relating to Chits in the Districts. There are 3 Special Chit Arbitrators at Chennai (North), Chennai (South & Central) and Coimbatore for Chit arbitration cases.

There are 2506 active Chit companies in Tamil Nadu as on 31-1-2003. The number of Chit groups conducted by them are 28,412 with the security deposits to the tune of Rs. 329.81 Crores upto 31-1-2003 in the year 2002-03.

The number of cases filed before the Chit Arbitrators during the year 2002-2003 is 5586. The number of cases disposed off by the Chit Arbitrators is 4810. The number of cases pending before the Chit Arbitrators is 4113 as on 31.1.2003.

To save the innocent public from being cheated by unscrupulous Chit conducting companies, periodical checks are conducted by the department. The officials of the Registration Department are keeping strict vigil over the conduct of unauthorised chits.

To detect unauthorised chits and other irregularities committed by the Chit Fund Companies, a Chit Vigilance Cell has been formed which is headed by the Additional Registrar of Chits. The Personal Assistant (Chits) to Inspector General of Registration and Chit Inspectors of Chennai – North, South and Central are members of the Cell. Number of prosecutions as on 31.1.2003 is 215 and Rs.37499/- has been collected as penalty.

All the District Registrars are Registrars of firms under this Act. A firm can be registered by filing a statement in Form-I and any change in the constitution of the firm should also be filed under this Act. The Registrar shall file the statement after making necessary entries in the Register of Firms. To get information regarding the functioning of a firm, the Tamil Nadu Partnership (Registration of Firms) Rules 1932 has been amended requiring the firms to file declarations of satisfactory functioning compulsorily every year. There are 3,85,057 registered Firms as on 31-1-2003 under this Act.

Registration of Marriages already solemnised between Hindus is done under the Hindu Marriage Act . Extracts of marriages registered are being issued by the Sub Registrars. All sub Registrars are Registrars of Marriages under this Act.

Marriages of any form are registered under this Act. All District Registrars and Sub Registrars are appointed as Marriage officers under this Act within their jurisdiction. Marriages are solemnised by the Marriage officers. Notice of intended marriages has to be filed with the Marriage officer and on the expiry of 30 days, with no objection being raised for the marriage, the marriage is solemnised by the Marriage Officer. iii) Indian Christian Marriages Act, 1872

Marriages between Indian Christians are solemnised by licencees under the Act and by priests. Extracts of marriages solemnised under this act are issued at the office of the Inspector General of Registration.

With a view to providing quick services and ensuring transparency by suitably harnessing IT enabled operations in Registration Department, it has been proposed to computerize all the 600 Sub Registrar Offices and 50 District Registrar Offices in a phased manner. So far, 350 offices have been computerised. The remaining 300 offices will be computerised during 2003-2004 for which a sum of Rs.449 lakhs has already been sanctioned. To facilitate faster processing of applications submitted by the public, the Registration department has embarked upon the Project "STAR" (Simplified and Transparent Administration of Registration), an IT enabled service.

With the introduction of IT enabled operations, the Registration Department has remarkably improved its service levels both in terms of quality and speed.

REGiNET is a step towards harnessing the power of IT and communication technologies by establishing a dedicated network among the Registration offices. To begin with, all the Sub Registrar offices in Chennai Corporation limits have been networked under this facility. The above service has been introduced in Erode and Thoothukudi Districts also A Service Centre exclusively set up at the Office of the Deputy Inspector General of Registration, Chennai, uses REGiNET for quality and quick delivery of services. As a result of the power of network connectivity through i-Transfer (a Communication Tool), the data available in all these offices become shareable and information about encumbrance of any property can be accessed from other locations. This will enable the registrants to approach the nearest Sub Registrar Office and avail the services.

A facility for online submission of application for Encumbrance Certificate has also been introduced. The information submitted by the applicants is processed at the Service Centre and the Encumbrance Certificate is kept ready. The applicants can either collect this certificate in person directly by paying the required fee or the certificate can be delivered at the doorsteps through courier service on collection of fee and delivery charges.

An exclusive website has been launched by the Department to ensure transparency in the registration process. The guideline values for all the areas are available in the website. Besides general information, the website also provides details about registration process and public utility forms and model draft documents as downloads. The website is also proposed to be improved to include many more value added services through web enabled solutions.

13. ACTION TAKEN ON THE ANNOUNCEMENTS MADE DURING THE DISCUSSION ON THE DEMAND FOR GRANTS FOR THE YEAR 2002-2003

When the registrants decline to pay the stamp duty as per the guideline value, such documents are referred to the Special Deputy Collector (Stamps) for determination of market value. The number of such documents keeps on increasing year after year thereby delaying the revenue receipt to the Government and also putting the Public to much hardship in getting back their documents. With a view to mitigate the above problem, the Government introduced a 'Samadhan Scheme' for a period of sixty days from 1/10/2002 to 29/11/2002. According to the scheme, the registrants could get back the documents by paying 60% of the difference between the stamp duty payable as per the guideline value and the stamp duty already paid. Under the above scheme, out of 91,101 documents pending (as on 18.4.2002), 50,694 documents were returned on collection of Rs.95.55 crores as stamp duty and registration fee.

During the year 1999, a similar Samadhan scheme was in force for a period of seven months. At that time 36,816 documents were returned resulting in an income of Rs.34.56 crores as stamp duty and registration fee. Thus both in terms of revenue accrued and the number of documents cleared, the Samadhan scheme 2002 was a great success.

All the Sub-Registrar Offices have been provided with Ultra Violet lamps to identify fake stamps. All the registering officers have been authorised to accept cash in lieu of stamp duty without any monetary ceiling in respect of certain instruments by adding a certificate to that effect.

Depending upon the workload of the Sub-Registrar offices, deployment of personnel from the offices with lesser work load to those with higher work load is under consideration.

In furtherance of the assurance made by the Hon'ble Chief Minister on the floor of the Assembly, Government building for the Sub-Registrar Office, Vaniyambadi will be constructed during the year 2003-2004. A sum of Rs.22.55 lakhs has been provided as Part II Scheme in the Budget 2003-04.

O. PANNEERSELVAM,
Minister for Public Works, Prohibition and Excise and Revenue.