Maharashtra Property Rule Changes: Aiming to curb fraud, impersonation and the misuse of fake witnesses, Maharashtra has made Aadhaar-based identity verification mandatory for registering property-related documents from October 1.

The Maharashtra government issued a gazette notification on Wednesday announcing the implementation. Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule said the decision was taken on the directions of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

As per the new rules, Aadhaar will not only be mandatory for property registration but for a total of 63 categories of document registration.

This includes sale, purchase, partition deed, and mortgages among others. The government said that the new measure intends to strengthen identity verification. Moreover, Aadhaar-based verification is expected to make document registration efficient and transparent as it would require less human intervention.

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Registration for those without Aadhaar

Those without an Aadhaar number yet can get the property-related documents by submitting the acknowledgement receipt for their Aadhaar enrolment application and another government-issued identity document.

The applicant will also have to produce a document establishing the relationship of a person involved in the transaction with other parties as per requirement.

Once all the documents are verified and the identities are confirmed, the registration will proceed.

For children

In case of children being the party in the agreement, Aadhaar enrolment application will be required with the consent of the child's parents or any legal guardian.

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The government has stressed that the benefit of document registration can not be denied to eligible beneficiaries, including children, solely on the basis of unavailability of Aadhaar.

The provision aims to ensure that the new identity-verification mandate does not prevent eligible parties from completing legitimate registrations.