Vehicle ownership transfer governs tort liability, so the actual transferee is liable even if registration records were not updated.

Under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939, registration requirements and notice of transfer serve record-keeping and penal purposes, but they do not make an actual sale of a motor vehicle ineffective. Ownership is governed by the law of sale of movable property, and the registration certificate is not a document of title. Accordingly, where a vehicle had been transferred before the accident, tortious liability for the accident attached to the transferee as the actual owner, not to the registered owner or his legal representatives merely because the registration record had not yet been updated.

---

---

Issues: (i) Whether the legal representatives of the registered owner remained liable in tort after the motor vehicle had been transferred to another person before the accident, though the registration had not yet been transferred.

Analysis: The Motor Vehicles Act, 1939 regulates the registration and use of motor vehicles in public places. The provisions requiring registration and intimation of transfer serve the purpose of maintaining the register and attracting penal consequences for non-compliance, but they do not declare that failure to report or effect transfer in the registration records keeps the transfer itself inoperative. Ownership of a motor vehicle is governed by the law of sale of movable property, and the registration book is not a document of title. Once actual transfer of ownership is proved, the tortious liability for an accident lies on the transferee, not on the registered owner merely because the registration record was not changed.

Conclusion: The registered owner and his legal representatives were not liable merely because the registration had not been transferred; liability lay with the transferee.

---