Shamsuddin Khan vs Sudhir Kumar

Supervisory jurisdiction of this Court under Article 227 of the Constitution of India is invoked to assail Interlocutory Order passed by the trial Court on 08.07.2013 in Case Number 4-A/12(Old No.43-A/2011) Civil Suit rejecting an application u/S 47 of Stamp Act read with Section 151 CPC preferred by the defendant seeking a direction for declaring agreement to sale dated 22.06.1996 on which suit for specific performance was founded, having been written on unsufficient stamp paper and is also unregistered and therefore inadmissable in evidence, and impounding the said instrument and sending it to Collector (Stamp) for recovery of defficient stamp duty and also for registrarion of the said instrument.

1.1 To the extent the impugned order directs for registration of the said instrument, it is submitted by the learned counsel for the petitioner by referring to the provisions of Indian Stamp Act, 1899 that there is no provision under the said enactment for directing registration of an instrument and to that extent the order impugned is bereft of jurisdiction.

After hearing learned counsel for rival parties this Court is of the considered view that admittedly the Indian Stamp Act under which the application was moved by the petitioner does not enable registration of any instrument, which in fact is a domain governed by another enactment i.e. Registration Act, 1908.

More so, it is seen from the provision of Section 49 of the Registration Act especially the proviso to the said provision which was added with effect from 1929 that an unregistered document affecting immovable property required to be registered under the provision of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 may be received as evidence of a contract in a suit for specific performance under Chapter II of the Specific Relief Act, 1877 or as evidence of any collateral transaction not required to be effected by the registered instrument. For ready reference and convenience Section 49 of the Registration Act is reproduced below:

"49. Effect of non-registration of documents required to be registered.-No document required by section 17 1[or by any provision of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 (4 of 1882)], to be registered shall-

(a) affect any immovable property comprised therein,

or

(b) confer any power to adopt, or

(c) be received as evidence of any transaction affecting such property or conferring such power, unless it has been registered:

1[Provided that an unregistered document affecting immovable property and required by this Act or the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 (4 of 1882), to be registered may be received as evidence of a contract in a suit for specific performance under Chapter II of the Specific Relief Act, 1877 (1 of 1877)2 , 3 [***] or as evidence of any collateral transaction not required to be effected by registered Inistrument.]"

view of the above, it is evident that direction for registration of the instrument was superfluous and to that extent learned trial Judge has exceeded the jurisdiction vested.

Accordingly, the present petition stands allowed by settting aside the impugned order to the extent it directs for registration of the said instrument. It is made clear that the remainng part of the impugned order shall remain intact.

Consequently, with the above said direction, the present petition stands disposed of.