Registering Authority Cannot Cancel/Set Aside An Already Registered Sale Deed: Allahabad HC (FB) [Read Order]

‘Once a sale deed has been registered, the registering authority is having no power or authority under the [Registration] Act, 1908 to cancel the registration, even if an allegation of impersonation/fraud is alleged.’

The Full Bench of Allahabad High Court in Kusum Lata vs. State of UP has held that a registered sale deed cannot be cancelled or set aside by registering authority or by any authority invoking administrative powers, if the registration is questioned even on the count of impersonation/ fraud.

The Bench of Justice Govind Mathur, Justice Ram Surat Ram (Maurya), and Justice Jayant Banerji were answering reference to it by a division bench noticing divergent opinion in two earlier division bench judgments.

Following were the questions referred:

• Whether after a sale deed has been registered, the Assistant Registrar has any authority of law to cancel the registered sale deed under the provisions of the Registration Act, 1908 even if allegations of impersonation/fraud are made?


• Whether the allegations of fraud are essentially, an allegation of fact which need examination of oral or documentary evidence and can be adjudicated on the basis of evidence to be led by the parties before competent civil court?

The Full bench quoted a recent division bench judgment in Krishna Kumar Saxena vs. State of U.P.  wherein it was held that, in no case registration of sale deed could have been withdrawn and the sale deed could have been annulled by administrative fiat. The said judgment refers to Satya Pal Anand Vs. State of Madhya Pradesh wherein Apex Court held that the registering authority could not decide whether the document which was executed by a person who had title as was recited in the given instrument.

“If the document registered by the registering authority was illegal or if there was any irregularity then the course to question that was by invoking appropriate proceedings before a Civil Court. In light of whatever stated above, we are having no doubt in arriving at the conclusion that once a sale deed has been registered, the registering authority is having no power or authority under the  Act, 1908 to cancel the registration, even if an allegation of impersonation/fraud is alleged”, the bench said.