Regn dept delays rental agreement software update as citizens raise concerns

Pune: The state registration department has postponed the launch of its updated rental agreement software from April 1 to April 11 following concerns raised by stakeholders.
Officials said they would address several critical issues before rolling out the Rental Agreement 2.0 system.
"We have been instructed to examine all concerns raised by the associations. We are working closely with NIC to implement necessary corrections before the launch," said a senior official of the department.
An association representing property owners, tenants and legal professionals formally appealed to the Inspector General of Registration (IGR) to resolve multiple issues — including cybersecurity risks associated with Aadhaar verification, name formatting problems and absence of authorised service providers.
The association's president Sachin Shingavi submitted their demands to the state IGR on Friday and this led to the postponement. "We presented around 30 demands. If the pressing issues aren't addressed before the department proceeds with the software upgrade, online tenant registration will be problematic. We're pleased they have acknowledged our concerns and delayed the launch," he told TOI.
The association highlighted cybersecurity vulnerabilities with the proposed Aadhaar OTP-based verification, recommending alternative authentication methods — including email verification, biometric scanning and iris recognition. These alternatives would particularly benefit NRIs who frequently encounter difficulties with phone-based verification systems.
They also advocated reinstatement of authorised service providers discontinued in 2019 and recommended integrating the new system with existing databases — including land records, municipal tax registers and electricity billing systems — to enable automatic ownership verification and prevent fraudulent property transactions.
Other issues included problems with document rejection processes. Citizens also cannot use payments made through the Pay2IGR system in offline mode and are unable to edit information or update party details when sub-registrar offices check documents.
Registration officials said they would address all the issues before an official launch of the upgraded system.