Time from which registered document operates [Section 47]

A seller signs a sale deed on 1 March. The buyer takes it to the Sub-Registrar on 20 April and the deed is registered that day. From which date does the deed start to work: the day it was signed, or the day it was registered? It sounds like a small point until the seller sells to someone else on 10 April. Section 47 of the Registration Act answers in one sentence, and the answer is not the one most first-years guess.

In two minutes

A registered document operates from the time it would have commenced to operate if no registration had been required, and not from the time of its registration.

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