Paperless Registration for Family Property Deeds
The Government of Tamil Nadu has introduced paperless registration for family property transactions issuing G.O.(MS) No. 149 dated 07.10.2026 through the Commercial Taxes and Registration Department. The online submission and digital processing of
• Settlement Deed (Property transfers executed in favour of family members without monetary consideration)
• Release Deed (Co-owners or Legal Heirs renouncing their share or interest in joint ancestral or family property)
• Partition Deed (Legal Division and allocation of distinct shares of joint family property among co-sharers)
• Revocation of Settlement Deed (Formal cancellation or revocation of previously executed family settlement deeds where legally permissible)
as family arrangement will become mandatory across the state from 02.11.2026.
STEPS INVOLVED
1. Prepare the draft Deed by usual process mentioning all the necessary clauses. The online generated clauses may not be suitable for the transactions within the family members.
2. Online entry of relevant details of the parties and description of the property(s).
3. The parties can either accept the template Deed or change the clauses as per their terms.
4. The deed is now electronically generated, and the concerned Sub-Registrar can process it for digital numbering and stamping.
5. Once the document is generated, it will be available for token, the parties must appear before the Sub-Registrar solely for physical identification and Aadhaar Authentication.
6. Once the authentication completed, the registered document is now available for download in the online portal.
This online registration of the documents is very much awaited especially in the growth of digital economy it will reduce physical paperwork, manual transit of deed, manual stamping and sealing.
Difficulties
However, several practical challenges persist,
i. Error in the online tnreginet portal frequently,
ii. The website freezes while entering the data,
iii. Physical visits of the parties to the registration office still push the public to the conventional way,
iv. The reliance on intermediaries, scheduling delay and heavy crowd during the auspicious days,
v. The property schedule generated by the system is not matching with the present status,
vi. Insisting for the Encumbrance Certificate even though online registration.
These challenges may need to be addressed. So that the property transactions must be easier as bank transactions for public convenience. The changes of clauses in the Deed must be left the parties as auto populated digital partition or settlement deed can cloud property title and trigger future litigation. The proposed online registration must be completely digital like the first plot sale that was introduced.