LUCKNOW, March 11 -- The Uttar Pradesh cabinet on Tuesday approved an amendment to the Registration Act to incorporate provisions to check fraudulent registration of properties in the state. No property will now be registered without checking documents about the property being sold and identification of the owners, etc. The amended provisions will empower the sub-registrar to examine documents of ownership, identification, legal possession and transfer of property, etc. The registration may be refused if the required documents, as may be notified in the official gazette, are not enclosed with the sale deeds. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath presided over the meeting of the state cabinet that approved 30 out of 31 proposals, including the amendment as there have been reports about fraudulent means being adopted to sell fake properties. Such acts lead to number of court cases and cause inconvenience to people. A bill incorporating the amendments would be tabled before the state legislature following approval by the state cabinet. Briefing media persons about the cabinet's decisions, minister for finance Suresh Khanna and minister of state (independent charge) for stamps and registration Ravindra Jaiswal said the sub-registrar will now check documents and identify the seller for registration of property. Asked whether the new provisions would lead to delay in registration of property, Khanna said the rules would take care of the time-frame for registration. The amendment provides for adding sections 22-A, 22-B and 35-A to the registration law after sections 22 and 35. While section 22-A will restrict registration specified categories, section 22-B will provide for identification of property before registration. Section 35-A will provide for refusing registration, if documents about ownership, legal possession and transfer, etc, or other documents, as notified by the state government, are not enclosed with the registry documents. The cabinet also approved a proposal to implement the One-Time Settlement Scheme (OTS), 2026, for defaulters of properties under development authorities, the UP Housing and Development Council and special area development authorities. The objective of the scheme is to recover long pending dues and provide relief to defaulting allottees. Under the OTS scheme, only simple interest will be charged from defaulting allottees and the penalty interest will be completely waived. The application period for the scheme will be three months. The UP Finance Minister informed that there are a total of 18,982 default cases related to properties under development authorities and associated institutions, with around Rs 11,848.21 crore pending. Similarly, in 545 default cases related to map approvals, approximately Rs 1,482.10 crore remains outstanding. The OTS scheme has been introduced to facilitate recovery of these pending amounts. Properties allotted through auction or allocation methods will be covered. The scheme will also apply to properties allotted to government institutions, schools, charitable organizations and other institutions. Besides, default cases related to map approvals have been included. The payment structure has been determined. If the amount payable after OTS is up to Rs 50 lakh, one third of the amount must be deposited within 30 days of the issuance of the demand letter and the remaining two-thirds must be deposited in three monthly instalments. If the payable amount is more than Rs 50 lakh, one-third must be deposited within 30 days and the remaining two-thirds in three monthly instalments within six months. The scheme will provide an opportunity to defaulters to clear their pending dues and will help development authorities and housing institutions recover a substantial amount of outstanding funds....