Family settlement memorandum not compulsorily registrable where it records a completed arrangement and serves collateral evidentiary purposes.

A document recording a completed family arrangement is not compulsorily registrable unless it itself creates, assigns, limits or extinguishes rights in immovable property. Where the arrangement was already arrived at and the writing merely memorialised the past settlement, the unregistered instrument could still be looked at for collateral purposes or as corroborative evidence, so long as that use did not defeat the statutory bar on proving the transfer itself. On the stated facts, the Khararunama and receipt were treated as records of prior adjustment rather than operative conveyances, so the objection to their admissibility was rejected in substance.

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Issues: Whether the Khararunama and receipt, said to record a family settlement and past adjustment of rights, were compulsorily registrable and inadmissible in evidence, or whether they could be looked into as a memorandum of an already completed family arrangement and for collateral purposes.

Analysis: A family arrangement may be oral, in which case registration is not required. If the arrangement has already been arrived at and the document merely records the past transaction for memory or reference, it does not by itself create, assign, limit, or extinguish rights in immovable property so as to attract compulsory registration. An unregistered document cannot be used to prove the transaction affecting immovable property, but it may be received for a collateral purpose or as corroborative evidence to explain the arrangement and conduct of the parties, provided that use does not defeat the statutory bar. On the facts, the Khararunama was treated as a record of prior arrangements rather than an instrument effecting the transfer itself, and the receipt likewise did not alter that character.

Conclusion: The documents were not inadmissible merely for want of registration or stamp duty, and they could be considered in evidence to the extent permissible in law; the objection to their marking was rejected in substance.

Ratio Decidendi: A document recording an already completed family arrangement is not compulsorily registrable unless it itself operates to create or extinguish rights in immovable property, and such an unregistered memorandum may still be used for collateral purposes without defeating the mandate of the Registration Act.

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