Compulsory property card rule relaxed - Gujarat State Govt.

Now anyone who can produce papers to prove ownership of property can register sale deal with state government

Unable to provide smart cards to all property holders within a year, the state government has relaxed its rule regarding mandatory property card. Last year, the state government had instituted smart cards to relieve property owners of the burden of producing volumes of papers to prove their ownership. The government had made it compulsory for owners to furnish these cards during property deals.
“Now, anyone who can prove their ownership of a property can register the deal,” said Lochan Sahera, Superintendent of Stamps.
The announcement for smart cards was made in July 2009. Initially, it was to be issued only to high-rise flat owners. The cards contained minute details of a property including its carpet area and house number. Property cards gave flat owners realistic figures on the area of their flats. The flat owners usually don’t have an idea about the carpet area of their apartments because builders charge them on the basis of super built-up area. The smart cards cleared this confusion, as it had details of the carpet area of flats.
Later, the government decided to issue the cards for all property owners.
Anyone selling or reselling their property — old or new — had to show the card to register the deal. The rule was implemented to lend authenticity to land ownership records and prevent illegal sale using fake documents.
However, the government was unsuccessful in providing smart cards to all owners. In fact, it was unable to distribute cards to even half of the property owners in Ahmedabad.
According to figures given by AMC property tax department, there are 15 lakh properties in Ahmedabad. This includes flats, shops, factories and plots, too. The government was unable to complete its task in a year as it did not have proper records of all properties. Shortage of staff was another reason.
On an average, 450 properties are sold in a day in Ahmedabad. Several property deals got cancelled when owners were unable to furnish the cards.
After the government received several complaints in this regard, it withdrew the rule making property card mandatory for the sale of a property. Deputy Collector (Stamps) J D Patel said, “We are still issuing cards. But we have changed the rules to make it easier to carry out property deals. We will accept any documents that proves a person’s ownership of the property.”