New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday said property laws have long sustained a dichotomy between registration and ownership, and suggested adoption of blockchain technology, which has garnered particular attention for its potential to transform land registration into a more secure, transparent and tamper-proof system. The apex court has directed the law commission to examine the usage of blockchain technology for restructuring our property registration process.
A bench comprising justices P S Narasimha and Joymalya, in the context of reformation of land registration processes and to eschew fraudulent/ multiple registration, said blockchain technology has garnered particular attention for its potential to transform land registration into a more secure, transparent and tamper-proof system.
The bench said property purchase has not been easy; it is not difficult to find people grudgingly telling us that it is, in fact, traumatic. The present system of presumptive title through registration is also the primary contributor to the high volume of land-related litigation in India. “Property disputes account for an estimated 66% of all civil cases. More than a century has passed by, and we must dare to think and look for alternatives”, said the bench.
“The legal framework for the purchase and sale of immovable properties suffers from several systemic deficiencies that undermine reliability, transparency and efficiency. There are problems relating to i) fake and fraudulent property documents, ii) rights and liabilities, iii) land encroachments, iv) delay in verification processes, and v) role of intermediaries, etc”, noted the bench.
“It is suggested that adoption of Blockchain technology would ensure immutability, transparency and traceability, thereby minimising fraud and unauthorised alterations”, said the bench.
A System That Can’t Be Retroactively Altered Without Detection
The bench said blockchain technology is said to offer an alternative paradigm by encoding land titles, ownership histories, encumbrances, and by recording transfers on a distributed Ledger in an immutable and time-stamped form.
Justice Narasimha, who authored the judgment on behalf of the bench, said each entry, once validated into the distributed ledger, becomes part of a cryptographically linked chain of information that cannot be retroactively altered without detection. “This property of immutability could enhance the integrity of title records and strengthen public trust in the ownership framework. This cryptographic immutability could perhaps address the structural fragility of the Indian record-keeping system”, he said.
Justice Narasimha said the blockchain design could integrate cadastral maps, survey data, and revenue records into a single verifiable framework, which, while maintaining a transparent audit trail, is accessible to multiple departments and the public.
The bench said there is now a possibility of overcoming the binary that our laws have created in maintaining a register for transfers for long, but have neither granted credibility nor conclusiveness of title.
