SECTION 1: Contains provisions for the establishment of a Land Title Registry responsible for lands may, on the advice of the Title Registration Board, from time to time by legislative instrument, determine. It is envisage that initial registration in the form of a pilot scheme will be conducted in the Greater Accra region and designated agricultural areas. The object of this procedure is to enable the existing staff to become cedures and to train additional staff, which may be required in other registry offices. Provisions are also made for the maintenance for land registers and other records for the efficient running of the registry offices.

SECTION 2: Relates to the Official Seal of the Registry Offices. Instruments purporting to be sealed with the Registry Seal shall be admissible in evidence in any court of law.

SECTION 3: Makes provision for the appointment of a Chief Registrar of Lands, Lands Registrars and Assistants Land Registrars by the Governments in consultation with the Public Services Commission. The Land Registrars will be assigned by the Chief Registrar to various registry offices to be established under section 1.

SECTION 4: Makes provision for the appointment of non-professional Staff of the Registry. PART II COMPILATION OF THE REGISTER General provision.

SECTION 5: Enables the Secretary responsible for lands to declare any area specified in a legislative instrument as a Registration District.

SECTION 6: The Chief Registrar is required under this section, upon the declaration of Registration District, to direct that the boundaries of all lands within the district be demarcated or Surveys.

SECTION 7: Empowers the Chief Registrar to divide each Registration District into Registration Section.

SECTION 8 &9: Relates to the powers of the Chief Registrar and Land Registrars under this law. There may be summons require the production of instruments and attendance of persons. The absence of such powers will render the whole registration exercise futile.

SECTION 10: Provides that the Chief Registrar of Lands, upon the declaration of a Registration District, will issue a notice defining the limits of the Registration District and requiring any persons who claim any land or interest in any land situated in the district to make such claim to indicate the boundaries of his land in such manner as is specified in the notice.

SECTION 12: Provides that no action concerning any land or interest therein situated in a Registration District will be commenced in a court until the procedures for the settlement of disputes under the law are exhausted. The object of this provision is to discourage expensive litigation over land by compelling the parties to make use of the Land Title Adjudication Committees under Sub-Part II of Part II of this Law, which will operate as domestic tribunals and free from technicalities.

SECTION 13: Contains provisions for the Registration of Land or interest in land in respect of which instruments have been registered under the Land Registry Act, 1962 (Act 122). The scheme of the law is that, within 90 days after the declaration of a Registration District by the Secretary responsible for Lands, the Land Registrar, assigned to the Registration District will prepare a list of all lands situated in that district in respect of which an instrument has been registered under the Land Registry Act 1962 (Act 122) and, thereafter serve on any person named as a proprietor of land or interest in land in the list so prepared, a notice of his intention to register such person as Proprietor of the land of interest. Where there are conflicting claims, the land registrar will refer the matter to the Adjudication Committee for settlement. If there are no conflicting claims, or in the event of the right to registration not being contested, or if contested being upheld by the Adjudication Committee, the land registrar will after the expiry of the notice of his intention to register, or as soon as Adjudication Committee has determined the matter referred to it, record particulars of the land or interests and the proprietor thereof in the land register.

SECTION 14: Provides for the time and manner of first registration.

SECTION 15: Provides that where land or and interest in land being registered is evidenced by and instrument, such as land or interest should not be land approved by the Director of Surveys or an Officer of Survey Department authorized by him is attached to the instrument. However, if the affected land is described by a plan in a previous instrument file in the Registry, and it will be sufficient if the land is described by reference to the plan and instruments already filed in the Registry.

SECTION 16: Makes provision for the form of the Land Registry.

SECTION 17: Empowers the Land Registry to cancel obsolete entries in the Land Register.

SECTION 18: Provides for the conclusiveness of the land register as evidence of title of the proprietor of any land or interest appearing on the register.

SECTION 19 : One of the defects of the prevailing methods of land transfer which usually results in wasteful and unprofitable litigation arises from uncertainties regarding interest in land, those who hold them and the extent of the areas held. These uncertainties act as a brake on commercial and agricultural development of the country. Subsection (1) deals with persons who may be registered as proprietors and provides for classes of interests in land, which are regarded as rights of property that can be subject of initial registration. The classes of interest which have been identified by the Law Reform Commission are the "allodial title" Subsection (1)(a), "customary law freehold" Subsection (1)(c), "lease-hold" Subsection (1)(d), and a "lesser interest" Subsection (1)(e). The best of these interests is the allodial title, which is the full title to land beyond which there is no superior title. It is an interest, which in some traditional areas in Ghana is acknowledged as being held or vested in its stool or skin.

In other traditional areas this interests is acknowledged to b held by sub groups (Stools sub-stools, clans and families) as well as individuals. As this term signifies, the community or person in whom the allodial title is vested has complete and absolute freedom to dispose of it. After the allodial title the next major interests in land which are capable of registration under this Law are the customary law freehold and common law freehold. Customary law freehold is an interest in land by sub-groups and individuals in land acknowledged to be owned allodially by a larger community of which they are members. It is held as of right by members of such a community who acquire it either by first cultivation or by succession from first cultivator-ancestors, or by allotment from the owning group of which they are members. Grants of customary law freehold may be transferred (see s.58) and the transferred may be registered as proprietor thereof. Land held for an indefinite period derived from the rules of the common law is known as an estate of freehold. A person who has a freehold estate in land owns the right of beneficial occupation of the land, which may devolve upon his successors as infinitum but will come to an end on the failure of successors. It is referred to as anesta6teinperpetuitybuy this does not mean that it cannot come to an end, but it capable of continuing for an indefinite period of time. Leasehold is a right granted to any person to occupy specified land for a specified term.

They are derived not from the customary law but from the common law. A lease may be granted either by the holder of the allodial title in respect if land over which he has not already granted conflicting interests, such as customary laws freehold, or by a customary free holder, again provided he has not granted a conflicting interest in the same piece or parcel of land. Subject to any law to the contrary, a lease may be granted for any period of time; it may be for a long period, such as 99 years or 50 years, or a short period, such as for 1 year. Where a leasehold granted, payment for the right to occupy the land is made by way of an annual rent and covenants are taken from the grantee controlling the manner in which the land is used and the exercise by the lessee of his rights as owner of the lease. Unless there is a covenant under the leasehold grant absolutely prohibiting or restricting the alienation of the land the lessee or assign the residue of the lease, although in some cases the consent of the lessor is required. Various lesser interests in land can be created by owners of the allodial title or customary freehold. The two best known are abunu and abusa, which are usually a share cropping arrangement by which the tenant farms the land and, at harvest, gives a specified portion of the produce to the landlord. It has long been recognised that the abunu, abusa and other share cropping arrangements by which the tenant farms the land and, at harvest, gives a specified portion of the produce to the landlord is often unfair and inequitable. Registration will protect these tenants by giving them reasonable security to devote time, labour or capital to the improvements or productivity of their lands and maintain themselves and their dependants. Subsections (2) to (5) of section 19 summarises the cases in which the Land Registrar is required to register the State as proprietor and other classes of interest. And interest which according to its terms will expire without notice of termination within less than two years cannot be registered. However, concessions can be granted under the Concessions Ordinance (Cap. 136) or the Concessions Act, 1962 (Act 126), is to be registered under this Law.

SECTIONS 20 & 21: Section 20 empowers the Land Registrar to reject an application for first registration of any land or an interest in land on certain specified ground. For example, he may rejected an application based on an instrument or it the instrument contains interlineations, blank, erasure or alteration not verified by the signature or initials of the person executing the instrument. There is however an obligation on the Land Registrar under Section 21 to notify each applicant of his ground for rejecting an application and either to give the applicant an opportunity to make further representations or refer the matter to the Adjudication Committee. Sub-part II Adjudication of Title.

SECTION 22: makes provision for the establishment of a Land Title Adjudication Committee in each registration district. The Committee will adjudicate on disputes relating to title subject to appeal to the High Court.

SECTION 33: Empower the Land Registrar to undertake the initial examination of all applications lodged for first registration and to refer conflicting claims to the Adjudication Committee for adjudication. It also enable the Land Registrar to complete the registration in the event of the right to registration not being challenged, by placing the land on the register with the person entitled thereto named as its proprietor.

SECTION 24 & 25: Provides that where then survey or demarcation of land within a registration district is to be undertaken, the authorised surveyor will have to give due notice to persons whose interest are to be affected by the exercise of the commencement of the exercise.

SECTION 26: Inaccurate survey resulting in badly drawn plans being attached to instruments registered under the Land Registry Act, 1962 (Act 122) is one of the serious defects in the current deed registration system. This section thus remedies this defect by placing an obligation on the surveyor to ensure the at within each registration district the boundaries of each parcel of land which is a subject of claim are properly demarcated and also that they are prepared in respect of each registration district a demarcation map showing every separate piece of land.

SECTION 27: Makes provision for the rules which the Adjudication Committee must observe when hearing and determining any dispute or claim referred to it under section 22 to prepare and adjudication record in a prescribed form.

SECTION 29 & 30: After the completion of the adjudication record the Committee will publish a notice in the Gazette inviting any person whose interests is affected by the record or the demarcation map including in the record to inspect it and within thirty days after the notice to lodge his objection to the record with the Adjudication Committee which shall hear these objections and determine the matter in such manner as it thinks fit.

SECTION 31: Provides that in hearing the objection the Adjudication Committee shall so far as may be practicable follow the procedure set out under this Law and its proceedings and deemed to be judicial proceedings.

SECTION 32 & 33: Section 32 provides that before an adjudication record becomes final, the Adjudication Committee may cause to be corrected any clerical error or omission in the record that does not materially affect the interest of any person. Any person aggrieved by an order or decision of the Committee before the adjudication record becomes final has right of appeal to the High Court. When the adjudication record becomes final the Chairman of the Committee is requires under section 33 to sign a certificate to that Land Registrar the relevant demarcation map together with all documents received by the Committee in the process of adjudication.

The Land Registrar will then enter in the land register and other records in the Registry the content of the adjudication record.