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

The Indian state government of Maharashtra is taking steps to ensure the confidentiality of the data associated with newly purchased properties in order to foster consumer trust and increase the use of electronic registration of newly acquired real estate. 

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

Hardikar stated:

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

He added: 

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

Blockchain used to prevent manipulation of registration

The primary objective of the adoption of blockchain technology is to prevent duplicate and manipulation of registration that has taken place on an online platform. According to Hardikar, this would safeguard the interests of property purchasers as well as lenders.

Notbably, Maharashtra is the first state to allow e-registration of first-sale real estate. During the Covid-19 epidemic, when preserving social distance was important and visiting the registration office was difficult, the e-registration service was created. 

The execution of the procedure till document registration may be done online under the facility of online property registration, and house purchasers do not need to attend the stamp duty and registration office.

Hardikar claims that with seamless online registration, all such transactions would be entirely online in the future years. The administration is also said to be considering eliminating the necessity for witnesses at the time of 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, openness, and cost savings. 

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