Law of Registration

Object of Indian Registration Act,

1908
• Before the passing of this Act, the
provisions relating to registration were
scattered about in seven enactments. The
object of this Act was to present a
collective form of those provisions and to
incorporate them in a single Act. Therefore
the nature of the Act can be categorized
as consolidating.
• The purpose of Registration Act is to
provide information to people, who may
deal with the property, as to the nature
and extent of the rights which persons
may have affecting that property; in other
words, it is to enable people to find out
whether any particular piece of property,
with which they may be concerned, has
been made subject to some particular
legal obligation.
• Among other purposes, one is to give solemnity of form
and legal importance to certain classes of documents by
directing that they shall be registered which may
afterwards be of legal importance; and the general
purpose is to put on record somewhere; where people
can see the record and inquire, what the particulars are
regarding obligation on that particular property. The
purpose of this law to prevent fraud in property matters.
• The object of Registration and inter-alia Registration Act
is elaborately discussed by Hon’ble Supreme Court in
case of Suraj Lamp and Industries Pvt. Ltd. versus State
of Haryana and Another AIR 2012 SC 206, as under:
• “The Registration Act, 1908, was enacted with the
intention of providing orderliness, discipline and public
notice in regard to transactions relating to immovable
property and protection from fraud and forgery of
documents of transfer.”
 Definitions (section 2)
• (6) Immovable Property: It includes land, buildings,
hereditary allowances, right to ways, light, ferries,
fisheries or any other benefit to arise out of land, and
things attached to earth but not standing timber,
growing crops or grass.
• (7) Lease: It includes a counterpart, Kabuliyat, an
undertaking to cultivate or occupy and an agreement
to cultivate or occupy, and an agreement to lease;
• (9) Movable Property: It includes standing timber,
growing crops and grass, fruit upon and juice in trees,
and property of every other description, except
immovable property; and
• Counter-part: A counter part as usually
understood, is a writing by which a tenant agrees
to pay a specified rent for the property let to him
and signed by him alone. It is thus in the nature
of a counterpart of a lease and is included within
the meaning of section 2(7).
• Kabulyat: It is a unilateral document executed by
a lessee whereby he agrees to take a land on
rent. A kabulyat or a rent may be lease deed
under the Registration Act though it may not be a
lease for the purpose of section 107 of T.P. Act.,
because section 107 provides execution of a
document of lease by both: lessor and lessee.
 Meaning of document
• Section 3(16), General Clauses Act provides that ‘document’
shall include any matter written, expressed or described upon
any substance by means of letters, figures, or marks or by more
than one of those means, which is intended to be used or which
may be used, for the purpose of recording that matter.
• Section 3 of Indian Evidence Act provides, ‘document means
any matter expressed or described upon any substance by
means of letters, figures or marks or by more than one of those
means intended to be used, or which may be used, for the
purpose of recording that matter’.
• Section 2(14) of the Stamp Act, 1899 states, ‘instrument
includes document by which any right, or liability is, or purports
to be, created, transferred, extended, extinguished or recorded’.
• Section 29, IPC, document means any matter expressed or
described upon any substance by means of letters, figures or
marks, or by more than one of these means, intended to be
used or which may be used as evidence of that matter.
 Part III, Section 17
• Documents of which registration is
compulsory: (1) The following documents
shall be registered if the property to which
they relate is situate in a district in which,
and if they have been executed on or after
the date on which Act no. XVI of 1864, or
the IRA, 1866, or the IRA, 1871 or the IRA
of 1877, of this Act came or comes into
force namely:
• Instrument of Gift of immovable property:
• Other non testamentary instruments which purport or operate to
create, declare, assign, limit or extinguish, whether in present
or in future, any right, title or interest, whether vested or
contingent, of the value of 100 rupees and upwards, to or in
immovable property,
• Non testamentary instruments which acknowledge the receipt
or payment of any consideration on account of the creation,
declaration, assignment, limitation or extinction of any such
right, title or interest,
• Leases of immovable property from year to year, or for any
term exceeding one year, or reserving a yearly rent; and
• Non testamentary instrument transferring or assigning any
decree or order of a Court, or any award when such decree or
order or award purports or operates to create, declare, assign,
limit or extinguish whether in present or in future any right, title
or interest, whether vested or contingent, of the value of 100
rupees and upwards, to or in immovable property.
• Nothing in clauses (b) (c) of sub section (1)
applies to-
– Any composition deed; or
– Any instrument relating to shares in a Joint Stock
Company, notwithstanding that the assets of such
company consist in whole in part of immovable
property; or
– Any debenture issued by any such company and not
creating, declaring, assigning, limiting or extinguishing
any right, title or interest, to or in immovable property
except as in so far as it entitles the holder to the
security afforded by a registered instrument where the
Company has mortgaged, conveyed or other
transferred the whole or part of its immovable property
any interest therein to trustees upon trust for the benefit
of the holders of such debentures; or
– any endorsement upon or transfer of any debenture issued by any such
company, or
– any document not itself creating, declaring, assigning, limiting or extinguishing
any right, title or interest of the value of one hundred rupees and upwards to or in
immovable property, but merely creating a right to obtain another document
which will, when executed create, declare, assign, limit or extinguish any such
right, title or interest; or
– Any decree or order or a court
– Any grant of immovable property by the government,
– Any instrument of partition made by a revenue officer,
– Any order granting loan or instrument or collateral security granted under the
Land Imp. Act, 1871 or the Land Imp. Loans Act, 1883;
– Any order granting loan under the Agriculturists Loans Act, 1884 or instrument for
securing the repayment of a loan made under the Act; or
– Any order made under the Charitable Endowments Act, 1890 vesting any
property in a treasure of Charitable Endowment or divesting any such treasurer
of any property; or
– Any endorsement on a mortgage-deed acknowledging the payment of the whole
or any part to the mortgage money, and any other receipt for payment of money
due under a mortgage when the receipt does not purport to extinguish the
mortgage; or
– Any certificate of sale granted to the purchaser of any property sold by public
auction by a civil or revenue officer.
– Authorities to adopt a son, executed after the first day of Jan, 1872 and not
conferred by a will, shall also be registered.
Which Documents need to be Registered
• Section 17 of the Indian Registration Act, 1908 provides for mandatory
registration of certain documents. Those are as follows:-
1. Gift deed related to an immovable property;
2. Non-testamentary instruments:     
a. purporting to creation, assignment, declaration, extinguishing of any
interest in any immovable property worth Rs. 100 and above;                     
                 
b. which acknowledge receipt or payment of any consideration for creation,
assignment, declaration or limitation of any right, title or interest;
c. which transfer or assign any decree or order of a Court or any award when
such decree or order or award purports or operates to creation,
assignment, declaration, extinguishing of any interest in any immovable
property worth Rs. 100 and above.
 Which Documents need to be
Registered
3. Lease of immovable property for any term exceeding
one year or reservation of yearly rent;
 Optional Registration
• Section 18 of Registration Act pertains to documents of which
registration is optional. Word ‘may’ is used in text of section
18.
• instruments (other than instruments of gift and wills) which
purport to creation, assignment, declaration, extinguishing of
any interest in any immovable property of value less than Rs.
100
• instruments acknowledging the receipt or payment of any
consideration on account of the creation, declaration,
assignment, limitation or extinction of any such right, title or
interest - Adoption Deed, Instrument relating to shares in joint
stock company, Debentures issued by joint stock company.
 Optional Registration
• leases of immovable property for any term not exceeding
one year and leases exempted under S 17
• Decree or order of court comprising an immovable
property valued below Rs. 100
• Wills
• Instruments creating interest in movable property
• all other documents not required by section 17 to be
registered.
 Effect of Non-Registration (S 49)
• The Registration Act strikes only at documents, and not
at transactions. All that it enacts is that when a document
is needed in case of any of the transaction specified in
s.17 of the Registration Act, such document must be
registered.
• If the documents are not registered then they will not
affect any immovable property comprised therein, or
confer any power to adopt, or be received as evidence of
any transaction affecting such property or conferring
such power.
 Effect of Non-Registration (S 49)
• However, such unregistered document may be received
as evidence of a contract in a suit for specific
performance under Specific Relief Act, 1877, or as
evidence of part performance of a contract for the
purposes of section 53A of the Transfer of Property Act,
1882, or as evidence of any collateral transaction not
required to be effected by registered instrument.
Limitation for registration of a document
• Limitation for registration of a document under Section 23 of the
Act, subject to certain exceptions, any document other than a
Will has to be presented for registration within four months from
the date of its execution. The term ‘execution’ means signing of
the agreement.
• If due to any urgency or unavoidable accident, any executed
document or a copy of decree or order is not presented within 4
months but it is presented after its expiry will be accepted for
registration provided that 10 times the amount of registration
fees is paid and delay in presentation does not exceed 4
months.
• Application for such a step has to be made to Sub-Registrar
who will forward such application to the Registrar (S 25)
STAMP DUTY
 Requirement of Stamp duty
• There are several documents that are not compulsorily
register able under section 17 of the Registration Act
1908. Some of them require high stamp duty and some
of them do not.
• Even the ones that require high stamp duty, if they are
under stamped, can be rectified later by paying a penal
amount ten times the original amount. Non-payment of
stamp duty does not make the document void or
otherwise invalid.
 Consequences of under stamping
• The consequences of under stamping as per the
stamp act are:
(1) to make the document inadmissible for the evidence
before any authority capable of receiving evidence of
before any public authority.
(2) the document can also be impounded for enforcing
the payment of full stamp value. An under stamped
instrument can be admitted as evidence in court, if penal
stamp duty is ten times the value of the original amount,
and is paid.
• In conclusion, always register a document which is
compulsory registerable or for which stamp duty is not
high. Documents for which stamp duty is high and which
do not require registration do not become invalid for want
of proper stamp duty alone. But the rights of both parties
should be protected in case of default, so consult a
lawyer. Always give possession separately and never in
the documents itself.