Does Oral Exchange Of Land In Rural Punjab Require Compulsory Registration? Supreme Court Issues Notice

The Supreme Court issued notice in a special leave petition which raised the issue whether oral exchange of land in the rural areas of state of Punjab requires registration or not?

In this case, the Punjab and Haryana High Court noted that Section 118 of the Transfer of Property Act is not applicable to the rural areas of the State of Punjab even today. But the court observed that, Section 17 of the Registration Act, 1908, does not carve out any exception as regards compulsory registration of a document the subject matter of which is an immovable property of a value of more than Rs.100/-. 

"Hence, as regards the compulsory registration of a document the subject matter of which is an exchange of an immovable property even in rural areas of Punjab, in the opinion of this court, Section 17 of the Registration Act, 1908, even read with Section 49 thereof (which carves out an exception in the case of agreements of sale sought to be led by way of evidence in a suit seeking specific performance of such agreements), would not obviate the need for registration of such instrument, if such an instrument is sought to be led by way of evidence.", the High Court had observed.

Before the Apex Court, the appellant cited two judgments of the High Court [ Sardara Singh vs. Harbhajan Singh (AIR 1974 Punjab and Haryana 345) and Paramjit Singh vs. Ratti Ram (AIR 2005 Punjab and Haryana 4)] which held that that Section 118 of the Act of 1882 not having been made applicable to the State of Punjab, an exchange of immovable property of even more than a value of Rs.100/- is not compulsorily required to be registered. Section 118 provides that immovable property as is exchanged would be governed by the conditions for a sale, i.e. by the process provided in Section 54 of the Act. T

Taking note of this, the bench comprising Justices Hemant Gupta and AS Bopanna issued notice.

AOR Rishi Malhotra appeared for the petitioner.

Case: Gurnam Singh vs. Bant Singh ; SLP(C) 3853/2021

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