The Bhubaneswar Bar Association (BBA) has filed a PIl in the Odisha High Court challenging the amendment made in the Registration Act, 1908 in which it has been mandated that the registering officers shall not register any document of immovable property unless the transferor produces the record of rights (RoR) of the property.
BBA president Tushar Kanti Mishra in his petition has stated that the Section 22A (2) of Orissa Amendment of Registration Act amended as per the Registration (Odisha Amendment) Act-2013 is ultra vires and is contrary to the provisions of the principal Act.
Giving as many as six grounds, the petitioner has urged the High Court to set aside the impugned amendment as it would cause a lot of inconvenience to the genuine title holders who would be deprived of registering a conveyance document in respect of genuine transfer in the absence of RoR.
Making the secretaries of revenue and law departments and the inspector general of registration (IGR) as respondents to the petition, Mishra through his counsel Bibhu Prasad Tripathy has urged the High Court in another miscellaneous case to restrain the State government from operating the impugned amendment until the main petition is disposed of.
It may be mentioned that the Registration (Odisha Amendment) Act, 2013 was recently enacted by the State legislature wherein the Section 22A of the principal Act has been amended.
The amended section says that any instrument relating to the transfer of immovable properties by way of sale, gift, mortgage, exchange or lease is produced before the registering officer, he shall not register unless the transferor produce the record of rights for the satisfaction of the registering officer that such transferor has right, title and interest over the property so transferred.
Challenging the amendment, the petitioner maintains that the principal Act of 1908 does not prescribe any precondition for submission of additional ownership document while registering a document of an immovable property.
“The mandatory requirement prescribed in the Amendment Act for submission of RoR is contrary to the provisions of the Registration Act of 1908”, the petition stressed adding that RoR is not a conclusive proof of ownership in respect of land.
“It is settled principle of law that RoR neither creates right nor extinguishes right and hence mandatory requirement of it during registration of property would cause great prejudice to a transferor,” the petition said.