IG bans direct registration of plots less than 2 gunthas in size

PUNE The Inspector general (IG) of registration and stamps has banned the direct registration of plots of land up to two gunthas in size

PUNE The Inspector general (IG) of registration and stamps has banned the direct registration of plots of land up to two gunthas in size. Unless the land layout is ratified by the district collector, registrations will not be done, the order, issued on Sunday stated.

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The GR states that it had been observed that many buyers were directly registering a minimum of one or two gunthas, as part of a larger parcel of land, in violation of the law.

“Only smaller pieces of land which have a proper legal layout as envisaged by the government and approved by the district collector and competent authority can be can be registered,” the GR stated.

However, developers have opposed the GR. A member of a developers’ association in Pune, on condition of anonymity, claimed that if one or two gunthas of land cannot be directly registered, it would affect a large number of middle-class citizens, who cannot afford to buy flats measured by square feet. “Citizens who are poor and small landholders can construct their own houses on one or two gunthas of land at affordable costs,” the developer said.

The state government in March passed the “gunthewari scheme” bill to regularise unauthorised small plots by December 31, 2020, which will legalise constructions 20-years old under the scheme, a move that will largely benefit the recently merged villages in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) limits. The state government had first introduced the “gunthewari” scheme on January 1, 2001, under the Maharashtra Gunthewari Developments (Regulation, Upgradation and Control) Act.

The government then took a decision at a state cabinet meeting to revive the scheme in a new format and regularise gunthewari construction up to December 31, 2020.

Gunthewari is known as a method invoked to measure land as per the Gunthewari act. The practice of creating small plots of agricultural land in multiple gunthas (1,089 sqft) was illegal and hence, carrying out constructions on “gunthewari” land was also illegal.