How Blockchain Could Ease Land Dispute Backlogs, And Why Apex Court Agrees
Last week the Supreme Court urged the government to register sale deeds on a blockchain, which would be far harder to challenge. That would keep thousands of routine property disputes out of court and free up judicial time for cases that actually need it.
The Gist
India is now focusing on the 'ease of justice' as a key reform objective, alongside the established concepts of 'ease of doing business' and 'ease of living'.
- Prime Minister Modi introduced 'ease of justice' to enhance the speed, accessibility, and predictability of legal processes.
- Land disputes dominate civil cases, emphasizing the need for technological solutions like blockchain to manage records and reduce conflicts.
- The Supreme Court supports digitizing land records to prevent forgery and streamline property transactions.
For many years, phrases like ‘ease of doing business’ and ‘ease of living’ have defined India’s reform objectives and its broad governance ambitions.
Now, a new phrase is entering the policy conversation, ‘ease of justice’, and it may prove to be just as consequential.
In November last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced the term while addressing the National Legal Services Authority conference.
Just as ease of doing business and ease of living became administrative mantras of the last decade, he said, ease of justice must now define the next one.
The idea, the Prime Minister said, is to focus on making justice faster, more accessible, and more predictable, with extensive use of technology.
Handling Title Conflicts
The PM’s emphasis was timely. Land and property disputes continue to dominate India’s civil courts. Nearly two-thirds of civil cases and over a quarter of Supreme Court matters relate to ownership and title conflicts.
Studies cited by Down to Earth in a December 2025 article show that land and property litigation has blocked assets worth crores of rupees, freezing household wealth and stonewalling development projects.
Essentially, the Prime Minister’s call was about bringing more speed and transparency through the use of technology.
And last week, the Supreme Court made the same point while hearing a civil appeal relating to a 1971 registered sale deed, where one party had sought to challenge the document as a sham transaction.
On January 22, the court urged the Union and state governments to urgently digitise registered documents and land records using blockchain, which can ensure transactions are secure and nobody can tamper with land records.
The court observed that technological intervention is necessary to prevent recurring property disputes and to preserve the sanctity of registered instruments.
That can be achieved if the transactions are recorded on the blockchain, “minimising the scourge of forgery and ‘clever drafting’ that clogs our judicial system”.
Using Secure Tech
The most talked-about feature of blockchain is its immutability. Once information goes in, nobody can change it later.
The conviction that it can’t be modified no matter what makes people believe in the system, and it can change the way we transact with each other.
A registered sale deed, the court said, “carries a strong presumption of validity, and allegations that such a document is a sham or nominal transaction cannot be entertained in the absence of clear pleadings and cogent evidence.”
If ownership were logged into a system that couldn’t be changed by anyone — be it a clerk or someone with influence — courtroom disputes wouldn’t take long to resolve.
In fact, more cases would be settled without any legal intervention.
The record would stand as it was first entered, open for anyone to see. Better still, nobody can claim it got “lost” along the way.
The Adopters List
Georgia was one of the earliest adopters of a blockchain-enabled land registry system in 2016, allowing public verification of property deeds.
Similarly, Sweden has piloted blockchain for property registrations. According to an estimate from 2022, the move could save the Swedish taxpayer over €100 million ($106 million) a year by eliminating paperwork, reducing fraud, and speeding up transactions.
A district in Chhattisgarh has also stored over 700,000 land records on blockchain to prevent any manipulation.
Even Ghana has used a blockchain system to record land titles with GPS coordinates and satellite photos to help reduce disputes and enhance transparency.
Final Words
Blockchain can certainly fix the issue of trust as far as land records are concerned.
A sale deed registered on blockchain would be final and far harder to challenge on the grounds that it’s a sham or fake.
Blockchain won’t replace courts; it would just make thousands of routine property disputes unworthy of judicial hours or attention, and free up court time for cases that actually need it.
Of course, this won’t fall into place overnight. The country needs clear rules and institutions willing to change.
The idea is that if you can trust the way records are maintained, it is easier to have faith in the system.
This series is brought to you in partnership with Algorand.
