Siri Nivasam Mutual Aided House Building Society Ltd. & Ors vs State Of Andhra Pradesh & Ors

KURIAN, J.

Diary No. 13921 of 2018 and SLP (C) No. 18215 of 2017 are taken on record. Permission to file Special Leave Petition(s) is granted.

Delay condoned. Leave granted.

In all these cases, the appellants are aggrieved since they have not been permitted to effect registration of the transfer of their property. According

to the learned counsel appearing for the State, the property concerned as per Section 22 A (1) (a) to (d) of Registration Act, 1908 (in short, “the

Actâ€) appears either in the list published on the website or in the notification under Section 22 A (1) (e). Sh. V.V.S.Rao, learned senior counsel,

points out that the people in the rural areas in the State may not have access to the website. The learned counsel for the State points out that a copy

of the list is available also with all the Sub-Registrars across the State. Therefore, it is open to the appellants to verify whether they are either in the

list prepared by the authorities concerned or as notified in terms of Section 22A(1)(e) of the Act.

The Full Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, in the impugned Judgment, had formulated the following two questions :-

“1. What are the pre-requisites that are to be satisfied for applying any one or more of clauses (a) to (e) of Section 22-A(1) of the Registration Act

to any document dealing with alienation or transfer by way of sale, agreement of sale, gift, exchange or lease etc. in respect of immovable property

presented for registration?

2.Under what circumstances, the act of the Registering authority concerned (District Registrar or Sub-Registrar) in refusing from registration of the

aforementioned document/s by applying any one or more of the prohibitory clauses (a) to (e) under Section 22-A(1) of the Registration Act can be

said to be justified?â€​Â

The above questions have been answered as follows:-

“(i) The authorities mentioned in the guidelines, which are obliged to prepare lists of properties covered by clauses (a) to (d), to be sent to the

registering authorities under the provisions of Registration Act, shall clearly indicate the relevant clause under which each property is classified.

(ii) Insofar as clause (a) is concerned,the concerned District Collectors shall also indicate the statute under which a transaction and its registration is

prohibited. Further in respect of the properties covered under clause (b), they shall clearly indicate which of the Governments own the property.

(iii) Insofar as paragraphs (3) and (4) in the Guidelines, covering properties under clause (c) and (d) are concerned, the authorities contemplated

therein shall also forward to the registering authorities, along with lists, the extracts of registers/gazette if the property is covered by either endowment

or wakf, and declarations/orders made under the provisions of Ceiling Acts if the property is covered under clause (d).

(iv) The authorities forwarding the lists of properties/lands to the registering authority shall also upload the same to the website of both the

Governments, namely igrs.ap.gov.in of the State of Andhra Pradesh and registration. telangana.gov.in of the State of Telangana. If there is any

change in the website, the State Governments shall indicate the same to all concerned, may be by issuing a press note or an advertisement in

prominent daily news papers.

(v) No notification, contemplated by sub-section (2) of Section 22A, is necessary with respect to the properties falling under clauses (a) to (d) of sub-

section (1) of Section 22-A.

(vi) The properties covered under clause (e) of Section 22-A shall be notified in the official gazette of the State Governments and shall be forwarded,

along with the list of properties, and a copy of the relevant notification/gazette, to the concerned registering authorities under the provisions of

Registration Act and shall also place the said notification/gazette on the aforementioned websites of both the State Governments. The Registering

authorities shall make available a copy of the Notification/Gazette on an application made by an aggrieved party.

(vii)Â Â The registering authorities would be justified in refusing registration of documents in respect of the properties covered by clauses (a) to (d)

of sub-section (1) of Section 22-A provided the authorities contemplated under the guidelines, as aforementioned, have communicated the lists of

properties prohibited under these clauses.

(viii) The concerned authorities, whichare obliged to furnish the lists of properties covered by clauses (a) to (d) of sub-section (1) of Section 22-A, and

the concerned Registering Officers shall follow the guidelines scrupulously.

(ix) It is open to the parties to adocument, if the relevant property/land finds place in the list of properties covered by clauses (a) to (d) of sub-section

(1) of Section 22-A, to apply for its deletion from the list or modification thereof, to the concerned authorities as provided for in the guidelines. The

concerned authorities are obliged to consider the request in proper perspective and pass appropriate order within six weeks from the date of receipt of

the application and make its copy available to the concerned party.

(x) The redressal mechanism under Section22-A(4) shall be before the Committees to be constituted by respective State Governments as directed in

paragraph-35.1 above. The State Governments shall constitute such committees within eight weeks from the date of pronouncement of this

judgment.

(xi) Apart from the redressal mechanism,it is also open to an aggrieved person to approach appropriate forum including Civil Court for either seeking

appropriate declaration or deletion of his property/land from the list of prohibited properties or for any other appropriate relief.

(xii) The directions issued by learnedsingle Judges in six judgments referred to above or any other judgments dealing with the provisions of Section 22-

A, if are inconsistent with the observations made or directions issued in this judgment, it is made clear that the observations made and directions issued

in this judgment shall prevail and would be binding on the parties including the registering authorities under the Registration Act or Government

officials or the officials under the Endowments Act, Wakf Act and Ceiling Acts.Â

(xiii) If the party concerned seeksextracts of the list/register/gazette of properties covered by clauses (a) to (e) of Section 22-A (1), received by the

registering officer on the basis of which he refused registration, it shall be furnished within 10 days from the date of an application made by the

aggrieved party.

(xiv) Registering officer shall not actand refuse registration of a document in respect of any property furnished to him directly by any authority/officer

other than the officers/authorities mentioned in the Guidelines.

(xv) Mere registration of a documentshall not confer title on the vendee/alienee, if the property is otherwise covered by clauses (a) to (e), but did not

find place in the lists furnished by the concerned authorities to the registering officers. In such cases, the only remedy available to the authorities under

clauses (a) to (e) of sub-section (1) of Section 22-A is to approach appropriate forums for appropriate relief.â€​

After issuing the above directions, the mattershave been remitted to the Bench concerned for considering other issues including the validity of

Section 22A of the Act.

The learned counsel for the State points out that the main issue pending before the High Court is the vires of Section 22A of the Act. All the

contentions now sought to be raised by the appellants are, in fact, the subject matter of the challenge before the High Court. However, we find that

some of the appellants before this Court are not parties before the High Court. Since the main issue is pending before the High Court, we deem it

appropriate to remit these matters to the High Court. Those persons who are parties before this Court, but not parties to the pending writ petitions

in the High Court, may get themselves impleaded by way of appropriate application(s) for impleadment/intervention etc, or may even file fresh writ

petitions.Â

We note that in all these appeals, registration has been permitted making it subject to the result of the appeals with a further condition that no

further registration shall take place without permission from the Court. It is ordered that the registration already permitted by this Court shall be

treated as a provisional registration subject to the result of the writ petitions now pending before the High Court. We make it clear that merely

because a provisional registration has been permitted, the parties shall not claim any additional equity. We further make it clear that without express

permission from the High Court, there shall be no further transfer. In order to avoid further difficulty to the similarly situated people, we make it

clear that it will be open to them to approach the High Court and seek appropriate and similar interim orders regarding transfers during the pendency

of the writ petitions.

The learned senior counsel has pointed out that the same mechanism for redressal under Section 22 A (1)(e) may be made applicable as far as the

grievance in respect of Section 22A(1)(a) to (d) is concerned. It is pointed out that even in respect of the orders which have otherwise become final,

they would be relegated to the same authority and will be subject to further revision/appeal etc. This is also a matter to be considered by the High

Court when the writ petitions are finally heard. Therefore, we permit the parties to raise this contention also before the Bench concerned while

considering the vires of the Section, in order to reach a workable solution. The Court may consider the issue on its own merit and the impugned

order shall not stand in that way.

We further make it clear that we have not otherwise considered the matter on merits.

In view of the above, the appeals are disposed of.