UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF LEGAL STUDIES,

PANJAB UNIVERSITY, CHANDIGARH

LAW OF REGISTRATION AND COURT FEE

ACT, 1870
PROJECT REPORT
ON
DOCUMENTS OF WHICH REGISTRATION IS
NOT COMPULSORY [SECTION 17(1) AND (2)]

Submitted To: Submitted By:

Dr. Priya Raaghav Sapra
UILS, PU Roll No. 312/20
Chandigarh Section-F
8th Semester

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 CONTENTS

S.NO. TOPIC PAGE

NO.
1. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 3

2. INTRODUCTION 4
3. SECTION 17 5

4. DOCUMENTS OF WHICH REGISTRATION IS NOT 8

COMPULSORY
SECTION 17(2) 8

SECTION 17(3) 15
5. BIBLIOGRAPHY 16

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The success and final outcome of this project required a lot of guidance and assistance from
many people and I am extremely fortunate to have got this all along the completion of my project
report. Whatever I have done is only due to such guidance and I would never forget to thank
them.

I take this opportunity to record deep sense of gratitude to my teacher, Dr. Priya, University
Institute of Legal Studies, Chandigarh for her incontestably perfectly unmatched guidance,
encouragement, valuable suggestions and efforts made during the preparation of this project and
during her lectures which enabled me to complete this project successfully.

I owe my regards to the entire faculty of the Department of University Institute of Legal Studies,
from where I have learnt the basics of law and whose informal discussions, intellectual support
helped me in the entire duration of this work.

RAAGHAV SAPRA

ROLL NO. 312/20

SECTION-F

BCOM.LLB

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 INTRODUCTION
Registration is the process of recording a document with an assigned officer and to keep it as
public record. The purpose of the Act is to consolidate the law relating to registration and it
provide for the method of its registration. It lays down what documents is compulsory for
registration. It also provides time limit for presentation and registration of document and ensures
provision for the proper and presentation of the document.

All sorts of documents are not compulsorily registerable under the Registration Act there are
documents on which registration is at the option of the party. The non-registration of such
documents does not affect the validity or admissibility in the evidence. In other
words, Registration Act has provided concepts of compulsory registration and optional
registration of documents. In this Act, different documents have been mentioned; some of them
are those documents of which registration is compulsory, and some documents are those
documents of which registration is not compulsory.

The Registration Act, unlike the Transfer of Property Act, strikes only at documents and not at
transactions. In the same way, the Act does not require that every transaction affecting
immovable property should be carried out only through a registered instrument. All that it enacts
is that when a document is employed to effectuate any of the transactions specified in Section 17
of the Act, such document must be registered.

The purpose of Registration Act is to give information to people who may deal with property, as
to the nature and extent of the rights which persons may have affecting that property. Another
purpose is to give solemnity of form and legal importance to certain classes of documents by
directing that they shall be registered. Based on the conclusions arrived at the conference of chief
Ministers and Finance Ministers of states and union Territories convened by the Union finance
Ministers held on the 14th September 1998 at New Delhi, a new sub-section (1-A) was inserted
in section 17 by Act 48 of 2001. It is for making registration of the documents containing
contracts to transfer for consideration any immovable property compulsory for the purpose of
section 53-A of the Transfer of Property Act.

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 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 Indian Registration Act, 1866, or the Indian Registration Act,
1871, or the Indian Registration Act, 1877, or this Act came or comes into force, namely:
—
a. instruments of gift of immovable property;
b. 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 one hundred rupees and
upwards, to or in immovable property;
c. 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; and
d. leases of immovable property from year to year, or for any term exceeding one
year, or reserving a yearly rent;
e. non-testamentary instruments 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 one hundred
rupees and upwards, to or in immovable property:

Provided that the State Government may, by order published in the Official Gazette, exempt
from the operation of this sub-section any lease executed in any district, or part of a district, the
terms granted by which do not exceed five years and the annual rents reserved by which do not
exceed fifty rupees.

(1A) The documents containing contracts to transfer for consideration, any immovable
property for the purpose of section 53A of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 (4 of 1882) shall be
registered if they have been executed on or after the commencement of the Registration and

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 Other Related laws (Amendment) Act, 2001 (48 of 2001) and if such documents are not
registered on or after such commencement, then, they shall have no effect for the purposes of the
said section 53A.

(2) Nothing in clauses (b) and (c) of sub-section (1) applies to—
I. any composition deed; or
II. any instrument relating to shares in a joint stock Company, notwithstanding that the
assets of such Company consist in whole or in part of immovable property; or
III. 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 in
so far as it entitles the holder to the security afforded by a registered instrument whereby
the Company has mortgaged, conveyed or otherwise transferred the whole or part of its
immovable property or any interest therein to trustees upon trust for the benefit of the
holders of such debentures; or
IV. any endorsement upon or transfer of any debenture issued by any such Company; or
V. any document other than the documents specified in sub-section (1A) 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
VI. any decree or order of a Court except a decree or order expressed to be made on a
compromise and comprising immovable property other than that which is the subject-
matter of the suit or proceeding; or
VII. any grant of immovable property by Government; or
VIII. any instrument of partition made by a Revenue-Officer; or
IX. any order granting a loan or instrument of collateral security granted under the Land
Improvement Act, 1871, or the Land Improvement Loans Act, 1883; or
X. any order granting a loan under the Agriculturists, Loans Act, 1884, or instrument for
securing the repayment of a loan made under that Act; or
(xa) any order made under the Charitable Endowments Act, 1890 (6 of 1890), vesting any
property in a Treasurer of Charitable Endowments or divesting any such Treasurer of any
property; or

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XI. any endorsement on a mortgage-deed acknowledging the payment of the whole or any
part of 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
XII. any certificate of sale granted to the purchaser of any property sold by public auction by a
Civil or Revenue-Officer.

Explanation—A document purporting or operating to effect a contract for the sale of immovable
property shall not be deemed to require or ever to have required registration by reason only of
the fact that such document contains a recital of the payment of any earnest money or of the
whole or any part of the purchase money.

(3) Authorities to adopt a son, executed after the 1st day of January, 1872, and not conferred
by a will, shall also be registered.

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DOCUMENTS OF WHICH REGISTRATION IS
NOT COMPULSORY [SECTION 17(2) AND (3)]
EXCEPTIONS TO SECTION 17(1)(B) AND SECTION 17(1)(C): By Section 17 it is
provided that the non-testamentary documents mentioned in clause (b) and (c) must be
registered. This is subject to the exceptions provided in sub-section (2) of Section 17. It is
noteworthy that the documents mentioned in sub-section (2) are excepted from the
operation of clause (b) and (c) only.
A. COMPOSITION DEEDS [SECTION 17(2)(I)]
The expression ‘composition deed’ is not defined in the Act. In Halsbury’s Laws of
England, the expression ‘composition deed’ is defined as an agreement between the
compounding debtor and all or some of the creditors, by which the compounding
creditors agree with the debtor and with each other to accept from the debtor payment of
less than the amount due to them in all satisfaction of the whole of their claims. Section
17 (2) (i) exempts from registration “any composition deed”. The “composition deed”
contemplated by Section 17 (2) (i) of the Registration Act must in substance be of the
nature of a composition, not a conveyance.
CASE LAW: GOVIND RAM V. MADAN GOPAL, AIR 1954 PC
The Privy Council pointed out that sub-section (2)(i) merely provided that nothing in sub-
section (1)(b) applied to a composition deed, but that did not mean that if a document
required registration under another enactment, it was valid without registration. Section 5
of the Trust Act, 1882, required composition deed to be registered, and if it was not
registered, it was invalid. Registration is essential to the validity of every such trust.
Section 5 of the Trust Act, read with this sub-section (5) of the Trust Act, requires that all
composition deeds involving the declaration of a trust of immovable property of the value
of rupees one hundred and upwards require registration.

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B. SHARES: [SECTION 17(2)(II)]
Section 17(2)(ii) of the Registration Act exempts from compulsory registration
instruments relating to shares in a joint stock company notwithstanding that the shares of
a joint stock company consist in whole or in part of immovable property. The exception is
limited to transfer of shares in a joint stock company and does not extend to transfer of
shares in a co-operative society or other society.

C. DOCUMENT MERELY CREATING A RIGHT TO OBTAIN

ANOTHER DOCUMENT: [SECTION 17(2)(V)]
This clause provides that a document not itself creating a right in immovable property of
the value of Rs. 100/- and upwards, but merely creating a right to obtain another
document which will, when executed, create any such right, need not be registered. An
agreement for sale in the usual form acknowledging receipt of earnest and providing for
the execution of a regular sale-deed on payment of the balance purchase-money, is a
document of this kind.
Explanation to Section 17(2) and the proviso to Section 17(2) make it absolutely clear
that even an unregistered document, affecting immovable property, may be received as
evidence of a contract, in a suit for specific performance.
If a document itself creates an interest in immovable property, the fact that it
contemplates execution of another document will not exempt it from registration under
Section 17(2)(v).

CASE LAW: MRS. TEHMI P SIDHWA V. SHIB BANERJEE & SONS PVT. LTD.
AIR 1974 SC
An arbitrator awarded that certain parties were entitled to one-fourth share in immovable
property, and directed one of the parties to pay to the said parties their respective shares
in the rent, and to execute such documents as might be necessary to transfer the said
property and lease in respect thereof, the Supreme Court held that the award itself did not
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 Rs. 100/- and

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 upwards, in respect of the immovable property as contemplated by Section 17(1)(b) of
the Registration Act. It merely created a right to obtain another document which would,
when executed, create, declare, assign, limit or extinguish any such right, title or interest.
It, therefore, squarely fell under Section 17(2)(v) of Registration Act and was not
registrable.
ILLUSTRATIONS:
 An agreement for sale is in these terms: ‘There is a house situated in – Street. B
has agreed to sell the house to C on condition of receiving Rs. 15,225/- as the
value thereof and C has agreed to purchase the said house. The conditions thereof
are as follows: The said C did at the time of executing this bargain-paper pay to
the said B Rs. 1000/- as earnest money, the receipt of which sum the said B
admits by this writing. On a deed of sale being made out and on the said house
being made over to C, the balance of Rs. 14,225/- is duly to be paid’. The
document does not itself create any interest in immovable property but creates
merely a right to obtain another document, namely a deed of sale. It falls within
Section 17(2)(v) and does not require registration.
 A document containing a promise to transfer a portion of property under
litigation, if decreed in favour of the executant, comes within Section 17(2)(v) and
does not require registration.
 An ikrar (agreement) to the effect that the tenants will sign and have registered
kabuliyat at rents expressed in the ikrar fall within Section 17(2)(v).
 By an agreement in writing A agrees to finance B to the extent of Rs. 15 lakhs.
The agreement provides that all stock-in-trade belonging to B shall be under
hypothecation to A and that B shall as soon as possible execute in favour of A a
regular deed or mortgage of certain lands belonging to B to secure the loan. The
agreement falls within Section 17(2) (v) and does not require registration.

CASE LAW: KARARI MAL V. PARMANAND, (1955) PUNJAB

If the document itself creates an interest in immovable property, the fact that it contemplates the
execution of another document will not exempt it from registration under this clause. When it

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does not create a title, but merely acknowledges that a right is in a person, such a document does
not require registration.

ILLUSTRATIONS:

 By a kararnama (agreement) made in June 1885, A delivers possession of a house to B in

consideration of B undertaking to pay off the debts due by A’s father amounting to Rs.
450. It is further provided that if A failed to repay the amount by 1888, A should pass a
deed of sale of the house to B. The document requires registration. It does not merely
create a right to obtain another document. It creates as between the parties to it a charge
in the nature of a mortgage, the transfer of the house being contemporaneous with the
execution of the document. The mention of an intention to execute a deed of sale can
make no difference as the document does not merely create a right to demand another
document.
 Disputes between a widow and other members of a joint Hindu family were referred to
arbitrators. The award stated that certain lands should be given to the widow and that the
parties should get the necessary documents executed and registered. It was held that the
award merely created a right to obtain another document and therefore did not require
registration.

D. SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE
Section 17(2)(v) provides that a document, not in itself creating a right in immovable
property of the value of Rs. 100/- and upwards, but merely creating a right to obtain
another document which will, when executed, create any such right, need not be
registered.

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DECREES AND AWARDS: [SECTION 17(2)(VI)]

Nothing in clauses (b) and (c) of sub-section (1) of Section 17 applies to:

(vi) any decree or order of a Court (except a decree or order expressed to be made on a
compromise and comprising immovable property other than that which is the subject-matter of
the suit or proceeding).

This sub-section exempts decrees and orders of a Court from registration. There is one exception
to this exemption as quoted above that requires registration.

CASE LAW: T. DUBBIAN V. T LAXMIAH, AIR 1970 A.P.

EKBOTE, J, considered whether a compromise comprising the terms relating to the suit property
as well as relating to some other property which is not the subject-matter of the suit, requires
registration under Section 17 of the Registration Act, 1908. The Court observed:

“A close reading of this clause would indicate that broadly speaking all the decrees or orders of
Court have been exempted from the operation of clauses (b) and (c) of sub-section (1). There is,
however, an exception to this section. Those decrees or orders, which are expressed to be made
on a compromise other than that which is the subject-matter of the suit on the proceeding would
not be exempted from the operation of clauses (b) and (c). If the case of a compromise relating to
property, which is not the subject-matter of the suit or proceeding, then obviously the latter part
of clause (vi) would take away the exception and to such a case clauses (b) and (c), as the case
may be, would apply, and such a document would be liable for registration. It will thus be plain
that where the compromise deals only with the properties in the suit and the Court passes a
decree in accordance therewith, such a case will squarely fall with the exception and such a
decree would not require registration.

Similarly, where the compromise deals with the properties which are not the subject matter of the
suit and the Court passes a decree in accordance therewith, such a decree is not exempted from
the operation of clause (b) or (c) and it will require to be registered.”

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CONSENT DECREES

It may be noticed that decrees and orders expressed to be made on a compromise and
compromising immovable property other than that which is the subject-matter of the suit or
proceeding, require registration only if they purport or operate to create, etc. any right, title or
interest of the value of one hundred rupees and upwards to or in immovable property. This is
what is meant by the word “compromising” in clause (vi). Thus, if a compromise decree merely
varies the terms of an existing tenancy, it does not require registration as it creates no new lease.
Registration is compulsory only in the event of a new lease having been created.

PETITION OF COMPROMISE

The propositions deducible from the decided cases are:

a. If the compromise is incorporated in the decree, the petition does not require registration,
even though it comprises land outside the scope of the suit.
b. If the compromise includes land outside the scope of the suit and that part is not
embodied in the decree, the petition, as to land outside the suit, requires registration.
c. If the compromise relates only to the lands in suit and part of it is not embodied in the
decree, that part must be registered.
d. If the compromise is not embodied in the decree, it must be registered. All these
propositions may be summarized in the general statement that a compromise is exempt
from registration only so far as it is acted upon or is covered by the decree.

RECEIPTS FOR MORTGAGE CLAIM AND ENDORSEMENTS: [SECTION 17(2)(XI)]

From clause (xi) of Section 17 (2) of the Act, it is apparent that it relates to two types of writings
– first, endorsement on a mortgage deed acknowledging the payment of whole or any part of the
mortgage money and secondly, any other receipt for payment of money due under a mortgage.

The receipt for payment of mortgage money would be exempt from registration when it does not
purport to extinguish the mortgage. It is settled by a number of judgments that if the receipt
relates to payment of whole of the mortgage money and purports to extinguish the mortgage, it is
compulsorily registrable. The essence of redemption consists in either the cancellation and return

13
of the mortgage deed or where the mortgage is with possession, in the restoration of possession
of the mortgaged property to the mortgagee after the mortgage money has been paid.

CASE LAW: GURDIAL SINGH V. KARTAR SINGH, AIR 1964 PUNJAB

In view of the plain language of sub-sections (1) (c) and (2) (XI) of Section 17 of the Act and the
rule of law as laid down in the authorities, a receipt for payment of money under mortgage (other
than an endorsement on a mortgage deed) issued by a mortgagee mentioning not only the
payment of the full mortgage amount but also the extinction of the mortgage, required
registration.

CERTIFICATE OF SALE: [SECTION 17(2)(XII)]

Nothing in clauses (b) and (c) of sub-section (1) of Section 17 applies to –

“Any certificate of sale granted to the purchaser of any property sold by public auction by a civil
or Revenue officer.”

Section 17 (2), Clause (xii) of the Registration Act enumerates two kinds of officers who may
grant certificates of sale to the purchaser of any property sold at public auction. The distinction is
that such an officer may be either a civil or revenue officer.

Section 89 (2) of the Act provides for filing of copies of certificates of sale, granted under O 21, r
94 of the Code of Civil Procedure, by the registering officer in Book No. 1 S 89 (4) provides for
the filing of copies of certificates of sale granted by Revenue Officers. A certificate granted by a
Collector of sale, of surplus lands acquired by Government under the Land Acquisition Act, is
exempt from registration under this clause.

CASE LAW: NARASAPPA V. HUSSAIN SUB, (1934) MAD.

A sale deed of immovable property executed by an Official Receiver in Insolvency, requires

registration under Section 54 of the Transfer of Property Act and is not exempt under this clause,
even though it is subject to confirmation by the Court.

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RECITAL OF PAYMENT OF EARNEST MONEY: [SECTION 17(2),
EXPLANATION]

The Explanation says that the document purporting or operating to effect a contract for the sale
of immovable property shall not be deemed to require, or ever to have required registration, by
reason only of the fact that such a document contains a recital of the payment of any earnest
money or of the whole or of any part of the purchase money.

AUTHORITY TO ADOPT: [SECTION 17(3)]

Written authority to adopt a son, not conferred by a will, was made compulsorily registrable for
the first time by Act 8 of 1871, if they were executed after January 1, 1872. The object of the
enactment was to provide a safeguard against fraud.

CASE LAW: JAGAN NATHA BHEEMA DEO V. KEMJA BEHARI DEO, AIR 1922 PC

A writing is not necessarily testamentary because the executant chose to call it a will. If the
writing amounts to a present authority to adopt, i.e. an authority which may be exercised at any
time after its execution, it is a non-testamentary instrument and requires registration, though the
executant may have described it as a will.

CASE LAW: MEHBOOB ALAM V. SMT. NASIRA BEGUM, AIR 1977 RAJ.

The Rajasthan High Court dismissed a revision under Section 115 of Civil Procedure Code,
against an order of the trial judge, deciding that a document was compulsorily registrable, and
without registration was not admissible in evidence under Section 49 of the Registration Act. The
High Court held that it was not an error of jurisdiction. It also refused to convert it into a petition
under Article 227 of the Constitution.

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