Bangalore: The Revenue Department has suspended a Sub-Registrar who allegedly issued unauthorised notices to apartment owners to pay additional stamp duty, long after they had registered their properties through the builder.

The action against the Sub-Registrar was taken in response to a case brought to the notice of the Revenue Secretary by the Coalition Against Corruption (CAC) led by the Public Affairs Centre and four other non-governmental organisations.

Two months ago, Muralidhar Rao, who lives in a new apartment in Koramangala, learnt that some of his neighbours had received notices from the Sub-Registrar's Office in Gandhinaagar asking them to pay arrears of stamp duty for their properties registered about a year ago. The notices accused the flat owners of undervaluing the property by 60 per cent. Since the stamp duty was paid according to the guidance value notified by the Government, the flat owners thought the notices were not fair.

As flat owners' association president, Mr. Rao took up their cases with CAC. Soon after, he was served a similar notice but others were spared; it appeared to be random and therefore suspect. Some of the affected flat owners contacted the builder with their problem and soon were in talks with a lawyer to "negotiate terms" with the Sub-Registrar's Office. Apparently, similar notices had been served on 100 flat owners on Banerghatta Road.

The deal "negotiated" for both these groups was to be a package, CAC found. It would cost each flat owner Rs. 20,000. Of this amount, Rs. 7,000 was to be paid in cash at the Sub-Registrar's Office, Rs. 7,000 was the lawyer's fee and Rs. 6,000 would be paid to the treasury. It was found that many flat owners were non-resident Indians and did not have time to deal with such issues.

While these negotiations were on, CAC arranged a meeting for Mr. Rao with the Revenue Secretary. At the meeting, he was told that all affected parties should be advised to refrain from acting on the notices. Suspension of the Sub-Registrar followed immediately. CAC was launched six months ago to help citizens fight corruption and has two help lines available Monday to Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (ph: 57734444/41105161). Other details can be had from cacblr@gmail.com.

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