Registration of assigned specific performance decrees not required where decree creates no present interest in immovable property.

An assignment deed transferring a decree for specific performance was held not to be compulsorily registrable under the Registration Act, 1908, because such a decree does not by itself create, declare, assign, limit or extinguish any right, title or interest in immovable property. The decree only recognises a contractual right to obtain conveyance, and the sale is completed only upon execution and registration of the sale deed. The assignee may enforce the decree under Order 21 Rule 16 of the Code of Civil Procedure, subject to statutory conditions. The challenge to enforceability therefore failed, and the High Court's view was sustained.

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Issues: Whether an assignment deed transferring a decree for specific performance of an agreement of sale of immovable property is compulsorily registrable under the Registration Act, 1908.

Analysis: A decree for specific performance does not itself create, declare, assign, limit, or extinguish any right, title, or interest in the immovable property. It only recognises a right to obtain conveyance through execution. The contract between the parties is not extinguished by the decree, and the decree is in the nature of a preliminary decree, with the sale being completed only upon execution and registration of the sale deed. Since the decree itself does not operate to create any interest in immovable property, the provision requiring compulsory registration of instruments assigning decrees affecting such property is not attracted. The assignee of a decree may execute it under Order 21 Rule 16 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, subject to notice and other statutory conditions, and the right under the decree is assignable as a contractual right.

Conclusion: The assignment deed of a decree for specific performance did not require registration, and the challenge to its enforceability failed.

Final Conclusion: The appeal could not succeed because the decree assigned only an executable right arising from the contract and not any present interest in the immovable property; the High Court's view was sustained.

Ratio Decidendi: An instrument assigning a decree for specific performance is not compulsorily registrable unless the decree itself purports to create or transfer a right, title, or interest in immovable property; a decree for specific performance does not do so and remains enforceable by the assignee under the execution provisions.

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