Registered conveyance controls transfer date where earlier unregistered documents and oral claims fail to displace it

A registered conveyance that expressly records transfer, full consideration, and delivery of possession prevails over an asserted earlier unregistered arrangement. Informal documents such as an unregistered agreement and an unstamped possession letter, supported only by oral assertions, were insufficient to displace the registered sale deed. Applying the rule against contradicting documentary terms by oral evidence under section 91 of the Evidence Act, the earlier alleged transfer was not proved to the required standard. The sale was therefore treated as having occurred on the date of the registered deed, and the addition based on that deed was upheld.

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Issues: Whether the addition arising from the sale of Flat No. 204 was sustainable on the basis of the registered sale deed executed in 2015, notwithstanding the assessee's claim of an earlier unregistered sale and delivery of possession in 2003-05.

Analysis: The assessee relied on an unregistered agreement, an unstamped possession letter and the assertion that consideration had been received in 2003-04. The registered sale deed, however, contained categorical recitals that the full consideration had been paid, the property had been transferred and possession had been handed over to the vendee on the date of execution. The earlier documents were not legally valid instruments of transfer, and the contents of the registered deed could not be displaced by oral assertions in view of the rule embodied in section 91 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872. On the material before it, the earlier transaction was not proved to the standard required to override the registered conveyance.

Conclusion: The addition was upheld and the assessee's challenge failed.

Final Conclusion: The sale transaction was accepted as having occurred on the date of the registered deed, with the consequences flowing from that deed alone.

Ratio Decidendi: When a registered conveyance conclusively records the transfer and receipt of consideration, its terms cannot be contradicted by oral evidence or by unproved informal documents.

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