Which documents must be registered, by when, and what happens to a document that should have been registered but was not. A curated selection; not the complete text.
Provided for study purposes. Cross-check against the official source (India Code / the relevant government gazette) before citing or relying on this text — amendments and corrections may not be reflected here.
The following documents shall be registered: instruments of gift of immovable property; 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 leases of immovable property from year to year, or for any term exceeding one year, or reserving a yearly rent.
Instruments which purport or operate to create, declare, assign, limit or extinguish any right, title or interest of a value less than one hundred rupees to or in immovable property; leases of immovable property for any term not exceeding one year and leases exempted under Section 17; instruments transferring or assigning any decree or order of a court where the subject-matter is immovable property of a value less than one hundred rupees; instruments relating to movable property; wills; and all other documents not required by Section 17 to be registered may be registered at the option of the parties.
Subject to the provisions relating to wills and to certain decrees and orders, no document other than a will shall be accepted for registration unless presented for that purpose to the proper officer within four months from the date of its execution.
If, owing to urgent necessity or unavoidable accident, any document executed in India is not presented for registration till after the expiration of the time prescribed, the Registrar may, where the delay in presentation does not exceed four months, direct that on payment of a fine not exceeding ten times the amount of the proper registration fee the document shall be accepted for registration.
Every document to be registered under this Act shall be presented at the proper registration office by some person executing or claiming under it, or by the representative or assign of such a person, or by the agent of such a person, representative or assign, duly authorised by a power of attorney executed and authenticated in the manner mentioned in the Act.
A registered document shall operate from the time from which it would have commenced to operate if no registration of it had been required or made, and not from the time of its registration.
No document required by Section 17 or by any provision of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 to be registered shall affect any immovable property comprised in it, or confer any power to adopt, or be received as evidence of any transaction affecting such property or conferring such power, unless it has been registered. An unregistered document affecting immovable property and required to be registered may nevertheless be received as evidence of a contract in a suit for specific performance, or as evidence of part performance of a contract, or as evidence of any collateral transaction not required to be effected by a registered instrument.