[ Arun Bhusan Guha & Ors v. Amal Roy & Anr., AIR
2009 Calcutta 182]
The plaintiff executed the deed of conveyance for conveying
his right, title and interest in the suit property in favour of the opposite
party No. 2 on 14-11-2002. The registration of the said deed of conveyance was
kept in abeyance till March, 2006 due to non-payment of deficit stamp duty.
The registration of the said deed was completed in March, 2006 on payment of
deficit stamp duty. The question that arose for consideration was what is the
position in law about the title of the property during the interregnum period
between the date of execution of the deed and the date of completion of
Registration of the said deed as per the Registration Act ? Can the purchaser
project himself as owner of the said property during this interregnum.
The Court held that S. 17 read with S. 49 of the
Registration Act provides that title of the property was conveyed only on
registration of the said deed where registration was compulsory; therefore it
was difficult to hold that the purchaser can project himself as the owner of
the said property prior to the completion of registration of the deed of sale
as per the Registration Act.
So long as the registration was not completed, the
purchaser cannot project himself as the owner of the property in question,
though it was true that all trappings of ownership were traceable from the
date of execution of the deed after its registration was completed. So long as
the sale deed was not registered or in other words the registration of the
sale deed was not completed, it was not a valid document. Therefore, no one
could claim title on the basis of such invalid document before completion of
its registration. However, once the invalid documents gain validity on
completion of registration upon fulfilment of the requirement required for
registration thereof, the title of the purchaser would relate back to the date
of execution of the document by operation of law, but during this interregnum
period i.e., between the date of execution of the document and the
completion of registration thereof, the purchaser cannot project himself as
the owner of the said property though his title will relate back to the date
of execution of the said deed immediately on completion of registration of the
said document.
Since the vendor executed the said deed of transfer with an
expressed intention to convey his title in the property in favour of its
purchaser from the very date of its execution, either upon receipt of the
consideration money for such sale or upon receipt of the consideration money
in part with a promise made by the purchaser to pay the balance amount in
future, the vendor has a legal and moral obligation to protect the title and
possession of the property in question until registration of the deed of
transfer was completed, so that on completion of such registration, the
purchaser can enjoy the fruits of such transfer with retrospective effect from
the date of execution of the deed of sale.
