Importance of registration of legal documents

 While buying and selling of the property, many people tend to skip a fundamental but crucial aspect i.e. Registration of legal documents. As people are not familiar with the concept of Registration they don’t understand its importance in Law which can cause issues for them. It is imperative for the people to get themselves familiarized with the notion of Registration and what is entails so as to safeguard themselves from any Property Disputes.

1. Table of Contents

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   What is Registration?

Registration is recording the matters of a document with an authorized or recognized officer (Registering officer) and preserving the copies of the original document.

2. Why do documents need to be registered?

One needs to register the legal documents so as to prevent any property dispute, fraud, conserve the evidence, be assured of the title and publicizing the information.

3. Which documents require to be registered compulsorily to avoid any Property Disputes?

As per law, there are several documents whose registration is compulsory under Registration Act, 1908. Some of the documents related to assets that you should know are to be registered compulsorily are as follows:

• instruments related to gifted immovable assets
• non-testamentary documents which claim or operate to declare, limit, create, assign, or expunge, any title, right, or interest, of the value of one hundred rupees and upwards in immovable property whether the act is performed in present or in future
• any non-testamentary instrument that shows the receipt of any consideration for the declaration, creation, assignment, extinction, or limitation of any right, title or interest as mentioned above
• agreements or lease of a property every year, or for any period exceeding a year

4. What should be the language of the legal document that has to be registered?

• One has to make sure that the document is in an understandable language and in a language that is used in the district.
• As per Registration Act, 1908, the authorized officer is allowed to refuse to register the document if it is in a language that the officer doesn’t understand and is not used in the district.
• If one is not able to understand the language of the document one can easily miss important point causing Property Disputes later on.
• For an officer to accept the document which is not in the understandable language, it should be accompanied by a correct translation employed in the region and the original document.

5. What is the period prescribed for registration of a document?

As per the Section 23 of the Registration Act, 1908 any legal document related to property has to be presented for registration to the proper officer within four months from the date of the execution of the instrument to prevent Property Disputes in future.

6. What can be done if the document is not registered within the prescribed period of four months?

• If a document is not presented for registration within the said period of four months and if the delay in doing so is not that much, then an application can be written to the Registrar.
• He on payment of a fine not exceeding ten times the amount of the registration fee may accept the document for registration.