Except in case of transfer of shares of a co-operative housing society and housing limited company where registration is optional, virtually in all cases of transfer of immovable property like family arrangement, agreement to sell, conveyance, gift deed, lease deed, leave and licence agreement, tenancy agreement, declaration deed, mortgage deed, exchange deed, power of attorney to sell for consideration, etc. has to be registered compulsorily under the Indian Registration Act 1908. Otherwise, the proper legal title will not pass on to the purchaser or transferee i.e., the title will be defective if registration of the document is not done. The document should be normally be in English, Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati languages only, in Maharashtra.
Return of registered document
After February 1, 2002, when the registration process was computerised, normally documents are returned on the same day within half an hour. All the documents lodged for registration on and from October 1, 1995 up to January 31, 2002 were returned to the party within a few days of indexing the same because only the photocopy was sent to Pune for microfilming / scanning. Documents lodged for registration prior to October 1, 1995 were sent to Pune, after it was indexed, for microfilming / scanning and then only it is returned to the party, which may have taken a few years.
The abovementioned procedure is one of the reasons. However, some of the major reasons due to which the document remained pending at the office of sub-registrar and not being indexed and not returned to the owner, are as follows:
(a) Stamp duty was not paid according to the market value.
(b) Income Tax Clearance Certificate U/s 230 was not attached where required. (See Note (i) below.)
(c) N.O.C. of Appropriate Authority in Form 37-1 was not attached where required. (See Note (ii) below.)
(d) N.O.C. under Urban Land Ceiling Act was not attached where required. (See Note (iii) below.)
(e) Certain parties to the agreement had not admitted execution in front of the Sub-registrar.
The above deficiencies were always pointed out by the sub-registrar at the time of registration by way of remark (such as MV, 230A, 37-1, NOC, ADM) on the registration receipt itself but due to ignorance, owners never cared to clear them and hence documents have, over the years, got accumulated in the office of the Sub-registrar.
With effect from 17/08/2000 Sub-registrars are accepting documents which do not have any of the deficiencies mentioned under point (a) to (d). However, deficiency relating to non-admission is tolerated and the document is accepted and kept pending for admission only.
Updates
(i) Income tax clearance certificate under Section 230A of Income Tax Act, 1961, is now not required from 01-06-2001 even for documents accepted for registration before 01-06-2001 because requirement for such certificate was on the day of registration and a document is considered to be registered on the day it is Indexed and if it is not indexed uptill now no Income Tax Clearance certificate is required even for old cases, hence for all such cases one should pursue the matter and his document will be registered.
(ii) N.O.C. of Appropriate Authority in Form 37-I is also not required from 01-07-2002. As above NOC is now unobtainable this is applicable even for old cases.
(iii) Urban Land Ceiling Act is repealed from 6th December 2007 in the state of Maharashtra, hence producing this N.O.C. is no longer required.
(The writer is a valuer of real estate and co-author of Stamp Duty Ready Reckoner)
