The Ministry of Rural Development’s Department of Land Resources has released the draft Registration Bill, 2025, marking a major step towards transforming India’s century-old document registration law. Aimed at replacing the Registration Act of 1908, the Bill seeks to introduce a fully digital, transparent, and citizen-friendly registration system for immovable properties and key legal documents.
The proposed legislation reflects the growing need to update legal frameworks in line with technological advancements, digitisation of public services, and greater reliance on registered documents for property transactions, legal compliance, and public service delivery. Several states have already taken steps under the existing law by enabling online submissions and digital identity verification, but the new Bill aims to unify and standardise these efforts at the national level.
The Registration Bill, 2025 proposes Aadhaar-based identity verification, digital record maintenance, and mandated online registration of key instruments such as agreements to sell, sale certificates, and powers of attorney. These changes are designed to enhance efficiency, reduce fraud, and support real-time validation of ownership and encumbrances.
Shekhar G. Patel, President, CREDAI, welcomed the move, calling it a much-needed reform in India’s real estate landscape:
“The Central Government’s proposal to enable fully online registration of immovable property marks a landmark reform and a long-overdue modernisation of India’s real estate ecosystem. By mandating digital registration of key documents, including agreements to sell, powers of attorney, and sale certificates, the draft bill addresses long-standing procedural gaps that often-caused ambiguity and delays. This will significantly enhance transparency, reduce fraud, and improve ease of doing business for developers while providing greater legal assurance to homebuyers. A standout feature is the integration of Aadhaar-based identity verification and digital maintenance of land and property records. These measures pave the way for government-certified property titles, essential for introducing title insurance and demat-style ownership transfer, where property transactions become as seamless as stock trading. Furthermore, linking registration systems with other official databases will ensure the real-time validation of ownership and encumbrances, thereby reducing litigation and enhancing buyer confidence. This reform will enhance the ease of doing business across high-growth urban corridors and Tier 2 & 3 cities alike. Overall, the reform lays the foundation for a unified, transparent, and tech-enabled registration ecosystem, benefiting homebuyers, developers, and investors, while accelerating formalisation and long-term real estate sectoral growth.”
A key feature of the draft Bill is the proposed introduction of DIGIPIN, a geo-coded address identification system intended to improve accuracy in property location referencing. However, legal experts suggest a nuanced view of its potential.
Vivek K. Chandy, Joint Managing Partner, JSA Advocates and Solicitors, said:
“While the postal index number (PIN code) system has worked well in India, a DIGIPIN appears to be like the PIN code which covers a much smaller area (using a grid system with geographical coordinates). This concept is not alien, since certain places like the United Kingdom have successfully implemented postal codes which reflect such precision/ accuracy (unlike PIN codes in India/ ZIP codes in the USA which cover a locality or a region).
The common perception of calling a DIGIPIN an ‘Aadhaar for Addresses’ appears misplaced, since no personal identification information is associated with a DIGIPIN. The DIGIPIN is independent of the buildings/structures and is not linked with or provide information about persons or property. This alleviates any privacy concerns about the DIGIPIN. The DIGIPIN is designed to be permanent (irrespective of changes to the names/ infrastructure of the roads/localities/cities/states where the area specified is situated).
Introducing the DIGIPIN will improve navigational accuracy in the logistics sector, as delivery personnel can enter the alphanumeric code to figure out the location of a house/ property.
However, this will only supplement the traditional address and PIN code system in place, and cannot be a stand-alone property identification system. In my view, while this is a good initiative, it will definitely be more useful in rural areas, and not so much in urbanised metros, where the GPS system (which geotags buildings) is commonly used.”
As part of the pre-legislative consultative process, the draft Registration Bill, 2025 is now available on the Department of Land Resources website (https://dolr.gov.in). Public suggestions are invited until June 25, 2025, in a prescribed format.
If implemented, the Bill could set the stage for a digitally unified and legally robust registration system, aligning with the government’s broader vision of technology-driven governance and service delivery.
