Unregistered sale deed evidence permitted in specific performance suits for proving the contract between parties.

An unregistered sale deed required to be registered remains admissible in a suit for specific performance for the limited purpose of proving the contract between the parties. Section 49 of the Registration Act, 1908 bars such a document from affecting immovable property or proving a transaction affecting it, but its proviso expressly allows admission as evidence of a contract in a specific performance suit and of a collateral transaction not requiring registration. The provision for a suit under Section 77 does not exclude this limited evidentiary use where the action seeks specific performance rather than registration of the document. Refusal to mark the deed was therefore erroneous.

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Issues: Whether an unregistered sale deed can be received in evidence in a suit for specific performance as proof of the contract between the parties.

Analysis: Section 49 of the Registration Act, 1908 bars an unregistered document required to be registered from affecting immovable property or being received as evidence of a transaction affecting such property. Its proviso, however, expressly permits such a document to be received as evidence of a contract in a suit for specific performance and also as evidence of a collateral transaction not required to be effected by a registered instrument. The limitation under the Registration Act does not prevent the court from admitting the document for the limited purpose permitted by the proviso. The special remedy under Section 77 of the Registration Act, 1908 is not the only route where the suit is one for specific performance and not merely for registration of a document.

Conclusion: The unregistered sale deed was admissible in evidence for the limited purpose of proving the contract in the suit for specific performance, and the refusal to mark it was erroneous.

Ratio Decidendi: An unregistered document required to be registered may still be admitted in evidence in a suit for specific performance as proof of the contract, by virtue of the proviso to Section 49 of the Registration Act, 1908.

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