Enquiry Before Registration and the Procedure on Admission or Denial of Execution under Sections 34 and 35 of the Registration Act, 1908: The Scope of the Registering Officer's Inquiry, Minors and Incapacity, and Fraud at Registration

Sections 34 and 35 are where the registering officer does the only real checking the Act asks of him. Under Section 34 the executants must appear within the time allowed for presentation, and he must satisfy himself on three matters: whether the document was executed by the persons who purport to have executed it, who the persons appearing before him are, and whether a representative or agent has the right to appear. Under Section 35 he registers if execution is admitted, and refuses so far as it is denied. What he must not do is decide title, or pronounce on the validity of the transaction.

The three enquiries under Section 34, and the two routes under Section 35

1. Enquiry Before Registration: Section 34

Section 34, Registration Act, 1908, in substance

(1) Subject to the provisions of this Part and of sections 41, 43, 45, 69, 75, 77, 88 and 89, no document shall be registered unless the persons executing it, or their representatives, assigns or agents authorised as aforesaid, appear before the registering officer within the time allowed for presentation under sections 23, 24, 25 and 26.

Proviso. If, owing to urgent necessity or unavoidable accident, all such persons do not so appear, the Registrar may, where the delay does not exceed four months, direct that on payment of a fine not exceeding ten times the proper registration fee the document be registered.

(3) The registering officer shall thereupon: (a) enquire whether or not such document was executed by the persons by whom it purports to have been executed; (b) satisfy himself as to the identity of the persons appearing before him and alleging that they have executed the document; and (c) satisfy himself of the right of a person appearing as a representative, assign or agent so to appear.

Presentation and appearance are different acts. A document may be presented in time and still fail because the executants do not appear.
Identity may be proved by the officer's personal knowledge, or by witnesses known to him, and since 2001 by the photographs and fingerprints under Section 32A.
The enquiry may extend to examining persons present and, under Sections 36 to 39, to summoning executants and witnesses who will not come.

2. Admission of Execution: Section 35(1)

All the executants appear personally, are personally known to the officer or their identity is otherwise proved, and admit execution; or
A representative or assign appears for a person executing and admits execution; or
The executant is dead, and his representative or assign appears and admits execution.
In any of these cases the officer registers the document, endorsing the particulars under Sections 58 and 59 and issuing the certificate under Section 60.
Admission of execution is not admission of the truth of the contents. The executant admits that he signed the document, not that every recital in it is correct.

3. Denial, Minority and Incapacity: Section 35(3)

The situation	What the officer does
A person by whom the document purports to be executed denies its execution	He refuses to register the document as to the person so denying
Such a person appears to be a minor, an idiot or a lunatic	He refuses to register as to that person
The executant is dead and his representative or assign denies execution	He refuses to register as to the person so denying
Refusal by a Sub-Registrar on the ground of denial of execution	The party may apply to the Registrar under Section 73, who enquires under Sections 74 to 76
Refusal by the Registrar	The party may sue in the civil court under Section 77 within thirty days of the order

Refusal is partial. It operates only as to the person denying, so a document executed by several may be registered as to those who admit.
Appears to be a minor is a judgment of appearance, not an adjudication of age. The officer does not decide capacity; he declines to register and leaves the question elsewhere.
Reasons must be recorded under Section 71 in Book 2, and a copy given to the party under Section 76 on application.

4. How Far Does the Inquiry Go?

📖 State of Rajasthan v. Basant Nahata, (2005) 12 SCC 77

Facts: A State amendment empowered the Inspector General to notify documents whose registration could be refused on the ground that they were opposed to public policy, and registration was refused on that basis. The provision was challenged as an excessive delegation and as beyond the scheme of the Act.

Held: The Supreme Court struck down the provision. Determining what is opposed to public policy is a judicial function, not one that can be left to executive notification, and the registering officer's role under the Act is not adjudicatory in that sense. He performs statutory functions of a limited kind, and the validity of a transaction is for the courts.

Ratio: The registering officer's inquiry is confined to what Sections 34 and 35 require. He cannot refuse registration on a judgment about the legality or policy of the underlying transaction. Citation to be verified before publication.

He cannot decide title. Whether the executant owns the property, or has authority to transfer it, is outside his function.
He cannot decide validity. Fraud, coercion, want of consideration and illegality are for the civil court.
He cannot cancel a registration once made. As Satya Pal Anand holds, he is functus officio, and the remedy lies in a suit.
His functions have been described as largely ministerial, with a limited quasi-judicial element when he enquires into execution and identity and records reasons for refusal.

⚠ Fraud and impersonation are not cured by registration

The officer's enquiry into identity is a safeguard, not a guarantee. Where a deed is executed by an impersonator, registration gives it no validity: the true owner has executed nothing, and the document conveys nothing. Section 32A, and the photographs and biometrics captured under State rules, make impersonation harder to accomplish and easier to prove afterwards, but the remedy remains a suit to have the instrument declared void, together with prosecution under the offences in Sections 81 to 83 and under the general criminal law.

5. The Position Stated Shortly

Section 34: the executants must appear within the time allowed for presentation, with a power in the Registrar to condone up to four further months on a fine.
The officer enquires whether the document was executed, satisfies himself as to identity, and as to the right of a representative or agent to appear.
Section 35(1): he registers where execution is admitted by the executants, their representatives or assigns.
Section 35(3): he refuses as to a person who denies execution, appears to be a minor, an idiot or a lunatic, or is a representative denying a deceased executant's execution.
Refusal is partial, and reasons must be recorded under Section 71.
The remedy is an application to the Registrar under Section 73, and a suit under Section 77.
Basant Nahata: the officer cannot refuse registration on a judgment about the legality or policy of the transaction.
Registration does not validate a document executed by an impersonator.