ORDER

Heard the learned counsel on either side.

2.The petitioner / Eswari got married to one Suresh. Suresh is the son of Atchuthan Vadiriyar (second respondent). The second respondent is no more and the third respondent has been brought on record as the legal heir. When the second respondent was alive, he executed a settlement deed in favour of the petitioner and her husband. It was registered as Document No.1396/2011 on the file of the Sub Registrar, Kottaram. The allegation of the petitioner is that at the instance of the third respondent and her sister, the second respondent unilaterally cancelled the settlement deed on 13.07.2015 vide Document No. 2213/2015. Challenging the registration of the cancellation deed, the present writ petition came to be filed.

3.It is well settled that a settlement deed or deed of conveyance cannot be unilaterally cancelled. The The Hon'ble Full Bench of the Madras High Court in the decision reported in [2011 (2) CTC 1 (M/s.Latif Estate Line India Ltd. Vs. Hadeeja Ammal)] held as follows:-

“59. After giving our anxious consideration on the questions raised in the instant case, we come to the following conclusion:-

(i) A deed of cancellation of a sale unilaterally executed by the transferor does not create, assign, limit or extinguish any right, title or interest in the property and is of no effect. Such a document does not create any encumbrance in the property already transferred. Hence such a deed of cancellation cannot be accepted for registration.

(ii) Once title to the property is vested in the transferee by the sale of the property, it cannot be divested unto the transferor by execution and registration of a deed of cancellation even with the consent of the parties. The proper course would be to re-convey the property by a deed of conveyance by the transferee in favour of the transferor.

(iii) Where a transfer is effected by way of sale with the condition that title will pass on payment of consideration, and such intention is clear from the recital in the deed, then such instrument or sale can be cancelled by a deed of cancellation with the consent of both the parties on the ground of non- payment of consideration. The reason is that in such a sale deed, admittedly, the title remained with the transferor.

(iv) In other cases, a complete and absolute sale can be cancelled at the instance of the transferor only by taking recourse to the Civil Court by obtaining a decree of cancellation of sale deed on the ground inter alia of fraud or any other valid reasons.

60. Having regard to the conclusions arrived at as aforesaid, the questions referred are answered accordingly. The appeals are referred back to the concerned Court for deciding the case on merits.”

4.In a recent decision reported in 2022 (5) CTC 257 (Sasikala V.

Revenue Divisional Officer-cum-Sub Collector) another Hon'ble Full Bench of this Court held as follows:-

“40.Hence, we have no hesitation to answer the issue by holding that the Sub-Registrar namely, the Registering Authority has no power to accept the Deed of Cancellation to nullify the Deed of Conveyance made earlier.

41.Regarding Gift or Settlement: With regard to unilateral cancellation of gift deed, which is not revokable and does not come under the purview of Section 126 of the Transfer of Property Act, the Registrar has no power to accept the Deed of Cancellation to nullify the registered Settlement Deed. Section

126 of the Transfer of Property Act, reads as follows: “126. When Gift may be suspended or revoked.—The Donor and Donee may agree that on the happening of any specified event which does not depend on the will of the Donor a Gift shall be suspended or revoked; but a Gift which the parties agree shall be revocable wholly or in part, at the mere will of the Donor, is void wholly or in part, as the case may be. A Gift may also be revoked in any of the cases (save want or failure of consideration) in which, if it were a contract, it might be rescinded. Save as aforesaid, a Gift