The main legal point established in the judgment is that the Registrar lacked the authority under the Registration Act or the General Clauses Act to annul a registration of a document based on fraudulent registration.

V. KAMESWAR RAO, J.

1. The present petition has been filed by the petitioner with the following prayers:

“In the above facts and circumstances, it is most respectfully prayed that this Hon’ble Court may graciously be pleased to allow the petition of the petitioner thereby:

i. Passing a writ of certiorari or any other writ or order thereby quashing aside NO. F.1 (92)/Regn. Br./Div.Comm./HQ/2012/PF-II/1196 dated 13/07/2016 passed by the Inspector General of Registration; and

ii. Setting aside all such orders, proceedings and inquiries emanating out of the aforesaid impugned circular; and

iii. Passing any such further orders as may deem fit in the facts and circumstances of the case and in the interest of justice.”

2. In substance, the challenge in the writ petition is to the Circular dated July 13, 2016, whereby procedure has been evolved to be followed on complaints relating to fraudulent registration through impersonation or production of false documents and evidences, and the same is in the following manner: -

“In the light of the above discussion, following mandatory procedure is prescribed to deal with the complaints relating to fraudulent registrations through impersonation or production of false documents and evidences.

(a) All such complaints of fraudulent registration received by the department have to be forwarded to the respective District Registrar who shall register the same in the register of complaints relating to fraudulent registration in the following format:

Sl. No.

Date

Name and address of applicant

Documents no. and SR Office name

Name and address of the executants claimants and witness

(b) After entering the complaints, he shall issue notices to the executants of the documents and witness to appear for enquiry along with the complainants and he shall also take witness of the registering officer and if needed, call for the records from the concerned department and also summon the respective department’s official concerned to appear before him with relevant records.

(c) Once the enquiry is completed following summary procedure and it is proved that the registration has taken place through production of false effect, recording his findings and issue direction to the concerned registering officer to file FIR against the concerned person and also to make a note in the index-II of the documents which was fraudulent registered to the effect that the “registration annulled as per the proceedings of the District Registration (proceeding no. to be noted) and is shall have same effect as prescribed under Section 49 of the Registration Act.”

(d) After receiving the order of the District Registrar, the registering officer shall immediately file FIR and make entries as stated above in the Index II without any loss of time. The registering officer shall maintain a separate register in this regard in his office to register all such orders of the District Registrar in the following format:

Sl. No.

Date of receipt of order of DR

Proceedings no.

Doc No. of the document to be annulled

Date of filing FIR

Date of making note in Index-II

Signature of the registering officer.

(e) The District Registrar should complete the enquiry maximum in 02 months in each case and if the parties are not appearing for more than 2 summons, ex-parte order should be passed based upon the documents, evidences and witnesses available.

While issuing the summons, mode of speed post may be adopted. However, these instructions will not apply to the cases where the complainant has admitted execution by himself due to whatever reasons. It is further emphasized that the procedure prescribed above is only to deal with fraudulent registration done and it should in no way be constructed to mean that the registering authority shall go into the issue of deciding title in case of rival claims on certain basis.

3. It is th