Hon’ble Mr. Justice R. Suresh Kumar has delivered a landmark judgement consolidating the law on writ petitions pertaining to the registration department. In August of this year His Lordship has heard a batch of Writ Petitions pertaining to the following issues:

Sekarreporter

Today Hon’ble Mr. Justice R. Suresh Kumar has delivered a landmark judgement consolidating the law on writ petitions pertaining to the registration department. In August of this year His Lordship has heard a batch of Writ Petitions pertaining to the following issues:
1. Writ petitions directing the sub registrar/ registration authorities to cancel a registered document (either sale deed or settlement deed) on grounds of fraud, impersonation, lack of title etc.
2. Writ petitions challenging the refusal of the sub registrar to register a document.

After a marathon hearing of about a week, hearing several ld. counsels for the petitioners and Richardson Wilson, Counsel for Government for the registration department his lordship pronounced orders today.

In the judgement running to about 100 pages, His Lordship has referred to all the judgements in the field including the full bench of the Madras High Court in Latif Estate & the Supreme Court in Satyapal Anand and issued the following directions:
1. All the writ petitions praying for a direction to cancel a registered document were dismissed. The petitioners were directed to approach the Civil Court as the registration authorities do not have power to cancel a document once it is registered.
2. the writ petitions challenging the order of the sub registrar refusing to register were dismissed since the proper course for the petitioner is to prefer an appeal u/s 72 of the registration act.

The Hon’ble Court has also taken note of the Registration Act TN amendment Bill passed by the State Legislature recently to introduce sections 77-A & 77-B to the registration Act to provide for a mechanism for cancellation of documents. Under the newly inserted provisions, a party may approach the registration authorities for cancellation of fraudulent documents. Appeal is provided to the IGR & State Government. The Hon’ble Court has however suggested that an appellate tribunal can be constituted with legal persons to hear appeals arising out of 77-A & 77-B proceedings.