India's Land Title Crisis: The Unanswered Questions

Abstract:     
This article calls into question the Government of India’s National Land Records Modernization Programme, a massive, multi-lakh billion rupee program of land titling based upon the principles underlying Torren Registration. It argues that the Union Government would be better advised to preserve and update the current deeds registration system of the Registration Act. Torrens registration is ill-suited to the current state of Indian governance, and risks not only wasting scarce resources, but injuring those millions of low-income farmers that it is intended to assist. Better methods of empowering low-income rural farmers exist and can be achieved at much lower cost. The paper thus also suggests that in many areas of the Global South, the rush to Torrens registration could represent both another episode of failed economic development planning and a missed opportunity for genuine legal justice for the poor.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 34

Keywords: property law, Torren Registration, India's title system, economic development

Accepted Paper Series