Registration Distinguished from Transfer of Property, Execution, Attestation, Notarisation, Mutation, Stamp Duty and the Revenue Record

Registration is often confused with the several things that surround it. A document is executed, sometimes attested, perhaps notarised, stamped under the fiscal law, registered under this Act, and afterwards the revenue entry may be mutated. Each step does a different job, and only one of them, execution of a properly stamped and registered instrument, transfers title to immovable property. Confusing them is the source of a great deal of litigation, particularly the belief that a mutation entry or a notarised agreement proves ownership.

Six neighbouring ideas, and what registration does and does not do

1. Registration and Transfer of Property

The Transfer of Property Act, 1882 transfers property. Section 54 provides that a sale of tangible immovable property of the value of one hundred rupees and upwards can be made only by a registered instrument. Sections 59, 107 and 123 make the same demand for mortgages, certain leases and gifts.
The Registration Act records the document that effects the transfer, and prescribes how that is done.
They work together. The substantive law says a registered instrument is needed; the procedural law says how a document becomes registered.
Registration does not itself transfer anything. Registering a document executed by a person with no title passes nothing.

2. Registration and Execution

Execution is the signing of the document by the party who makes it, with the intention of giving it effect. Registration comes afterwards, and the Act assumes execution has already taken place: Section 32 says who may present a document for registration, Section 34 requires the registering officer to enquire whether the document was executed, and Section 35 deals with the admission or denial of execution by the persons appearing. A document is complete on execution as between the parties for many purposes, but under Section 47 a registered document operates from the date of its execution, not the date of registration.

3. Registration, Attestation and Notarisation

	Attestation	Notarisation	Registration
What it is	Witnesses seeing the executant sign, and signing themselves	A notary authenticating a signature or document under the Notaries Act, 1952	Recording the document in a public register under this Act
Required by	The Transfer of Property Act for mortgages and gifts, and the Succession Act for wills	No general law of property	Section 17 of this Act and the Transfer of Property Act
What it proves	That the executant signed in the witnesses' presence	That the signature was made or acknowledged before the notary	That the document was presented, execution admitted, and a copy entered in the register
Effect on title	None by itself	None; it is not a substitute for registration	Makes the instrument effective to affect immovable property

⚠ A notarised agreement is not a registered one

Notarisation is widely misunderstood. A notary's seal on an agreement to sell, a general power of attorney or an affidavit authenticates the signature; it does not register the document, does not give public notice, and does not make a compulsorily registrable document effective. A notarised sale agreement remains an unregistered document for the purposes of Section 49.

4. Registration and Stamp Duty

Stamp duty is a tax on the instrument, levied under the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 or the corresponding State Act. Registration is a procedure for recording it.
The consequences differ. An insufficiently stamped instrument is inadmissible in evidence under Section 35 of the Stamp Act until the duty and penalty are paid, after which it may be admitted. An unregistered instrument that required registration cannot affect the property at all, and no payment cures it.
They are collected together in practice, because the registering officer will not register an instrument that is not duly stamped, and Section 33 of the Stamp Act requires impounding.
Undervaluation is dealt with by the stamp authorities, not by this Act.

5. Registration, Mutation and the Revenue Record

📖 Sawarni v. Inder Kaur, (1996) 6 SCC 223

Facts: A dispute over immovable property turned in part on a mutation entered in the revenue records in favour of one of the parties, who relied on it as establishing ownership.

Held: The Supreme Court held that mutation of property in the revenue record does not create or extinguish title, nor does it have any presumptive value on title. It enables the person in whose favour it is made to pay the land revenue in question.

Ratio: A mutation entry is a fiscal record for collecting revenue. Title is decided by the documents of transfer, not by the revenue entry.

Mutation is the change of the name in the revenue or municipal record after a transfer, and is made on the strength of a registered document, a succession or a court order.
Revenue records such as the record of rights may raise a presumption about possession and about the entries made in the course of official duty, but they are not records of title.
The order is important. The registered document comes first; the mutation follows from it. A mutation without a registered transfer proves nothing.

6. The Position Stated Shortly

The Transfer of Property Act transfers property; this Act records the document that does so.
Execution is the signing of a document; registration follows and, under Section 47, the document operates from the date of execution.
Attestation is witnessing, required by the substantive law for mortgages, gifts and wills.
Notarisation authenticates a signature and is no substitute for registration.
Stamp duty is a tax; insufficiency affects admissibility and can be cured, while non-registration cannot.
Sawarni v. Inder Kaur: mutation neither creates nor extinguishes title.
Revenue records evidence possession and fiscal liability, not ownership.