Register this says Adv. R. P. Rathod!
As per a recent Circular issued by the
Inspector General of Registration & Controller of
Stamps, Maharashtra State, documents not registered within the
stipulated time frame cannot be annexed to other documents presented for
registration, examines Adv. R. P. Rathod.
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Shri.
S
Chockalingam, The Inspector General of Registration
and Controller of Stamps, Maharashtra State, Pune has vide a Marathi Circular No. Sec 4/PR CR 617/2011/3008., Dt. 22nd December 2011 instructed all Sub-Registrars
in the State not to allow any document which was compulsorily required to be
registered but were not registered within the stipulated time frame, to be
annexed to other documents such as Confirmation Deed or Declaration Deed, which may be presented for registration.
This Circular reached the respective Sub-Registrar’s
Offices by the end of December 2011 & with the beginning of January 2012 the registrars are not accepting such documents citing this Circular. Now the several Agents standing
outside the Sub-Registrar’s Offices are spreading rumors among the public
that this Circular is illegal. Adv. R. P. Rathod. states that before coming to any conclusion or drawing any inference we
have to see what is the provision of law.
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Under Section
17 of the Registration Act, 1908 certain documents require compulsory registration, such
as Instruments of gift of Immovable
property and instruments of sale
Immovable property the value of
which is One Hundred rupees and more, etc. in respect of immovable
property, leases of immovable property from year to year, or for any term exceeding one year, or reserving a
yearly rent. Wills do not require compulsory registration. For details as
to which documents are required to be compulsorily registered please refer our Column: Faq’s on Registration of documents.
Ø
Under Section 23 of the Registration Act, 1908 all such documents other than a Will
are required to be presented for registration within four months from the date of their execution
provided that a copy of a decree or order may be presented within four months
from the date on which the decree or order was made or, where it is appealable,
within four months from the day on which it becomes final.
Ø
Under Section 25 of the Registration Act,
1908 if
a document is not presented within Four months due to urgent necessity or
unavoidable accident, the Registrar may accept the document for
registration within further four months on payment of a fine not exceeding
10 times the amount of registration fee. As per the Registration Act,
1908, there is no provision for Registration of the documents after Eight Months.
Many
a times, documents relating to
immovable property are executed and not presented for registration within the mandatory
Eight Months period says Adv. R. P. Rathod. Sometimes Stamp duty is also paid on such documents. Prior to this Circular
in such cases where proper stamp duty was paid on the Original document, many persons executed a
Confirmation Deed confirming the
contents of the original document and the original document was then annexed to the Confirmation Deed and the Confirmation Deed was then presented for
registration. Sometimes if all the parties were not in a position to execute
and register the Confirmation Deed, a one-sided
Declaration was executed confirming the contents of the original document, which
was then annexed to the Declaration and then the Declaration was
presented for registration. In this manner the original document was brought on record of the Registrar. Thus
the present Circular has been issued by The Inspector General of Registration
and Controller of Stamps to avoid this
practice adds Adv. R. P. Rathod.
Adv. R. P. Rathod states that one of the main reasons Shri. S Chockalingam stated in the Circular for not allowing such a Confirmation Deed or Declaration Deed
to be registered is that the Original document is submitted as an
annexure, even though it is earlier not
registered within the prescribed time frame for registration, comes on
record of the Registration Office if it is annexed to the Confirmation Deed or
Declaration Deed and therefore appears to be registered by which
undue benefits could be derived. Further with regard to unilateral Declarations
photographs and thumb impressions of only some parties to the Original document appear and the photographs and thumb impressions of other
parties who are not party to the Declaration do not appear and therefore the provisions of Section 32A of the Registration Act, 1908 are violated.
Adv. R. P. Rathod adds that Registration of
such documents is legally termed as one sided Agreement & it is treated as Affidavit as the other party
to the document does not appear before the Registrar. He further states that the
Supreme Court has in the matter of Tulokchand Harnath V/s
Gokulbhai Mulchand (ILR.21 BOM 724) held that “If
the two documents are essentially distinct, being separately stamped
and executed to effect different objects, the Registrar has no power to register them as one, even if the party presenting them for registration
styles one of them to be the annexure of the other especially where the
registration of the document styled the annexure or appendix is barred by limitation”.
He further states that the effect of
non-registration of a document which is required to be registered is serious. It is inter-alia provided in Section 49 of the Registration Act, 1908 that if such document is not registered, it shall not
affect any immovable property comprised therein and shall not be
received as evidence of any transaction affecting such property.
However it is an established Law through various Judgments of High Courts & Supreme Court that such
unregistered document may be received as evidence of a contract in a suit for
specific performance or as evidence of any collateral transaction not required to be effected by
registered instrument concludes Adv. R. P. Rathod.
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