Know the jurisdiction in which your property lies as states have different laws for registration Payment of prescribed stamp duty and registration fee is of supreme tration fee is of supreme importance for transactions relating to immoveable property such as sale, gift, certain kinds of mortgages, etc. The rates of stamp duty levied on documents differ from state to state, under the relevant state stamp act. The Registration Act, 1908, lays down provisions regarding which legal instruments require compulsory or optional registration. Like stamp duty rates, registration fee leviable on documents also differs from state to state.
The Registration Act (1908) lays down provisions regarding which legal instruments require compulsory registration. In addition to this, there are certain other pointers under the Registration Act (1908) which must be kept in mind when registering a document relating to immovable property for such registration to be considered valid.
To start with, the document should be registered in the office of the sub-registrar, within whose jurisdiction, the property to which the document relates to is situated. A sub-registrar has no authority to register a document relating to immovable property, if such property does not fall within his jurisdiction as per law. That is, even if such document is registered incorrectly at the office of a sub-registrar having no jurisdiction over the particular property, such registration will not be valid in the eyes of law.
There are also certain properties whose portions fall under the jurisdiction of two or more sub-districts.
Regarding such properties, it does not matter in which subdistrict, the bulk portion of such a property is situated in.
One can register the document at either sub-registrar's office. Likewise, there are also documents that relate to more than one immovable property, all of which are situated in different sub-districts. Let's take an example of a sale deed relating to sale of three different immovable properties located in three different subdistricts. Here too, the parties have the option of having the sale deed registered in any of these three sub-districts.
In majority of the cases, documents are registered/ deposited at the office of the relevant sub-registrar or registrar. However, the law also provides for some relaxation under certain exceptional and extraordinary circumstances.
Registration may be done by authorised revenue officer at places other than the office of the sub-registrar/registrar, such as at the residence of the person desiring to present the document for registration.
One must pay registration fee for documents that require mandatory registration under the Registration Act (1908). In both cases -where either one does not register a document at all or where one registers it in the wrong sub-district -registration shall be considered invalid and such a document shall be inadmissible in evidence in the courts of law.
The author is senior partner ZEUS Law Associates, a corporate commercial law firm. One of its areas of specialisation is real estate transaction and litigation work.
