Karnataka HC orders fix for Kaveri 2.0 glitches stalling leasehold property deals

For many property holders in Karnataka's Belagavi region, a software update quietly slammed the door on their right to sell what is legally theirs. The High Court of Karnataka has now pushed that door back open, directing the State government to immediately rectify technical flaws in the Kaveri 2.0 registration portal that have brought transactions of perpetual leasehold properties to a halt in several parts of the State.

The glitch that froze a housing market

Kukdolkar had constructed an apartment complex of 34 flats on land held under a perpetual lease. While 21 flats had been registered earlier without issue, the new software flagged the same property because the municipal records mapped to Kaveri 2.0 reflected the original lessor as the "owner", and the petitioner, who held property under perpetual lease (Nirantara Patta), only as a "holder/tax payer".

The court found this was no isolated complaint. Relying on communications exchanged between registration authorities and the State government, as well as representations made by CREDAI-Belagavi, it noted that many properties in the Belagavi region are held under Nirantara Patta or perpetual leasehold arrangements. The existing API mapping sends the original owner's name to Kaveri 2.0 instead of the leaseholder's name, preventing registration of genuine transactions. Registration officers themselves have written to the State about the difficulty — a problem of technical constraints, not of the legality of the properties.

'Software cannot extinguish rights'

"The State authorities cannot, by reason of a technical deficiency in the software or the existing property data-mapping mechanism, render a legally recognised and transferable leasehold interest incapable of being conveyed," the court observed.

The bench's reasoning cuts to the heart of digital governance: a software system is a means for implementation of the law. It cannot become a source for extinguishing or restricting substantive rights, the court said.

Justice Magadum also underlined the human cost of the defect, observing that the issue affects an entire class of properties and not just one builder. Citizens, the court said, should not be forced to approach the High Court individually because of a technological defect in the government's portal.

Two months — and a manual fallback

The court directed the authorities to amend the mapping of e-property records and the Kaveri 2.0 interface within two months so that the names of perpetual leaseholders are transmitted to the Kaveri 2.0 system.

And if the fix does not come? The court built in a safety net: in case of failure to rectify the technical difficulties, jurisdictional sub-registrars must manually register the sale deeds of such properties. For Belagavi's leaseholders, that order means the door to registration stays open — with or without the software.