Thiruvananthapuram: In a significant move, a new law mandating the provision of a special ownership certificate for additional land discovered within properties owned by individuals during the digital survey is set to come into force. This draft law, prepared by the Revenue Department, is awaiting approval from the Law Department. Once cleared by the state cabinet, it will be presented as a bill in the upcoming Assembly session.

Despite a resurvey conducted in the state in 1960, followed by a digital survey two years ago, property owners currently do not receive any documentation for additional land in their possession. In the digital survey, after assessing that the measured area is accurate, a special ownership document will be provided to adjust for any excess land compared to previous survey records.

A decision on the application process and fee for obtaining the document will be made during a high-level meeting convened by Revenue Minister K Rajan. However, this will have to be determined only after the rules are framed.

The promulgation of the new law aims to address a long-standing issue faced by property owners in the state. The new bill aims to grant documents for additional land without ownership disputes while ensuring no decrease in the area of government land adjacent to private properties.

To regularize ownership rights, one of the top revenue officials, such as the Tehsildar, Deputy Collector, or RDO, will be designated with the authority of a civil court. This official will also have the authority to resolve disputes and handle complaints.

Ownership documents; benefits
Even if an individual possesses 50 cents of land, but government documents show ownership for just 40 cents, the individual is only permitted to transact or pledge what is shown in the documents. However, people often transact the additional land within a property by referring to its presence in the land registration documents using different terminologies. But at the same time, nobody is willing to pay for this land that is in possession as shown in the actual document, and banks do not grant loans against such additional land. With the introduction of a new law, property owners will be able to register the additional land and pay the land tax for it.