Requirements as to the Document under Sections 19 to 22 of the Registration Act, 1908: Language and Translation, Interlineations and Alterations, the Description of Property, and Government Maps and Surveys

A register is only as useful as the documents copied into it. Sections 19 to 22 therefore set conditions on the document itself before it can be accepted. It must be in a language the registering officer can read, or come with a true translation and a true copy. Its interlineations, blanks, erasures and alterations must be attested, or the officer may refuse it. And it must describe the property sufficiently to identify it, if necessary by reference to a government map or survey. Each requirement exists so that a stranger searching the register years later can tell what was transferred and to whom.

The four requirements, and how property is to be described

1. Language: Section 19

Section 19, Registration Act, 1908

If any document duly presented for registration be in a language which the registering officer does not understand, and which is not commonly used in the district, he shall refuse to register the document, unless it be accompanied by a true translation into a language commonly used in the district and also by a true copy.

Two conditions must both be satisfied before refusal becomes mandatory: the officer does not understand the language, and it is not commonly used in the district. A document in a language common in the district must be accepted even if the particular officer cannot read it, since he can obtain assistance.
The remedy is in the party's hands. Supplying a true translation and a true copy cures the objection.
The true copy is needed because the copy, and not the original, goes into the register under Section 51, and the office must be able to reproduce it.
Refusal under this section is not a refusal on the merits. It is recorded under Section 71, and the party may present the document again with the translation.

2. Interlineations, Blanks, Erasures and Alterations: Section 20

Section 20, Registration Act, 1908

(1) The registering officer may in his discretion refuse to accept for registration any document in which any interlineation, blank, erasure or alteration appears, unless the persons executing the document attest with their signatures or initials such interlineation, blank, erasure or alteration.

(2) If the registering officer registers any such document, he shall, at the time of registering the same, make a note in the register of such interlineation, blank, erasure or alteration.

The power is discretionary, unlike Section 19, where refusal is mandatory on the stated conditions.
Attestation by the executants cures it. Their signatures or initials against the correction show that it was made with their knowledge.
If he registers anyway, he must note it. The note in the register warns anyone searching that the document carried a correction, and preserves the position for a later dispute.
Blanks matter as much as erasures. A blank left in a document may be filled in afterwards, which is precisely the mischief the section addresses.

3. Description of Property: Section 21

Section 21, Registration Act, 1908, in substance

(1) No non-testamentary document relating to immovable property shall be accepted for registration unless it contains a description of such property sufficient to identify the same.

(2) Houses in towns shall be described as situate on the north or other side of the street or road, which should be specified, to which they front, and by their existing and former occupancies, and by their numbers if the houses in such street or road are numbered.

(3) Other houses and lands shall be described by their name, if any, and as being in the territorial division in which they are situate, and by their superficial contents, the roads and other properties on four sides thereof, and their existing occupancies, and also, whenever it is practicable, by reference to a Government map or survey.

(4) No non-testamentary document containing a map or plan of any property comprised therein shall be accepted for registration unless it is accompanied by a true copy of the map or plan, or, where the property is situate in several districts, by as many true copies as there are districts.

The governing words are sufficient to identify. The prescribed forms in sub-sections (2) and (3) are the usual way of achieving that, not ends in themselves.
In practice a description combines the survey or khasra number, the village or locality, the area, the four boundaries and any municipal number.
A wills exception is built in. The section applies only to non-testamentary documents, so a will need not describe the property in this manner.
A defective description is a ground for refusal under Section 21 read with Section 71, and the party may re-present the document with a proper description.

4. Government Maps and Surveys: Section 22

Section 22, Registration Act, 1908

(1) Where it is, in the opinion of the State Government, practicable to describe houses, not being houses in towns, and lands by reference to a Government map or survey, the State Government may, by rule made under this Act, require that such houses and lands shall, for the purposes of section 21, be so described.

(2) Save as otherwise provided by any rule made under sub-section (1), failure to comply with the provisions of section 21, sub-section (2) or sub-section (3), shall not disentitle a document to be registered if the description of the property to which it relates is sufficient to identify that property.

⚠ Registration does not validate a description, and does not settle boundaries

Even a document registered with a full description proves nothing about the extent or boundaries of the property. The registering officer does not measure the land, verify the survey number against the revenue record, or decide competing claims to the same parcel. Where the description in a registered deed conflicts with the revenue record or with an adjoining owner's title, the dispute is for the civil court. The value of Sections 21 and 22 is that the register can be searched and the property located, not that the description has been adjudicated.

5. The Position Stated Shortly

Section 19: a document in a language the officer does not understand and not commonly used in the district must be refused unless a true translation and a true copy accompany it.
Section 20: the officer may refuse a document containing interlineations, blanks, erasures or alterations unless the executants attest them, and must note them if he registers it.
Section 21(1): a non-testamentary document relating to immovable property must describe it sufficiently to identify it.
Section 21(2) and (3) prescribe how houses in towns, and other houses and lands, are to be described.
Section 21(4): a document containing a map or plan must be accompanied by true copies, one for each district.
Section 22(1): the State Government may require description by reference to a government map or survey.
Section 22(2): failure to follow the prescribed form does not bar registration if the property is identifiable.