Income-tax clearance certificate requirement turns on the value of the share actually transferred, not the whole property

Section 230A(1) of the Income-tax Act applies only when the value of the right, title or interest actually transferred in a registrable document exceeds the statutory threshold, not when the entire property value does so. Where settlement deeds transferred only the executant's half share in immovable property and that share was below the threshold, an income-tax clearance certificate could not be insisted upon for registration.

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Issues: Whether section 230A(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 applied to settlement deeds transferring only the executant's half share in immovable property, so as to require production of an income-tax clearance certificate before registration.

Analysis: Section 230A(1) applies where a document required to be registered purports to transfer, assign, limit or extinguish the right, title or interest of any person in property valued at more than the statutory threshold. The controlling factor is the value of the right, title or interest actually transferred, not the value of the entire property in which that interest is comprised. In the present case, the transferor was entitled only to a half share in the properties covered by the two settlement deeds, and the value of that half share in each deed was below the threshold. The refusal to register proceeded on the erroneous footing that the value of the entire properties had to be taken into account.

Conclusion: Section 230A(1) did not apply, and production of an income-tax clearance certificate could not be insisted upon for registration of the settlement deeds.

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