Thayarammal vs Lakshmi Ammal and Another

Exhibit A was executed by the 1st defendant to the plaintiff and he was given possession of it. It is in terms a sale-deed but it was not registered.

The finding is that the plaintiff made default in the payment of the purchase money and the document was not therefore registered. He now sues to

enforce specific performance of an agreement, which according to him is implied in the sale-deed Ex. A. The question for consideration is whether

it is open to the plaintiff to regard Exh. A which has become inoperative by reason of non-registration as an agreement to sell. In our opinion this

remedy is not open to the plaintiff. He could have presented the document for registration u/s 32 of the Registration Act and could have enforced

the attendance of the 1st defendant to admit execution u/s 36 of the same Act. If there was a refusal to register, he could have enforced his further

remedies in this behalf under the Act. If he failed to take advantage of these provisions of the law, it is not open to him to ignore the plain terms of

the document and to read into it an agreement to sell which was superseded by the conveyance itself. It is true that Courts of Equity would assist a

plaintiff to effectuate an incomplete title, if the default is due to Act of God or conduct amounting to fraud on the part of the executant. But here no

default is attributable to the 1st defendant. On the other hand, it is the default of the plaintiff in not paying the consideration that led to the document

remaining unregistered. This case is within the principle of Venkatasami v. Kristayya 3 M.L.J. 169. There it was held that when the plaintiff did not

avail himself of the remedies provided by the Registration Act, he is not entitled to ask either that the document should be registered or that a new

document should be executed and registered.

This decision has not been dissented from in this Court hitherto. The obiter dictum in Venkataseetha Ramayya v. Venkataramayya ILR (1912)

Mad. 418 that such a document can be treated as an agreement to sell was pronounced without adverting to Venkatasami v. Kristayya 3 M.L.J.

In Calcutta there are direct authorities against the Madras view. But with all deference we fail to find the principle on which the contrary view

can be based. The learned Judges apparently misunderstood the view taken in Chinna Krishna Reddi v. Dorasami Reddi ILR (1896) Mad. 19 in

saying that Venkatasami v. Kristayya ILR (1898) Mad. 341 was dissented from. We are therefore not prepared to follow Surender Nath Nag

Chowdhry v. Gopal Chunder Ghosh (1910) 12 Cal. L.J. 464 in preference to Venkatasami v. Kristayya ILR (1898) Mad. 341. In Amerchand v.

Nathu (1910) 7 All. L.J. 887. it is not shown who had the document and whether there was a suppression of it. On the whole it seems to us that

there is no ground for not acting on the principle of the decision in Venkatasami v. Kristayya ILR (1898) Mad. 341. The Second Appeal should

be dismissed with costs.