The Registrar lacks jurisdiction to cancel registered documents such as a Will, especially following the striking down of certain provisions of the Registration Act; disputes regarding title and validity of such documents must be adjudicated by a Civil Court.

Order

The writ petition is filed by the petitioner challenging the impugned order of the 1st respondent, whereby, it was refused to cancel the WILL Deed dated

21.03.2001.

2. Case of the petitioner is that the properties situated at Sendathur Village, Pernampet Taluk, Vellore District, comprised in S.F.Nos.30/2B, 26/3A, 26/4A, 26/5A and 29/1A was originally belonged to one Ravanaiya Naidu. After his demise, his legal heirs are enjoying his properties without any partition or settlement between them. All of a sudden, the 3^rd respondent, who is the legal heir of the son of said Ravanaiya Naidu, claims to be the owner of the entire property, pursuant to the Will executed by his father. The said Will was registered on the file of the 2^nd respondent. Immediately the petitioner being grandson, made a representation dated 05.09.2022 to the 1^st respondent to cancel the Will dated 21.03.2001. However, by an order dated 22.12.2022, the 1^st respondent has passed an order stating that there is no provision to cancel the Will as per the circular of the Inspector General of Registration, dated 25.03.2022. Aggrieved by the impugned order of the 1^st respondent, the petitioner is before this Court.

3. Learned Government Advocate appearing for the respondents 1 and 2 submitted that the 1^st respondent has no jurisdiction to conduct any enquiry regarding the validity of any document, in view of the provisions under Section 68(2) and 77A of the Registration Act, having already been struck down. Therefore, the 1^st respondent / District Registrar has no authority to conduct any enquiry with regard to cancellation of any documents before the Sub Registrar.

Hence, the petitioner’s application was rejected.

4. Learned counsel for the 3^rd respondent would submit that in order to decide title, there are title dispute between the petitioner and the 3^rd respondent and in this regard, O.S.No.30 of 2016 and O.S.No.48/2020, on the file of the District Munsif Court, Kudiyatham and O.S.No.266/2019, on the file of Subordinate Judge, Kudiyatham, are pending. Therefore, title of the property to be decided before the Civil Court.

5. Heard the counsels appearing for the respective parties and also perused the materials available on record.

6. This Court finds force in the submissions made by the learned Government Advocate appearing for the respondents. As rightly contended by the learned Government Advocate, since the respondents have no power to cancel any of the alleged forged documents, in view of striking down of Section 68(2) and Section 77A of the Act, the relief sought for by the petitioner cannot be granted. The right course available to the petitioner is only to approach the civil Court in the pending suits.

7. With the above observations, this Writ Petition is dismissed with liberty to the petitioner to approach the civil Court for appropriate remedy.

There shall be no order as to costs.