This Act may be called the 2*** Registration Act, 1908.
3*[(2)
It extends to the whole of India except the State of Jammu and Kashmir: Provided that the State Government may exclude any districts or tracks of country from its operation.]
(3)
It shall come into force on the first day of January, 1909.
In this Act, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context –
(1)
"Addition" means the place of residence, and the profession, trade, rank and title (if any) of a person described, and, in the case of 4*[an Indian], *** his father's name, or where he is usually described as the son of his mother, then his mother's name:
Maharashtra by Maha. Act 29 of 1974, Maharashtra by Maha. Act 49 of 1975, Orissa by Orissa Act 11 of 1976, Haryana by Haryana Act 36 of 1973, Uttar Pradesh by U.P. Act 14 of 1971, Uttar pradesh by U.P. Act 48 of 1975, Uttar Pradesh by U.P. Act 57 of 1976, West Bengal by W.B. Act 17 of 1978 and Tamil Nadu by T.N. Act 31 of 1974.
It has been amended in its application to West Bengal by Ben. Act 5 of 1942 and West Ben. Acts 29, of 1950 and 31 of 1951; to Maharashtra by Bombay Acts 5 of 1929, 17 of 1930, 18 of 1933, 24 of 1938, 14 of 1939, 10 of 1942, 6 of 1960, Maharashtra Acts 19 of 1960 and 20 of 1971; to the C.P. by C.P. Act 1 of 1937 and M.P. Act 8 of 1955; to Madras and Andhra by Madras Acts 3 of 1936 and 17 of 1952; to Orissa by Orissa Act 3 of 1933; to the Punjab by Punjab Acts 8 of 1941 and 19 of 1961; to Bihar by Bihar Acts 14 of 1947 and 24 of 1952; to Kerala by Kerala Act 7 of 1968; to Himachal Pradesh by HP Act 2 of 1969 and to Pondicherry by Pondicherry Act 17 of 1970. This Act has been extended to – Dadra and Nagar Haveli by Reg. 6 of 1963, s. 2 and Sch. I Goa, Daman and Diu by Reg. 11 of 1963, s. 3 and Sch. Laccadive, Minicoy and Amindivi Islands by Reg. 8 of 1965, s. 3 and Sch. Pondicherry by Act 26 of 1968, s. 3 and Sch.
(2)
The word "Indian" omitted by Act 45 of 1969, s. 2.
(3)
Subs. by Act 3 of 1951, s. 3 and Sch.
(4)
Subs. by the A. O. 1950 for "a Native of India".
(5)
The Words "his caste (if any) and" omitted by Act 17 of 1956, s.2.
"book" includes a portion of a book and also any number of sheets connected together with a view of forming a book or portion of a book:
(3)
"district" and "sub-district" respectively mean a district and sub-district formed under this Act:
(4)
"District Court" includes the High Court in its ordinary original civil jurisdiction:
(5)
"endorsement" and "endorsed" include and apply to an entry in writing by a registering officer on a rider or covering slip to any document tendered for registration under this Act:
(6)
"immovable property" includes land, buildings, allowances, rights to ways, lights, ferries, or any other benefit to arise out of land, and things attached to the earth or permanently fastened to anything which is attached to the earth, not standing timber, growing crops nor grass: *[(6A)"India" means the territory of India excluding the State of Jammu and Kashmir:]
(7)
"lease" includes a counterpart, kabuliyat, an undertaking to cultivate or occupy, and an agreement to lease:
(8)
"minor" means a person who, according to the personal law to which he is subject, has not attained majority:
(9)
"movable property" includes standing timber growing crops and grass, fruit upon and juice in trees, and property of every other description, except immovable property : and
(10)
"representative" includes the guardian of a minor and the committee or other legal curator of a lunatic or idiot.
The State Government shall appoint an officer to be the Inspector-General of Registration for the territories subject to such Government: Provided that the State Government may, instead of making such appointment, direct that all or any of the powers and duties herein-after conferred and imposed upon the Inspector-General shall be exercised and performed by such officer or officers, and within such local limits, as the State Government appoints in this behalf.
(2)
Any Inspector-General may hold simultaneously any other office under the Government.
4-
[Branch Inspector-General of Sindh.] Rep. by the A. O. 1937.
Districts and sub-districts
5-
(1)
For the purposes of this Act, the state Government shall form districts and sub-districts, and shall prescribe, and may alter, the limits of such districts and sub-districts.
(2)
The districts and sub-districts formed under this section, together with the limits thereof, and every alteration of such limits, shall be notified in the Official Gazette.
(3)
Every such alteration shall take effect on such day after the date of the notification as is therein mentioned.
6-
Registrars and Sub-Registrars.
The State Government may appoint such persons whether public officers or not, as it thinks proper, to be Registrars of the several districts, and to be Sub- Registrars of the several sub-districts, formed as aforesaid, respectively.
7-
Offices of Registrar and Sub-Registrar.
(1)
The State Government shall establish in every district an office to be styled the office of the Registrar and in every sub-district an office or offices to be styled the office of the Sub-Registrar or the offices of the Joint Sub-Registrars.
(2)
The State Government may amalgamate with any office of a Registrar any office of a Sub-Registrar subordinate to such Registrar, and may authorize any Sub-Registrar whose office has been so amalgamated to exercise and perform, in addition to his own powers and duties, all or any of the powers and duties of the Registrar to whom he is subordinate: Provided that no such authorization shall enable a Sub-Registrar to hear an appeal against an order passed by himself under this Act.
8-
Inspectors of registration offices.
(1)
The State Government may also appoint officers, to be called Inspectors of Registration-offices, and may prescribe the duties of such officers.
Every such Inspector shall be subordinate to the Inspector-General.
9-
[Military cantonments may be declared sub-districts or districts.] Rep. by the Repealing and Amending Act, 1927 (10 of 1927), s. 3 and sch. II.
Absence of Registrar or vacancy in his office
10-
(1)
When any Registrar, other than the Registrar of a district including a presidency-town, is absent otherwise than on duty in his district, or when his office is temporarily vacant, any person whom the Inspector-General appoints in this behalf, or, in default of such appointment, the Judge of the District Court within the local limits of whose jurisdiction the Registrar's office is situate, shall be the Registrar during such absence or until the State Government fills up the vacancy.
(2)
When the registrar of a district including a presidency-town is absent otherwise than on duty in his district, or when his office is temporarily vacant, any person whom the Inspector-General appoints in this behalf shall be the Registrar during such absence, or until the State Government fills up the vacancy.
11-
Absence of Registrar on duty in his district.
When any Registrar is absent from his office on duty in his district, he may appoint any sub-Registrar or other person in his district to perform, during such absence, all the duties of a Registrar except those mentioned in sections 68 and 72.
12-
Absence of Sub-Registrar or vacancy in his office.
When any Sub-Registrar is absent, or when his office is temporarily vacant, any person whom the Registrar of the district appoints in this behalf shall be Sub-Registrar during such absence, or until 1*[the vacancy is filled up].
13-
Report to State Government of appointments under sections 10, 11 and 12.
(1)
2*** All appointments made under section 10, section 11 or section 12 shall be reported to the State Government by the Inspector-General.
(2)
Such report shall be either special or general, as the State Government directs.
The State Government may allow proper establishments for the several offices under this Act.
15-
Seal of registering officers.
The several Registrars and Sub-Registrars shall use a seal bearing the following inscription in English and in such other language as the State Government directs:-- "The seal of the Registrar (or of the Sub-Registrar) of".
16-
Register-books and fire-proof boxes.
(1)
The State Government shall provide for the office of every registering officer the books necessary for the purposes of this Act.
(2)
The books so provided shall contain the forms from time to time prescribed by the Inspector-General with the sanction of the State Government, and the pages of such books shall be consecutively numbered in print, and the number of pages in each book shall be certified on the title-page by the officer by whom such books are issued.
(3)
The State Government shall supply the office of every Registrar with a fire-proof box, and shall in each district make suitable provision for the safe custody of the records connected with the registration of documents in such district.
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.1864 ( XVI of 1864), or the Indian Registration Act, 1866 (20 of 1866), or the Indian Registration Act, 1871 (8 of 1871), or the Indian Registration Act, 1877 (3 of 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;
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, 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 leases 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.
(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
any endorsement upon or transfer of any debenture issued by any such company; or
(v)
any document 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 1*[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 the 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 (26 of 1871), or the Land Improvement Loans Act, 1883 (19 of 1883); or
(x)
any order granting a loan under the Agriculturists Loans Act, 1884 (12 of 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]
(xi)
any endorsement on a mortgage-deed acknowledging the payment of the whole or any part of the mortgage money, 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.
1*[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 first day of January, 1872, and not conferred by a will, shall also be registered.
Documents of which registration is optional
18-
Any of the following documents may be registered under this Act, namely –
(a)
instruments (other than instruments of gift and wills) purport or operate to create, declare, assign, or extinguish, whether in present or in future, right, title or interest, whether vested or contingent, of a value less than one hundred rupees, to or in immovable property;
(b)
instruments acknowledging the receipt or payment of any consideration on account of the creation, declaration, assignment, limitation or extinction of any such right, title or interest;
(c)
leases of immovable property for any term not exceeding one year, and leases exempted under section 17;
2*[(cc)
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 a value less than one hundred rupees, to or in immovable property;]
(d)
instruments (other than wills) which purport or operate to create, declare, assign, limit or extinguish any right, title or interest to or in movable property;
(e)
wills; and
(f)
all other documents not required by section 17 to be registered.
