In India, land ownership is primarily established through a
registered sale deed (a record of the property transaction
between the buyer and seller). Other documents used to
establish ownership include the record of rights
(document with details of the property), property tax
receipts, and survey documents. However, these
documents are not a government guaranteed title to the
property, but only a record of the transfer of
property. During such transactions, the onus of checking
past ownership records of a property is on the
buyer. Therefore, land ownership in India, as determined
by such sale deeds, is presumptive in nature, and subject
to challenge.
The documents registrable under the Act fall under three
categories. In the first category come documents relating to
transactions which, according to the substan- tive law, can be
effected only by registered instruments. It is hardly necessary to
point out that the Registration Act does not lay down that any
transaction, in order to be valid. must be effected by a registered
instrument. What it provides is that when there is a written
instrument evidencing a transaction, it must, in certain cases, be
regis- tered, while in other cases, it may, at the option of the par-
ties, be registered, in the manner laid down in the Act. The
obligation to get a transaction effected only by a regis- tered
instrument is laid down by the substantive law. Thus, the Transfer
of Property Act requires that sales, mortgages, exchanges, gifts'
and leases can be efiected only by registered instruments subject
to an exception in case of some transactions relating to
immovable property of less than Rs. 100 in value. Similarly, the
Trusts Act requires that a trust in respect of immovable property
should be created only by an instrument in writing and registered.
The substantive law, however, does not pro- vide the machinery
for_ effecting registration. It is the Registration Act which
provides the machinery for effect- ing registration and the parties
to registrable instruments must necessarily have recourse to the
provisions of this Act.
[17] The Transfer of Property Act, 1882
provides that the right, title, or interest in an
immovable property (or land) can be transferred
only by a registered instrument. The Registration
Act, 1908, is the primary law that regulates the
registration of land related documents.
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 3 [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.
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 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) 1 [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 2 [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 3 [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 4 [(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]
(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.
5 [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.
