Jammu, Mar 28: In a move which is likely to face strong opposition from the legal fraternity, Jammu and Kashmir government Monday introduced a Bill in the state Legislative Assembly seeking re-organisation of hierarchy for Registration Establishment across the state.
 The Bill, Registration Act (Amendment), Samvat 1977, moved by Minister for Finance, AR Rather has proposed establishment of a separate registration authority by appointing Additional Inspector General of Registration, Joint Inspector General of Registration and Deputy Inspector General of Registration.
 Presently registration of all kinds of documents, including for transfer of immovable and moveable property, is being done by Registrars and Sub-Registrars, powers of which have been delegated to the judicial officers of subordinate judiciary across the state.
 Rather said the amendments in some of the existing definition clauses of the Registration act have been proposed so as to make them broad based and to include the provision for making use of the information storage devices like floppy, disc, hard disc, compact disc, etc within its scope.
 He said Section 7 of the Act has been amended to pave way for re-organization of the hierarchy for Registration Establishment. This amendment empow4ers the government to appoint Additional Inspector General of Registration, Joint Inspector General of Registration and Deputy Inspector General of Registration and prescribe duties for them and  shall be instrumental in setting up a single authority for registration and stamps.
 If allowed the registration authority shall be empowered to keep the prescribed books in electronic devices like floppies, disketes or in any other electronic form.
 It also makes provision for refund of any excess fee paid, adding that with the proposed amendment in the existing section 81 the incorrect filing of true copy of instrument will be an offence.
 Various Bar Associations in Jammu region have already shown their resentment over the government move to transfer the registrations powers from the judicial officers. Following the one day strike by majority of the Bar Associations in Jammu region, the finance minister AR Rather had informed the House that the issue being raised by lawyers was premature as no such bill has been tabled in the House yet.

Stamp Act
 The FM also introduced a Bill to amend the Stamp Act samvat 1977 in the legislative Assembly today.
 Rather while spelling out objectives behind the amendment said the proposed amendments in various provisions of the Stamp Act are aimed at streamlining the stamp administration in the State in tune with the latest advancement in technology and also to bring it at par with the Central Stamp Act.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 28 Mar 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 28 Mar 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 29 Mar 2011 00:00:00 IST