Ponkunnam: It was literal seal from the past. Even after 61 years of Kerala state formation, a sub-registrar office in the state has been using seals of the erstwhile Travancore kingdom. After getting to know of this, the officials of the Registration department took possession of it, replacing it with the state government's seals.
The seals used by the sub-registrar office contained the emblem that was allotted to the Kanjirapally sub-registrar office, when it was formed 130 years ago. In 2010, after getting complaints about the use of old seals in many offices in the state, the government had issued orders to replace it.
The seal used in the office had the emblem of the Royal Sree Padmanabha's Conch. This was replaced by a government seal. With this, all sub-registrar office in the state will be using government seals now. But, the old practice of taking thump impressions continues.
The functioning of the Registartion department started in 1865 in Malabar, 1868 in Travancore, and 1875 in Kochi. When the Kerala state was formed on November 1, 1956 , the three registration offices were merged to form the new Registartion department of the state.