CHENNAI: The state will make online registration compulsory for the first sale of plots and apartments from August 17, 2026, under the ‘Anywhere Registration’ scheme, Minister for Commercial Taxes and Registration D Logesh Tamilselvan said on Tuesday.
Addressing media persons at the Integrated Commercial Taxes and Registration Department Office in Chennai, the minister said that the move is intended to improve transparency, reduce physical interface with registration offices and enable citizens to submit documents from anywhere at any time through a secure digital platform.
The government on Tuesday also came out with a government order (G.O.) highlighting the first phase of the initiative to make two categories of transactions—the first sale of plots by developers along with the corresponding deposit of title deeds, and the first sale of apartments by builders with the linked mortgage documents—eligible only through an online, presence-less registration process.
Builders and land developers will need to create their own login credentials on the department’s website and submit sale documents online. This would reduce 30% of the crowd visiting the sub registrar office, the minister said.
The move is part of the state government’s broader digital transformation of the registration department, which has progressively evolved from the STAR platform to STAR 2.0 and is now transitioning to the more advanced STAR 3.0 ecosystem.
Unlike the conventional registration process, parties to the transaction will complete document execution online using Aadhaar-based authentication, digital fingerprint verification and photographs of both the executants and attesting witnesses.
The biometric details will be matched with the Aadhaar database to establish identity before the registering authority processes the document.The online process has been designed within the legal framework created through the Registration (Tamil Nadu Amendment) Act, 2021, and the state’s e-Registration Rules, which amended provisions of the Registration Act, 1908, to permit electronic presentation of documents.
Registering officers will continue to examine documents for compliance with statutory requirements before registration, ensuring the same legal validity as documents registered through physical presentation.
The government has directed that the existing citizen charter commitment of same-day registration and return of documents will also apply to the presence-less registration system. Before approving the rollout, the department conducted capacity-building programmes for banks, document writers and others.