Registration of documents

Registering a document means taking the signed document to the Sub-Registrar's office, where the parties admit that they signed it, the fee is paid, and a copy is entered in the public record. A registered document becomes notice to the world and is very hard to dispute later.

Which documents must be registered

Section 17 of the Registration Act, 1908 makes registration compulsory for, among others:

• Gifts of immovable property.
• Documents that create, transfer or extinguish a right in immovable property worth Rs 100 or more, such as a sale deed, partition deed or relinquishment deed.
• Leases of immovable property from year to year, for more than one year, or reserving a yearly rent.
• Agreements to sell immovable property, if the buyer wants the protection of part performance under Section 53A of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882.

Documents such as a will can be registered but do not have to be (Section 18).

Time limit and effect

A document must be presented for registration within four months of signing (Section 23). Under Section 49, a document that should have been registered but was not does not affect the property and cannot be used as evidence of the transaction, with narrow exceptions.