Registration of Documents — S 17, 18 Indian Registration Act, 1908

A buyer in Nerul signs a sale deed, pays the full price and moves in. Nobody goes to the Sub-Registrar's office. Years later the seller sells the same flat again, and the second buyer registers his deed. Who owns the flat? The answer turns on two sections of a 1908 Act that every conveyancer knows by number. Which documents must be registered, which may be, and what happens if you skip the step?

In two minutes

Section 17 of the Registration Act 1908 lists the documents that must be registered (gifts of immovable property, other instruments creating or transferring rights in immovable property of one hundred rupees and upwards, receipts for their consideration, and leases over a year or from year to year or with a yearly rent); section 18 lists those that may be registered at the parties' option; and s.49 says what an unregistered compulsory document cannot do.

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Drafting, Pleading and Conveyancing – II on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.