India’s second most populous state is seeking to e-verify properties on the blockchain

The Indian state government of Maharashtra is taking steps to ensure the confidentiality of the data related to newly acquired properties to promote consumer confidence and increase the use of electronic registration of newly acquired properties.

Shravan Hardikar, the Inspector General of the Department of Registration and Stamps, said during a press conference held on Tuesday, September 7 in Mumbai that the department would use blockchain technology to avoid duplication of authentic agreement documents, Economic Times reports.

Hardikar stated:

“Blockchain pilot has already been started with banks and other credit institutions, including the Indian Bankers Association. They are being made aware of e-registration documents as questions were raised that electronic documents do not have stamps and signatures, so how can they identify these as original documents .”

He added:

“For this, in the second step, we will have a unique number on these registered property documents, which the bankers can put into the system and match. If it does not match, it means that the document has been tampered with.”

Blockchain is used to prevent manipulation of registration

The main objective of adopting blockchain technology is to prevent duplicate and manipulation of registration that has taken place on an online platform. According to Hardikar, this will safeguard the interests of both property buyers and lenders.

Maharashtra is the first state to allow e-registration of property on first sale. During the Covid-19 epidemic, when it was important to maintain social distance and it was difficult to visit the registration office, the e-registration service was created.

The execution of the procedure up to document registration can be done online under the electronic property registration facility, and house buyers do not need to attend the stamp duty and registration office.

Hardikar claims that with seamless online registration, all such transactions will be completely online in the years to come. The administration must also consider eliminating the need for witnesses during registration.

Elsewhere, in August, through the LegitDoc platform, the Maharashtra State Board of Skill Development (MSBSD) distributed approximately 100,000 verified digital certificates anchored on the Polygon (MATIC) blockchain to provide the greatest degree of data protection, privacy, transparency and cost savings.