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SILVA v. REGISTRAR GENERAL
NLR5V345
SILVA v. REGISTRAR GENERAL.
D. C., Colombo, 237.
The Land Registration Ordinance, No. 14 of 1891, s. 15-Application of intending purchaser of a land to inspect book of registration in which the deeds relating to that land are registered-Facts necessary to be stated to the Registrar-General-Duty of that officer.
A person who claims to be the intending purchaser of a land and applies to the Registrar-General, under section 15 of the Ordinance No. 14 of 1891, to inspect the book of registration in which the deeds relating to such land are registered, is bound to furnish to that officer reasonable information which satisfies him of the genuineness of his claim that he has an interest in the entries in question; but the Registrar-General has no right to require the applicant to produce from the owner his written authority or consent to inspect the entries, for that would be making the owner the arbiter on the point.
UNDER the provisions of section 32 of the Ordinance No. 14 of 1891, the applicant moved for and obtained a rule on the Registrar-General to show cause why the applicant should not he permitted to search for incumbrances affecting the property which he alleged he was in treaty with its owner to buy.
On cause shown, the District Judge of Colombo (Mr. D. F. Browne) discharged the rule.
The applicant appealed.
Walter Pereira, for appellant.-The appellant, having arranged with the owners of a property in Colombo to buy the same, required the respondent to allow his proctor, in terms of section 15- of the Ordinance No. 14 of 1891, to inspect the books in which the deeds relating to that property are registered. The respondent declined access to the books until the appellant produced a written authority from the owner of the land authorizing such inspection. Section 15 empowered all parties claiming to be interested therein or their proctors to inspect the books. " Therein " refers to the books of registration, and not the lands, as held by the District Judge, who has held! in effect that an intending purchaser was not a party interested in the books. So long as a person claims to be interested in the books, it is not competent to the Registrar-General to go behind such person's application and inquire whether or not such claim is well founded. An intending purchaser is a person claiming to be interested. It has been decided in Suppramanian v. Gunawardana (3 N. L. R. 278) that any one who chooses to do so may ascertain from the registry the existence of any deed touching any particular land. An intending purchaser has
a fortiori such a right. If the right were not conceded except with the owner's consent, what is an intending purchaser at a Fiscal's sale to do? He may not know the execution-debtor at all, or the latter may refuse to give him his consent. Registration is notice to the public, and therefore it would be obviously dangerous to an intending purchaser to be without access to the books of registration. " Interested " means, according to Webster, liable to be affected.
Rámanáthan, S.-G., for respondent.-" Interest, " as used in the Ordinance, is something more than the interest of one human being in the affairs of another human being. Where the Legislature has used the expression " party interested " or " person interested, " it has been always understood to mean a specific interest. For example, a bankrupt is not a party interested under sections 39 and 40 of the Solicitors' Act (6 and 7 Vict. c. 73), re Leadbitter, 10 Ch. Div. 38. Nor is any one who is not a shareholder in a Company which has a contract, a person interested in that contract (Dewes v. Canal Company, 3 H. L. C. 757). The trustees of a friendly society are not " persons interested " in the matter of an application for altering the rules of a friendly society made within section 41 of 18 and 19 Vict. c. 63 (Hall v. Macfarlane, 27 L. J. C. P. 41). So here, the meaning of the expression " c
