The audit comes in the wake of the suspension of five sub-registrars last week (Express photo enhanced by ChatGPT)
The Stamps and Registration Department of Karnataka has launched a comprehensive statewide audit to investigate fraudulent property registrations citing court orders on the Kaveri 2.0 portal, said officials Monday. This was after the Department discovered the fraudulent use of the exemptions provided in the property registration software to issue several sale deeds.
The Kaveri 2.0 portal, designed to prevent manual tampering, generally requires an e-khata or digital property record to proceed with registration. However, a specific workflow intended for court-ordered registrations was allegedly exploited in these property registrations.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Mullai Muhilan MP, Inspector General of Registration and Commissioner of Stamps, said that investigations into such registrations in the state were ongoing. “We are checking such registrations across the state. We are conducting an audit on that,” he said.
The audit comes in the wake of the suspension of five sub-registrars last week. They allegedly misused the court order-based registration option to register properties for which there were no court orders. This lapse first came to light at the Sarjapur sub-registrar office in Bengaluru.
On whether such registrations could be cancelled, Muhilan said there were provisions in the law for the same. “We will take a call by looking at the scale (of irregularities),” he said.
Sources in the Department, meanwhile, confirmed that a Rs 250-crore deal between tech giant Infosys and real-estate firm Puravankara is also under review. Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda had said recently that the government is looking into the transaction.
“Though Infosys is the owner of the property, they have registered the sale using the court order option. Since the transaction took place at the Sarjapur sub-registrar office, where several lapses were recently found, the Department is looking into that particular transaction also,” a source said.
Though the property was not undervalued during the sale, the Department is looking into why the e-khata was not used while registering the sale deed, according to the source.
Last week, the Department suspended five sub-registrars in Bengaluru for fraudulent registration of several properties between December 6, 2024 and December 5, 2025.
Curated by James Chen
