(This story originally appeared in on Jan 10, 2015)

NEW DELHI: Starting February, Delhiites will be able to pay the registration fee of all documents, including properties, in electronic mode. After introducing e-stamps for payment of stamp duty, Delhi government is now ready to introduce e-registration fee. The aim is to do away with the long and tedious manual payment process and make way for online payment For the first three months the manual mode of payment will be functional to enable smooth transition to the e-mode for the general public. People without internet access will be able to make payments at notified facilitation centres.The divisional commissioner's office has signed an agreement with Stock Holding Corporation of India for providing the payment gateway. Plans are afoot for setting up counters at sub-registrar offices across the capital.All sub-registrars have also been told that they cannot refuse registration of documents without giving the applicant adequate hearing. Guidelines for this have been issued and it will be publicized widely to ensure a better public interface system.As of now, every applicant has to pay the registration fee via a bank draft. This draft is submitted to the sub-registrar's office where verification and processing generally takes between a week and 10 days. It is only after that the document is considered for registration.This long-drawn process will change under the e-registration fee system. A person trying to register a property, a will, or any other document will simply make online payment through Stock Holding Corporation of India website or visit their counters. As soon as he makes the payment an acknowledgement will reach the person by an SMS on the mobile phone or an e-mail. The message will inform that the receipt of the payment can be collected from any of the facilitation counters or notified payment centres of Stock Holding Corporation of India. Once they will get an e-registration receipt they can submit with the e-stamp document to the registrar office.Not only will this save time, but officials feel the registration will be sealed faster as the sub-registrar will just need to check the unique number of the e-registration receipt on his computer and issue the document. Officials said this will not only speed up registration of properties, but in documents such as a will where stamp duty is not levied, it will bring down procedural layers to zero.