Unregistered agreement to sell remains admissible in specific performance suits under the Registration Act proviso despite compulsory registration.

An unregistered agreement to sell, though compulsorily registrable under the Tamil Nadu amendment to the Registration Act, may still be received in evidence in a suit for specific performance under the proviso to Section 49. The proviso preserves admissibility of an unregistered document as proof of the contract in such a suit, and also for collateral purposes, unless the document is excluded by Section 17(1A). On that basis, the Court held that the agreement remained admissible and the challenge to the High Court's order failed.

---

---

Issues: Whether an unregistered agreement to sell, covered by the Tamil Nadu amendment making such agreements compulsorily registrable, can still be received in evidence in a suit for specific performance under the proviso to Section 49 of the Registration Act.

Analysis: Section 17(1)(g) as inserted by the Tamil Nadu amendment made agreements relating to sale of immovable property compulsorily registrable. However, the Registration Act also contains Section 49, which bars an unregistered document required to be registered from affecting immovable property or being received in evidence, but its proviso expressly saves an unregistered document affecting immovable property when it is tendered as evidence of a contract in a suit for specific performance, or as evidence of a collateral transaction not required to be effected by registered instrument. The Court noted that the document in question did not fall within the special exclusion contained in Section 17(1A), and there was no corresponding amendment curtailing the proviso to Section 49 in the manner suggested.

Conclusion: The unregistered agreement to sell was admissible in evidence in the suit for specific performance, and the challenge to the High Court's order failed.

Ratio Decidendi: An unregistered document that is otherwise required to be registered may still be admitted as evidence of a contract in a suit for specific performance under the proviso to Section 49 of the Registration Act, unless it is excluded by Section 17(1A).

---