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Issues: (i) Whether a vendor can unilaterally cancel a registered sale deed by executing and presenting a cancellation deed for registration, and whether the registering officer is bound to refuse such registration; (ii) Whether a writ petition is maintainable to challenge registration of such a cancellation deed, or whether the parties must be relegated to a civil suit.
Issue (i): Whether a vendor can unilaterally cancel a registered sale deed by executing and presenting a cancellation deed for registration, and whether the registering officer is bound to refuse such registration.
Analysis: The majority held that the Registration Act, 1908 and the Registration Rules do not contain a general prohibition against registration of a cancellation deed. The registering officer's power to refuse registration is confined to the statutory grounds of refusal and to the limited enquiry prescribed by the Act and Rules. A registered sale deed may still be questioned where it is alleged to be void, voidable, or obtained by fraud, and the law does not warrant the court adding a prohibition by supplying a casus omissus. The majority also reasoned that fraud on title and fraudulent registrations can be addressed through lawful remedies and that, in appropriate cases, cancellation deeds may be registered with consequential notice to affected parties.
Conclusion: A vendor is not entitled, as a matter of general rule, to be blocked by the registering officer from presenting a cancellation deed solely because it seeks to revoke an earlier registered sale deed; the registering officer is not bound to refuse registration on that ground alone.
Issue (ii): Whether a writ petition is maintainable to challenge registration of such a cancellation deed, or whether the parties must be relegated to a civil suit.
Analysis: The majority held that disputes concerning the validity of sale deeds, cancellation deeds, fraud, misrepresentation, authority of executants, and title involve seriously disputed questions of fact requiring oral and documentary evidence. Such controversies lie in the realm of private law and are ordinarily to be adjudicated in a civil court under the Specific Relief Act. The writ jurisdiction under Article 226 is not the proper forum where an efficacious civil remedy exists and factual adjudication is necessary.
Conclusion: A writ petition challenging registration of a cancellation deed is not maintainable in the ordinary course, and the aggrieved party must seek relief before the civil court.
Final Conclusion: The majority dismissed the writ petitions and left the parties to pursue civil remedies; one judge dissented and held that unilateral cancellation of a registered sale deed should not be permitted and that the writ petitions should be allowed.
Dissenting Opinion: Bilal Nazki, J. held that once a sale deed is registered, the vendor's rights stand extinguished, the Sub-Registrar becomes functus officio, and a unilateral cancellation deed cannot be registered; in that view, the writ petitions deserved to be allowed.
Ratio Decidendi: In the absence of an express statutory bar, the registering authority cannot refuse registration of a cancellation deed merely because it seeks to revoke an earlier registered sale deed, but disputes about the validity of such deeds and the underlying title are to be resolved by the civil court and not in writ proceedings when material facts are contested.
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