IMPORTANT POINT
A Document which created no right in immovable property, does not require registration.

1. This civil revision petition under Article 227 of the Constitution of India by the petitioner/plaintiff is directed against the orders dated 10.11.2011 of the learned Principal Junior Civil Judge, Kovvur wherein and whereby the learned Principal Junior Civil Judge refused to admit in evidence the document dated 15.05.1996 tendered in evidence during the further examination in chief of PW1 (the plaintiff) on the ground that the said document, which is unregistered, cannot be admitted in evidence for want of registration.

2. I have heard the submissions of the learned counsel for the revision petitioner/plaintiff (‘the plaintiff’, for short) and the learned counsel for the respondents/defendants (‘the defendants’, for short). I have perused the material record including the copy of the document in question.

3. The facts, which fall for consideration, in brief, are as follows:

The plaintiff brought the suit against the defendants for declaration of right in ‘ABCDEF’ schedule passage [also shown in the plaint plan] to reach his lands and for a consequential injunction restraining the defendants from interfering with the plaintiff’s peaceful possession and enjoyment of the right in regard to the said passage and not to cause any obstructions for ingress and egress and for carrying on agricultural produce through the passage to the Southern side Vadapalli to Chandravaram road (punta). The defendants are resisting the said suit. At trial, during the further examination in chief of PW1, the plaintiff tendered for marking the document dated 15.05.1996 in support of his claim in regard to the plaint schedule passage. However, the learned counsel for the defendants had raised an objection for marking the said document on the ground that the said document discloses an easement by way of passage and creates some interest in property, though no title and ownership are given, and that the said document is inadmissible in evidence as it is unregistered. In support of the said objection raised, he had placed reliance on a decision in Hamir Ram v. Varisng Raimal [1999(1) ALT 18.4 (DN) (OHC). On the other hand, the learned counsel for the plaintiff had submitted that the transaction under the document is incapable of valuation and that the contents of the document can be taken into consideration though the document is unregistered. In support of his contentions, he had placed reliance on the decision in Varghese Paul and others v. Narayanan Nair and others [AIR 1999 Kerala 417]. Having heard the submissions of the learned counsel for both the sides and having referred to the provisions of Sections 2(6) and 17 of the Registration Act and following the ratio in the decision of Orissa High Court in Hamir Ram’s case (supra), the trial Court had held that the document in question created some interest in the property, that is, in regard to the usage of passage and that, therefore, the document requires registration; and that the document is a compulsorily registerable document. The trial Court had accordingly upheld the objection raised on behalf of the defendants and had refused to admit the said document in evidence.

4. Feeling aggrieved, the plaintiff filed this revision petition. It is inter alia contended on behalf of the plaintiff as follows:

“The trial Court had erroneously held that the document in question requires registration without properly considering the ratio in the decision in Varghese Paul cited on behalf of the plaintiff and by wrongly applying the ratio in the decision of the Orissa High Court in Hamir Ram’s case, which is inapplicable. The document in question is not registerable much less compulsorily registerable under Section 17 of the Registration Act as under the said document only permission is given to the plaintiff to use the passage for tractors, bullock carts, cattle and for carrying on agricultural implements, but no right is created in the immovable property comprised in the passage. Therefore, the provisions