- I Paid A Bribe
- 9 years ago
- 559 views
Mumbai : Bribe for property registration
- Municipal Services
- Registration of Property
- Paid INR 15,000
I bought an apartment in Mumbai and had to go to the old custom house property registration office . I was clearly told by my lawyer that unless I pay 15,000 as bribe, my register action will be delayed and the officials would even return the document on pretext of some mistake or other and that they will make us run around for days. I had to complete the registration today itself as the seller is an elderly lady and I did not want her to be harassed. Hence, I agreed to pay the bribe.
To my surprise, the registration office is entirely run by touts. Our tout took the documents inside and got the procedure completed in under 30 minutes. This is while a lot of other people, who had been waiting since before we reached there, were still waiting for their turn. I also noticed a big pile of files and was told that these are pending files as apparently those people did not pay bribe. The touts have complete access and were standing next to us inside the registrars office as well.
I am ashamed that I paid the bribe, but my lawyer was also very clear that it will not work otherwise. In fact most of my friends told me that this is the only way it works in Mumbai.