Unveiling the Flaws in Maharashtra’s Land Registration System

Pune: The widening probe into the Mundhwa land deal linked to deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar’s son Parth has placed suspended sub-registrar Ravindra Taru at the center of controversy over unchecked authority in Maharashtra’s property registration system. Taru, who granted a full stamp duty exemption for the Mundhwa plot despite the land being ineligible, and Vidya Bade Sangale, who was suspended in a separate irregular land transfer in Tathawade, now stand as markers of a deeper institutional flaw: sub-registrars wielding wide discretion in high-value transactions with minimal real-time monitoring.

The decisions taken at the registration desk without complete verification of land classification, eligibility for exemptions, or ownership chain, have triggered criminal cases and intensified scrutiny of how the state’s registration apparatus functions in districts like Pune, where the pace of land transactions is high and oversight remains weak.

In the Mundhwa controversy, Taru used his statutory authority under the Registration Act to approve the deed and extend a 100% exemption from stamp duty by treating the plot as Mahar Vatan land, despite the land not meeting the criteria. Officials familiar with the inquiry stated that Taru did not verify critical supporting documents or cross-check the land’s actual status in government records before granting the exemption. The decision directly enabled the registration of a transaction valued at several hundred crore rupees without stamp duty, prompting his suspension and an FIR filed by the IGR office.

The Tathawade irregularity involving sub-registrar Vidya Bade Sangale has unfolded in a similar pattern. Sangale allegedly approved changes in property ownership and processed transactions without reconciling discrepancies in earlier entries, land classification, and the applicability of stamp duty. Her suspension, along with Taru’s, has aligned two separate cases into a larger narrative of procedural lapses and discretionary interpretations by officers who function as near-final authorities in major land deals.

Rajendra Muthe, joint Inspector General of Registration (IGR), who is heading the committee examining the Mundhwa case and is expected to submit his report by Monday, said the failures were fundamental and avoidable.

“In the Mundhwa as well as Tathawade cases, the sub-registrar should have cross-checked the documents carefully, which did not happen. That is the reason why the IGR office has filed cases against them,” Muthe said. His committee is scrutinising not just the transaction but the broader mechanisms that allow sub-registrars to determine land status, interpret exemptions, assess duty, and register documents with limited supervisory checks.

The controversy has revived attention to earlier lapses in Pune’s registration offices. In September 2023, a land deal in Baner exposed another instance of unchecked discretion. At the Haveli No. 24 office, joint sub-registrar SP Bhatambekar registered a sale deed for a 1,40,264 sq m plot between Mohannagar Cooperative Housing Society and the developer Kumar & Potnis. Instead of collecting ₹24.90 crore in stamp duty, Bhatambekar levied only ₹500, treating it as a basic registration fee. The state government suspended him immediately, transferred him to Gadchiroli, and imposed strict restrictions on his movement and employment, noting in its government resolution that the action had caused a revenue loss of nearly ₹25 crore.

Chandrashekhar Bawankule, revenue minister, Maharashtra, has repeatedly criticised the registration and stamps department for irregular ownership changes and manipulation of records. In May this year, he publicly warned that several officials had unlawfully altered land ownership entries in the past four years, creating confusion and hardships for homebuyers who later discovered discrepancies in their documents. He pointed to a nexus between officials and middlemen, alleging that genuine owners’ names were replaced to facilitate transactions, allowing construction to proceed on disputed or improperly transferred plots, ultimately leaving buyers to bear the consequences. Bawankule had indicated that the government was considering forming a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe a large number of such cases in Pune district.

The ongoing inquiries have now highlighted systemic flaws rather than isolated misjudgments. Under the Registration Act, sub-registrars hold substantial authority: they verify ownership, determine land categories, decide eligibility for exemptions, and approve registration documents without requiring prior clearance from senior officials. In busy urban areas such as Pune, this autonomy has effectively placed them in charge of executing—and sometimes interpreting—high-stakes land transactions worth hundreds of crores.

Senior officers admit that the absence of real-time audits, automated eligibility checks, and cross-verification with digital land records has allowed questionable transactions to slip through unchecked.

With two suspended officers, criminal cases filed, and multiple probes underway, the controversy has forced the department to confront longstanding gaps in its regulatory framework.