Directorate of Registration
Profile
- Head
- Md. Nur Islam
- Role
- Inspector General of Registration
- Annual budget
- —
- Staff
- —
- Established
- 1973
- Legal basis
- Registration Act, 1908 (Act No. XVI of 1908), Sections 3-6 (Inspector-General and registering officers); upgraded from Registration Department to Directorate by government order in January 2018. Registration (Amendment) Ordinance, 2026 and Registration (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2026 further amend nine sections of the 1908 Act to introduce e-registration and strengthen fee-collection accountability.
The Directorate of Registration is in the middle of its most significant legislative overhaul since independence: two 2026 ordinances have for the first time introduced a legal basis for e-registration and tightened fee-collection accountability, with pilots live in Dhaka, Gazipur, and Jashore. Simultaneously, the directorate is under reputational pressure following the ACC travel ban on former IGR Khan Md Abdul Mannan (May 2025) for alleged systemic corruption in sub-registrar appointments and copyist hiring. The structural gap between deed registration (Law Division) and mutation (Ministry of Land) is publicly acknowledged but not yet legislatively resolved.
Recent activity
- 2025-05-27 legal Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge Md Zakir Hossain Galib issued a travel ban and ordered NID blocking for former Inspector General of Registration Khan Md Abdul Mannan and his wife Shakila Begum; ACC is investigating accumulation of illegal wealth of hundreds of crores of taka through unauthorized sub-registrar appointments and transfers, irregular hiring of approximately 200 copyists, and unlicensed sale of deed-writer permits. ↗↗
- 2026-01-01 regulation Registration (Amendment) Ordinance, 2026 promulgated under Article 93(1) of the Constitution; amends eight sections of the Registration Act, 1908 (sections 17a, 26, 52a, 68, 72, 73, 77a, 80): extends deed-submission deadline from 30 to 60 days, extends abroad-executed document period from 4 to 6 months, mandates registration of religious gifts (Hiba under Muslim law; gifts under Hindu, Christian, Buddhist laws), requires appeals resolved within 45 days and applications disposed within 30 days, establishes legal framework for digital e-registration via government-approved software (Section 77a), and requires all fees and stamp duty paid upfront at deed submission (Section 80). ↗↗
- 2026-01-01 regulation Registration (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2026 promulgated alongside the first ordinance; inserts new sub-section (3) into Section 68 of the Registration Act, 1908, making registering officers personally financially liable for uncollected fees, taxes, service charges, or duties; any unpaid amounts are recovered directly from the officer, regardless of intent. ↗↗
- 2026-02-15 reform E-registration pilots in Dhaka, Gazipur, and Jashore reported to have successfully tested fully online land deed registration, allowing citizens to apply, pay fees, and receive registered documents electronically without visiting a sub-registrar office; the pilot validates the Section 77a digital framework introduced in the January 2026 ordinance. ↗↗
- 2026-03-01 other Structural disconnect between deed registration (Directorate of Registration, Ministry of Law) and mutation (Assistant Commissioner Land, Ministry of Land) remains unresolved; a registered deed at the sub-registry does not automatically trigger mutation records at the AC Land office, forcing citizens to initiate and pursue separate proceedings; reformers have proposed merging the two steps into a single workflow, but no gazette notification implementing the merger has been issued. ↗↗
Provenance & notes
Established 1973 as the Registration Department; upgraded to Directorate of Registration by government order in January 2018. The head title is Inspector General of Registration (IGR); Md. Nur Islam is identified as IGR in a Law and Justice Division document dated 23 December 2024 (old.lawjusticediv.gov.bd), which is the most recent primary-source confirmation of the current head; head_since date is unverified and left null. Former IGR Khan Md Abdul Mannan (predecessor) faces ACC investigation and court-imposed travel ban as of 27 May 2025 for systemic corruption during his tenure. The two January 2026 ordinances are legally operative but their conversion to permanent acts of parliament within the constitutionally mandated timeframe was unconfirmed in sources available at verification date; they remain valid until parliament acts. E-registration pilot districts (Dhaka, Gazipur, Jashore) sourced from Dhaka Tribune op-ed and New Age opinion piece -- both reference the same pilot; these are editorial sources rather than official government press releases. Staff count, sanctioned posts, and annual budget allocation are not published in accessible primary sources and are left null rather than estimated. The mutation-registration merger proposal is a publicly debated reform concept (New Age, BSS) but has not been implemented as of verification date. The website listed on Wikipedia is http://www.rd.gov.bd/ (HTTP); the HTTPS version https://rd.gov.bd is the current live site but could not be fetched due to SSL certificate issues during verification -- URL recorded as https://rd.gov.bd per standard practice.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directorate_of_Registration
- http://bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd/act-90.html
- http://bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd/act-1597.html
- http://bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd/act-1617.html
- https://rtvonline.com/english/bangladesh/national/271804
- https://www.newagebd.net/post/opinion/296661/land-governance-at-critical-juncture
- https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/398252/land-registration-reform-is-a-step-toward
- https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/crime-justice/news/travel-ban-issued-ex-inspector-general-registration-hannan-wife-3904786
- https://www.bssnews.net/others/277174
- https://www.bssnews.net/news-flash/299844
- https://old.lawjusticediv.gov.bd/static/GeneralNews/2024/1009_20241223_ta_permission_igr_rd.pdf