Priority of registered transfers and invalidity of unregistered power of attorney documents in immovable property conveyance.

Section 48 of the Transfer of Property Act gives priority to earlier validly created rights in the same immovable property, so a later transferee cannot obtain better title than the transferor then possessed. Title to immovable property passes only through a valid registered conveyance, or by delivery where law permits. An unregistered affidavit, agreement of sale, or general power of attorney does not by itself convey ownership or constitute a valid transfer. On successive transfers, earlier registered sale deeds prevail over later claims based on unregistered authority documents.

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Issues: (i) Whether the doctrine of priority of rights under Section 48 of the Transfer of Property Act applied to successive transfers of the same immovable property; (ii) Whether an unregistered affidavit and general power of attorney could convey title or constitute a valid transfer of immovable property.

Issue (i): Whether the doctrine of priority of rights under Section 48 of the Transfer of Property Act applied to successive transfers of the same immovable property.

Analysis: The competing transfers concerned the same property, but the registered sale deeds in favour of the later transferees were executed before the sale deed in favour of the first plaintiff. Section 48 embodies the rule that a later transfer is subject to prior created rights. Where the property had already been validly conveyed by registered instruments, a subsequent purchaser could not derive a better title than that of the transferor at the later date.

Conclusion: The doctrine applied, and the later transfer in favour of the first plaintiff was subject to the earlier registered transfers.

Issue (ii): Whether an unregistered affidavit and general power of attorney could convey title or constitute a valid transfer of immovable property.

Analysis: A sale of immovable property can be effected only by a registered conveyance, or by delivery where the law permits. An agreement of sale or a power of attorney is not, by itself, a mode of transfer, and an unregistered instrument conferring authority to alienate immovable property does not convey title. The documents relied upon by the plaintiffs were therefore insufficient to establish ownership in the second plaintiff, and the subsequent sale in favour of the first plaintiff could not override the earlier registered conveyances.

Conclusion: The unregistered affidavit and general power of attorney did not convey title and were not valid instruments of transfer.

Final Conclusion: The concurrent decrees below were unsustainable, and the appellants were entitled to succeed on the substantial questions of law.

Ratio Decidendi: Title to immovable property passes only through a valid registered conveyance, and where successive transfers exist, the later transfer remains subject to prior registered rights.

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