17. Documents of which registration is compulsory.—(1) 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. XVI of 1864, or the Indian Registration Act, 1866, or the
Indian Registration Act, 1871, or the Indian Registration Act, 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;
(c) 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;
1
[(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, 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:]
Provided that the 2
[State Government] may, by order published in the 3
[Official Gazette], exempt
from the operation of this sub-section any lease 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.
4
[(1A) The documents containing contracts to transfer for consideration, any immovable property for
the purpose of section 53A of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 (4 of 1882) shall be registered if they
have been executed on or after the commencement of the Registration and Other Related laws
(Amendment) Act, 2001 (48 of 2001) and if such documents are not registered on or after such
commencement, then, they shall have no effect for the purposes of the said section 53A.]
(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
1. Ins. by Act 21 of 1929, s. 10.
2. Subs. by the A.O. 1950, for “Provincial Government”.
3. Subs. by the A.O. 1937, for “Local Official Gazette”.
4. Ins. by Act 48 of 2001, s. 3 (w.e.f. 24-9-2001).
8
(iv) any endorsement upon or transfer of any debenture issued by any such Company; or
(v)
1
[any document other than the documents specified in sub-section (1A)] 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 2
[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 3
[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, or the Land Improvement Loans Act, 1883; or
(x) any order granting a loan under the Agriculturists, Loans Act, 1884, or instrument for
securing the repayment of a loan made under that Act; or
4
[(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, and 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.
5
[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 1st day of January, 1872, and not conferred by a
will, shall also be registered.
18. Documents of which registration is optional.—Any of the following documents may be
registered under this Act, namely:—
(a) Instruments (other than instruments of gift and wills) 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 a value less then 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;
6
[(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,
1. Subs. by Act 48 of 2001, s. 3, for “any document” (w.e.f. 24-9-2001).
2. Subs. by Act 21 of 1929, s. 10, for “and any award”.
3. Subs. by the A.O. 1950, for “Crown”.
4. Ins. by Act 39 of 1948, s. 2.
5. Ins by Act 2 of 1927, s. 2.
6. Ins. by Act 33 of 1940, s. 2.
9
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.
19. Documents in language not understood by registering officer.—If any document duly
presented for registration be in a language which the registering officer does not understand, and which is
not commonly used in the district he shall refuse to register the documents, unless it be accompanied by a
true translation into a language commonly used in the district and also by a true copy.
20. Documents containing interlineations, blanks, erasures or alterations.—(1) The registering
officer may in his discretion refuse to accept for registration any document in which any interlineation,
blank, erasure or alteration appears, unless the persons executing the document attest with their signatures
or initials such interlineation, blank, erasure or alteration.
(2) If the registering officer registers any such document, he shall, at the time of registering the same,
make a note in the register of such interlineation, blank, erasure or alteration.
21. Description of property and maps or plans.—(1) No non-testamentary document relating to
immovable property shall be accepted for registration unless it contains a description of such property
sufficient to identify the same.
(2) Houses in towns shall be described as situate on the north or other side of the street or road (which
should be specified) to which they front, and by their existing and former occupancies, and by their
numbers if the houses in such street or road are numbered.
(3) Other houses and lands shall be described by their name, if any, and as being the territorial
division in which they are situate, and by their superficial contents, the roads and other properties on to
which they abut, and their existing occupancies, and also, whenever it is practicable, by reference to a
Government map or survey.
(4) No non-testamentary document containing a map or plan of any property comprised therein shall
be accepted for registration unless it is accompanied by a true copy of the map or plan, or, in case such
property is situate in several districts, by such number of true copies of the map or plan as are equal to the
number of such districts.
22. Description of houses and land by reference to Government maps or surveys.—(1) Where it
is, in the opinion of the 1
[State Government], practicable to describe houses, not being houses in towns,
and lands by reference to a Government map or survey, the 1
[State Government] may, by rule made under
this Act, require that such houses and lands as aforesaid shall, for the purposes of section 21, be so
described.
(2) Save as otherwise provided by any rule made under sub-section (1), failure to comply with the
provisions of section 21, sub-section (2) or sub-section (3), shall not disentitle a document to
be registered if the description of the property to which it relates is sufficient to identify that property.