The Madras High Court on Tuesday issued notice in a PIL challenging the mandatory online registration of documents in Tamil Nadu. The petition was filed in view of infrastructural deficiencies and ensuing practical difficulties, apart from privacy concerns.

The plea filed by M Sinnaraj, agriculturalist and Secretary of the RTI Association at Coimbatore, points out,

“Online registration could become fully successful, only when the entire general public as well as all the Sub-Registrars and their staff working under them are fully become conversant and well-versed on the subject. More so, only when the State or its instrumentals create infrastructure like storing data in its server, the online registration is in great danger and risk in the hands of private organizations. Till such time, the insistence of only online registration, without keeping available alternative parallel remedy of manual registration, would create havoc and chaos among the public….

… when Tamil Nadu has not become E- state fully so far as Registration Department is concerned, compelling the public to do registration only online, will cause not only inconvenience but also it may develop a sense of hatred and aversion on the system itself in the minds of the public.”

Following preliminary arguments made by Advocate Richard Wilson for the petitioner, the Bench of Justices M Sathyanarayanan and N Seshasayee issued notice returnable by three weeks.

The petitioner highlights that government officials themselves are not equipped to implement the system, as evident from recurring issuance of circulars on how to implement the system.

Apart from a concern raised that these circulars appear to have no underlying legislative sanction, the petitioner points out,

“All these (circulars) go to show that the Registration Department is still not fully ready and conversant with the on- line procedure. Even as on date, a number of difficulties are experienced by the general public.”

The insistence on online registration alone is also detrimental to persons who are from remote or rural locations, the plea contends. The process may prove cumbersome and incomprehensible to uneducated registrants, it is pointed out.  Owing to infrastructural deficiencies, the token system in place for availing online registration facilities also proves to be a practical inconvenience. As explained in the petition. 

BAR & BENCH