The Registrar is obligated to consider all relevant laws affecting registration, including implied modifications by later enactments.

Horwill, J.

1. When the respondent presented a document for registration to the Sub-Registrar, the appellant who purported to be the transferor, was absent; and his absence was construed by the Sub-Registrar as a denial of execution. The Sub-Registrar Wherefore refused to register the document be respondent thereupon invoked the procedure laid down in Section 73, Registration Act, and applied to the District Registrar to register the document. It was open to the District Registrar to inquire into the factum of execution Under Section 74(a) of the Act, but he did not do so; for he held that as the respondent had not complied with the requirements of Section 145(2), Madras Estates Land Act, the requirements of law had not been complied with and that the application had therefore to be dismissed Under Section 74(b). Thereupon, the respondent filed a suit Under Section 77 of the Act. The District Munsif upheld the order of the District Registrar and dismissed the suit. The Subordinate Judge of Dindigul allowed the appeal on two grounds: (i) that the law referred to in Section 74(b) meant the law laid down in the Registration Act and nothing more, and (ii) that since the Sub-Registrar had no power to refuse to register a document on the ground that it was not in accordance with law, the District Registrar, being an appellate Court, had no greater power. Both the reasons on which the lower appellate Court allowed the appeal are in my opinion fallacious. There is no reason by the term "requirements of law" should be restricted, to the requirements of a particular statute. Moreover, it is usual in an Act I to refer to the provisions of that statute as "the provisions of this Act" or similar words. When it speaks of the law for the time being in force, it must mean the whole body of law. The second reason was equally unsound; for although it may be laid down as a general principle that an appellate Court has no greater powers than the Court from whose order the appeal has been preferred; yet if a statute gives an appellate Court greater powers, it can undoubtedly exercise those powers. Section 74(a) is an example of a greater power being given to the District Registrar than to the Sub-Registrar for whereas the Sub-Registrar cannot register a document if a, party denies execution, the District Registrar can. Incidentally, it is hardly correct to term the District Registrar as an appellate tribunal and, as will be seen presently, I do not think that Section 74(b) requires the District Registrar to do anything that the Sub-Registrar is not bound to do.

2. The questions in dispute will therefore have to be decided on other grounds. The contention of the respondent which found favour in the lower appellate Court was that Section 35 requires the Registrar to register a document if the parties are known to him or if he is otherwise satisfied that they are the persons they represent themselves to be etc. He has no discretion in the matter, it is said, even though the document on the face of it conveys no title. Section 60 also says that after such of the provisions of Sections 34, 35, 58 and 59 as apply to any document presented for registration have been complied with, the registering officer shall endorse thereon a certificate containing the word "registered." The provisions of Section 35 have already been referred to Under Section 35(3) the registering officer shall refuse to register a document if the person who purports to have executed the document denies its execution or if such person appears to be a minor, an idiot, or lunatic, or if the person is dead and his representative or assign denies its execution. Section 84 forbids registration unless the parties appear before the Registrar within a certain time. Section 58 merely refers to the procedure to be adopted after a document is admitted to registration and Section 59 to the affixing of a signature. So if one read only Sections 35 and 60 it would seem that the registering offi