Resume registration of property sale deeds: Colonisers to govt

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, October 5

Upset over the stoppage of registration of sale deeds of all kinds of properties in the state, the Punjab Colonisers and Property Dealers Association has urged the state government to withdraw the condition of ‘no objection certificate’ (NOC) and put an end to the “suffering” of property developers as well as plot and property owners.

Govt facing loss of revenue

As a result of non-registration of sale deeds without NOCs, and even without going into merits and demerits of each case, the public is allegedly being harassed and in addition, the government is suffering a huge loss of revenue as income from stamp duty has dropped by a whopping 70 per cent.

City-based developer GS Lamba, who heads the association, said a memorandum in this regard had been submitted to Punjab Minister for Revenue and Rehabilitation Aruna Choudhry saying that in the wake of certain observations made by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in the disposal of a PIL (CWP-PIL 133), officials of the Revenue Department had stopped registration of sale deeds without NOC.

As a result of non-registration of sale deeds without NOCs, and even without going into merits and demerits of each case, the public were being harassed and in addition, the government was suffering a huge loss of revenue as income from stamp duty had dropped by a whopping 70 per cent.

In accordance with the prevailing policy, NOCs could only be granted to plots or buildings falling in illegal colonies (developed before March 2018) whereas properties located in colonies carved before 1995, stand alone properties, ‘rural abbadi’ properties, those in approved colonies and declared colonies by local bodies did not require any NOC for registration. “NOC cannot be demanded for properties that are not contravening any law of land,” the colonisers maintained.

Through the memorandum, the body of property developers has said the entire mechanism for registration of sale deeds of properties should not be paralysed without making any clear-cut policy in this respect. It should be clearly specified as to which plots or properties required NOC and proper arrangements be made at the tehsil level or at ‘suvidha centres’ for issuing NOCs to all eligible properties.

The developers have urged the government that keeping in view of interests of the common man, instructions be issued to the Revenue Department to resume registration of sale deeds at the earliest which would give much needed fillip to the crisis-ridden property and real estate business.

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