Court directed registration of duplicate notarized documents following loss of original documents, emphasizing procedural verification in absence of traceable originals.

JUDGMENT

Prathiba M. Singh, J. (Oral)

1. This hearing has been done through hybrid mode.

2. The Petitioner, who claims to have purchased the Flat No. E-602, Jhulelal Apartments, Pitampura, Delhi-10034, from Respondent No. 2 - Smt. Sneh Bhalla, has filed the present petition seeking the issuance of a direction to Respondent No. 1-Sub-Registrar VI-A, Rohini to register the documents including the Sale Agreement, General Power of Attorney (GPA) and Will in respect of the said purchase.

3. As per the Petitioner, the sale agreement, GPA and Will dated 23rd September, 2009 were submitted to Respondent No.1 vide receipt Nos. 14409 and 14410 dated 23rd September, 2009 along with stamp duty of Rs.1,00,000/- and other charges. It is the case of the Petitioner that she did not receive the registered documents from the Respondent No.1 despite repeated visits to the said office. Finally, the Petitioner received a letter dated 10th February, 2017 informing her that the said record was not traceable, and efforts were being made for tracing the said documents. However, despite repeated follow ups thereafter, the documents were still not traced. Hence, the present petition has been filed with the following prayers.

"I. issue a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or directions, commanding respondent No.l to hold inquiry with respect to the documents submitted by the petitioner for registration;

II. issue a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or directions, commanding respondent No.l to register the copies of the documents, as available with the petitioner;

III. pass any other order, which this Hon'ble Court may deem proper, under the circumstances of the case."

4. The status report has been filed by the said Sub-Registrar VI, Pitampura, Delhi, which confirms that the documents are still not traceable, and a lost report vide LR No. 1773451/2017 dated 15th September, 2017 has also been registered in this regard. The relevant extract of the said status report is set out below:

"2. I say that, it is an admitted position that vide this office letter 10.02.2017, Smt. Uma Gupta, petitioner herein was informed that as per digital record, that the Sale Agreement & GPA are pending (unregistered) and best efforts were made to trace out the same.

3. It is further submitted that,that after making our best efforts the documents in question were still not traceable. On the direction of SDM(Vig.)/North West Distt., the then Sub-Registrar-Vl-A a letter was written to SHO/PS-K.N. Katju Marg, vide this office letter No.SR-Vl-A/2017/1133 dated 21.07.2017 a request was made to register an FIR regarding missing of original sale agreement bearing Slip No. 14409 and GPA bearing slip No. 14410 both dated 23.09.2009 in respect of Flat No.E-602, Jhulelal Apartment, Road No.44, Pitampura, Delhi.

4. 1 say that, on the request of the then Sub-Registrar-Vl-A, a lost report vide LR No. 1773451/2017 dated 15.09.2017, was lodged. A copy of the lost report dated 15.09.2017 is annexed herewith as Annexure A.

5. On the directions of DM/NW & SDM(Vig.), efforts were made to trace out the documents in question in both the offices i.e. Record room situated at RU-Block, Pitampura, and Sub-Registrar office situated at Ambedkar Bhawan, Rohini, but said documents are still not traceable. However, Sub-Registrar, has no jurisdiction to accept the notarized documents on record and register the same in place of original documents submitted/presented vide slip No. 14409 (Sale Agreement) & 14410(GPA) both dated 23.09.2009.

6. I say that the documents have still not been traced and due to lack of jurisdiction, notarized copies have not been accepted by our office."

5. It is not disputed by the Respondent t