By the Court.—The petitioner states in his petition under Article 226 of the Constitution that he is a prospective purchaser of a plot at George Town, Amar Nath Jha Marg, Allahabad. The owner of the plot is stated to have executed a power of attorney to sell the property. The petitioner has stated that he approached the authorities to verify the authenticity of the power of attorney by an application dated 2 May 2014. In response to the application, the petitioner was informed that powers of attorney are placed in Book-IV and do not constitute public documents available for inspection in view of the provisions of Regulation 254 of the Registration Manual. A circular dated 3 July 2013 was issued to the effect that powers of attorney which relate to immovable property would, in accordance with the provisions of Section 51(2) of the Registration Act 1908, be placed in Book-I. Subsequently, on 12 February 2014, the Principal Secretary (Stamp & Registration) issued a communication to the Inspector General of Registration to the effect that the earlier circular dated 3 July 2013 was not in accordance with the legal position in view of the advice which was tendered by the Law Department. The petition has been filed in order to challenge the communication of the Principal Secretary dated 12 February 2014 and for a mandamus to the respondents to provide details of the power of attorney in relation to the plot in question in respect of which the petitioner claims, as a prospective purchaser, to be interested in negotiating a transaction.

2. Before we appreciate the contentions of the petitioner, at the outset, it would be necessary to advert to some of the provisions of the Registration Act, 1908 which have a bearing on the issues which are raised in these proceedings.

3. Section 17 deals with documents of which registration is compulsory. Section 18 provides for documents of which registration is optional. Section 17(1), which is material to the present discussion, provides that a document shall be registered, if the property to which it relates is situate in a district in which, and if they have been executed on or after the date on which Act No. XVI of 1864, or the Registration Acts of 1866, 1871 or 1877, or the present Act of 1908 came into force if the document meets one of the descriptions set out therein which includes the following :

“17(1)(b). Other non-testamentary instruments which purport or operate to create, declare, assign, limit or extinguish, whether in present or in future, any right, title or interest, whether vested or contingent, of the value of one hundred rupees and upwards, to or in immoveable property.”

4. Clause (b) of Section 17(1) refers to non-testamentary instruments which purport or operate to create, declare, assign, limit or extinguish any right, title or interest, whether vested or contingent, to or in immovable property. This may be in present or in future and the right, title or interest may be vested or contingent.

5. Section 18 which provides for documents of which registration is optional refers in clause (f) to “all other documents not required by Section 17 to be registered.”

6. A power of attorney is defined in Section 1(a) of the Powers of Attorney Act, 1882 to include any instrument empowering a specified person to act for and in the name of the person executing it. Black’s Law Dictionary defines the term “power of attorney” as follows :

“An instrument in writing whereby one person, as principal, appoints another as his agent and confers authority to perform certain specified acts or kinds of acts on behalf of principal. Complaint of Bankers Trust Co., C.A.Pa., 752 F.2d 874m 885. An instrument authorising another to act as one’s agent or attorney. The agent is attorney in fact and his power is revoked on the death of the principal by operation of law. Such power may be either general (full) or special (limited)”, Black’s Law Dictionary, 6th Edition, Page 1171.

7. A power of attorney is