An agreement to transfer immovable property of the value of Rs. 100 or above is compulsorily registrable under Section 17(1)(b) of the Registration Act, 1908, even if the value of the property is not specified in the agreement.

JAGAT NARAYAN, J.

( 1 ) THIS is a revision application by the defendant against an order of the Additional munsif No. 1, Jaipur City holding that the agreement dated 12-12-49 is compulsorily registrable. I have heard the learned counsel for the parties and have perused the evidence on record. I am satisfied that the decision of the trial Court on the question of valuation is correct. The agreement relates to two passages one running north and south and the other running east and west. The passages running to the north and the south and to the east and west leading to a latrine formerly belonged exclusively to the plaintiff. Under the agreement the northern portion of the passage was given to the defendant and the southern to the plaintiff and the roof of the southern passage was made joint. The valuation of the portion of the property the ownership of which was transferred under this agreement is more than Rs. 100. The defendant examined Shri Bhanwarlal, as an expert and he valued the passage running north and south at Rs. 91. This valuation did not include the value of the passage running towards east and west. Nor did it include the value of the roof. The most important omission was the value of the space. There can thus be no doubt that under this agreement interest in immovable property worth Rs. 100 was transferred. This is compulsorily registrable.

( 2 ) THE next contention is that the agreement can be used for collateral purposes. This contention was not raised before the trial Court. Nor was it raised in the grounds of revision and cannot be raised here. Lastly, it is contended that unless the value of the property is shown in the document it cannot be held to be compulsorily registrable. Reliance was placed on nana Bin Lakshman v. Anant Babaji, (1877-78] ILR 2 Bom 353, in which it was observed at page 355-

"the circumstance that there is nothing in the terms of the Registration acts to impose upon the Courts the duty of instituting any inquiry, as to the actual value of an interest in immovable property affected by an unregistered instrument, previously to the admission of that instrument in evidence, and the many and great inconveniences and difficulties which would attend upon such an inquiry, are clearly pointed out in the judgments of Ainslie and Loch JJ. , in the first mentioned of those cases. There is nought in those Acts to suggest that there should be one mode of ascertaining the value in the case of deeds of sale, and another for testing the value in the case of a deed of mortgage, or of rent charge, or of annuity, or creating or conveying any other minor interest in, or charge or incumbrance upon, immovable property. We do not know any good reason for making such a distinction, and can perceive many for refraining from its introduction. If the necessity for registration of a mortgage is to be ascertained, not by the consideration given by the mortgagee for it, but by the actual value of the transaction to the mortgagee, the test would, at the time of making the contract and when tie parties would most need to know whether the mortgage must be registered, be wholly impracticable if the interest, or profits in lieu of interest, receivable by the mortgagee is to form one of the elements of value. "

The above observations were made in reference to a mortgage deed where the question for decision was whether the value of the right, title or interest created by a mortgage should be estimated by the amount of the principal money thereby secured. From these observations it cannot be inferred that a transfer of immovable property of the value of Rs. 100 or above can be effected by an unregistered instrument if the value of the property is shown in the instrument as being less than Rs. 100 or if the value is not given at all in the deed.

( 3 ) IN the Registration Act No. 16 of 1864 there was a provision that for the purposes of registration the value of the interest created in immovable property by a deed sho