Unregistered sale deed and prior oral terms cannot prove a contract for specific performance when written proof is required.

Specific performance cannot be supported by an unregistered sale deed or by an earlier oral agreement where the contractual terms are required to be proved from the written instrument itself. An unregistered deed cannot be relied on as evidence of a transaction affecting immovable property, and presentation for registration must comply strictly with the statutory requirement that the document be presented by the proper person. Where the written sale deeds supersede any prior oral arrangement, the evidence rule bars proof of the transaction by extrinsic evidence. In the absence of admissible proof of the agreement, the claim for specific performance fails.

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Issues: Whether specific performance could be decreed where the sale deeds were not registered and the terms of the alleged agreement could not be proved by relying on the unregistered deeds or on an antecedent oral agreement.

Analysis: Presentation for registration under the Registration Act had to comply strictly with the statutory requirement that the document be presented by the proper person, and an unregistered sale deed could not be used as evidence of the transaction affecting immovable property. The deeds left with the scribe could not, therefore, be treated as proving the contractual terms sought to be enforced. Any prior oral agreement concerning the actual terms of sale merged in the written sale deeds, and Section 91 of the Evidence Act barred proof of the transaction by evidence other than the document itself. In the absence of admissible proof of the agreement, the claim for specific performance could not be sustained.

Conclusion: Specific performance was not maintainable, and the appeals failed.

Ratio Decidendi: A suit for specific performance cannot succeed on the basis of an unregistered sale deed or an antecedent oral agreement where the terms of the contract are required to be proved by the written instrument and are barred from proof by the evidence rule.

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