Presentation of Documents under Sections 32, 32A and 33 of the Registration Act, 1908: Who May Present, Powers of Attorney and Their Authentication, Photographs and Fingerprints, and Presentation by an Unauthorised Person

Registration begins with presentation, and the Act is careful about who may present. Section 32 allows only three classes of person: someone executing or claiming under the document, his representative or assign, and an agent authorised by a power of attorney authenticated in the manner Section 33 requires. The restriction is deliberate. If any stranger could present a deed, impersonation and fraud would be simple, which is also why Section 32A, added in 2001, requires photographs and fingerprints. Presentation by a person outside Section 32 makes the registration invalid, though Section 23A allows it to be cured.

The three classes of presenter, who may authenticate a power of attorney, and the 2001 addition

1. Who May Present: Section 32

Section 32, Registration Act, 1908

Except in the cases mentioned in sections 31, 88 and 89, every document to be registered under this Act, whether such registration be compulsory or optional, shall be presented at the proper registration office:

(a) by some person executing or claiming under the same, or, in the case of a copy of a decree or order, claiming under the decree or order, or

(b) by the representative or assign of such a person, or

(c) by the agent of such a person, representative or assign, duly authorised by power of attorney executed and authenticated in the manner hereinafter mentioned.

Executing or claiming under. A seller, a purchaser, a mortgagor, a mortgagee, a lessor or a lessee may each present the deed.
Representative covers the guardian of a minor and the curator of a person of unsound mind under Section 2(10), and the legal representative of a deceased executant.
Assign is a person to whom the interest has been transferred.
Agent is confined to one holding an authenticated power of attorney. A simple letter of authority, or an unauthenticated power, will not do.

2. Authentication of the Power of Attorney: Section 33

Where the principal resides when executing the power	Who must authenticate it
In a part of India where the Act is in force	The Registrar or Sub-Registrar within whose district or sub-district the principal resides, before whom the power is executed
In a part of India where the Act is not in force	Any Magistrate
Outside India	A Notary Public, or any Court, Judge, Magistrate, Indian Consul or Vice-Consul, or representative of the Central Government

Authentication is not notarisation in the ordinary sense. Within India the power must be executed before the Registrar or Sub-Registrar, who satisfies himself of the principal's identity and of his voluntary execution.
Section 33(2) helps those who cannot attend. Where the principal is unable to appear through bodily infirmity, is in jail, or is exempt from personal appearance in court, the Registrar may attend at his residence or in the jail to authenticate the power.
A general power of attorney will serve if it authorises the agent to present documents for registration; a special power confined to this transaction is common and safer.
Authentication is about presentation. A power authorising the agent to execute a deed is a different thing, governed by the general law of agency and by Section 33 only where the same agent also presents the document.

📖 Rajni Tandon v. Dulal Ranjan Ghosh Dastidar, (2009) 14 SCC 782

Facts: A deed was executed by an agent under a power of attorney, and questions arose about whether the power had to be authenticated under Section 33, and who could validly present the document for registration.

Held: The Supreme Court distinguished between execution and presentation. Where the person who executed the document presents it himself, Section 32(a) applies and no authenticated power is needed. Section 32(c) and the authentication requirement of Section 33 come into play only where the document is presented by an agent on behalf of the executant, claimant, representative or assign.

Ratio: Section 33 governs the authority of an agent to present a document for registration, not the authority to execute it. Citation to be verified before publication.

3. Photographs and Fingerprints: Section 32A

Section 32A, Registration Act, 1908, in substance

Every person presenting any document at the proper registration office under Section 32 shall affix his passport size photograph and fingerprints to the document:

Provided that where such document relates to the transfer of ownership of immovable property, the passport size photograph and fingerprints of each buyer and seller of such property mentioned in the document shall also be affixed to the document.

Inserted by the 2001 amendment, alongside Sections 17(1A) and 16A, as part of the same effort to make property dealings harder to falsify.
It targets impersonation, which the earlier scheme addressed only through the officer's enquiry into identity under Section 34.
It applies to every presenter, and additionally to every buyer and seller where ownership of immovable property is transferred.
State rules supply the mechanics, including the capture of photographs and biometrics in the computerised systems built on Section 16A.

4. Presentation by an Unauthorised Person

Presentation by someone outside Section 32 is not a mere irregularity. The registering officer has no authority to register a document presented by a stranger, and the registration is invalid. The Act provides a way out: under Section 23A, where a document requiring registration has been accepted from a person not duly empowered to present it and has been registered, a person claiming under the document may present it for re-registration within four months of first becoming aware that the registration was invalid, and on re-registration the document takes effect as if it had been properly registered in the first place.

5. The Position Stated Shortly

Section 32 allows presentation only by an executant or claimant, his representative or assign, or an agent under an authenticated power of attorney.
Section 33 prescribes who may authenticate the power, according to where the principal resides.
Within India the power must be executed before the Registrar or Sub-Registrar of the principal's district.
Section 33(2) allows authentication at a residence or in a jail for those who cannot attend.
Rajni Tandon: an executant presenting his own document needs no authenticated power; Section 33 governs presentation by an agent.
Section 32A requires photographs and fingerprints of the presenter, and of each buyer and seller on a transfer of immovable property.
Presentation by an unauthorised person makes the registration invalid, curable by re-registration under Section 23A.