Control of Registering Officers under Sections 68 to 70 of the Registration Act, 1908: The Registrar's Superintendence, the Inspector General's Power of Superintendence and Rule-Making, and the Remission of Fines

The Act creates officers with real power over other people's property transactions, and Sections 68 to 70 supply the control. A Sub-Registrar performs his duties under the superintendence and control of the Registrar of his district, who may issue orders about any act or omission of his subordinates. Above them, the Inspector General exercises general superintendence over all registration offices and makes the rules that govern daily practice, subject to the State Government's approval. Section 70 gives him a narrow financial power: the remission of fines.

The chain of control, what the rules under Section 69 cover, and the remission power

1. The Registrar's Superintendence: Section 68

Section 68, Registration Act, 1908

(1) Every Sub-Registrar shall perform the duties of his office under the superintendence and control of the Registrar in whose district the office of such Sub-Registrar is situate.

(2) Every Registrar shall have authority to issue, whether on complaint or otherwise, any order consistent with this Act which he considers necessary in respect of any act or omission of any Sub-Registrar subordinate to him, or in respect of the rectification of any error regarding the book or the office in which any document should have been registered.

On complaint or otherwise, so the Registrar may act on a party's grievance or on his own motion.
Consistent with this Act is the limiting phrase. The power is supervisory; it does not let the Registrar do what the Act does not permit.
Rectification of an error as to the book or office is a real and useful power: a document copied into the wrong book, or registered in the wrong office through an administrative mistake, can be put right.
It is not a power to cancel a registration. As Satya Pal Anand v. State of M.P., (2016) 10 SCC 767 holds, no authority under the Act can recall or cancel a registration once effected; Section 68 cannot be used for that purpose, and the remedy is a civil suit.
Nor is it an appellate power. Appeals from refusal to register lie under Section 72, and applications where execution is denied under Section 73.

2. The Inspector General: Section 69

Section 69, Registration Act, 1908, in substance

(1) The Inspector General shall exercise a general superintendence over all the registration offices in the territories under the State Government, and shall have power from time to time to make rules consistent with this Act:

(a) providing for the safe custody of books, papers and documents; (aa) providing the manner in which and the safeguards subject to which the books may be kept in electronic form under Section 16A; (b) declaring what languages shall be deemed to be commonly used in each district; (c) declaring what territorial divisions shall be recognised under Section 21; (d) regulating the amount of fines imposed under Sections 25 and 34; (e) regulating the exercise of the discretion reposed in the registering officer by Section 63; (f) regulating the form of memoranda of documents; (g) regulating the authentication of the books kept under Section 51; (h) declaring the particulars to be contained in Indexes I to IV; (i) declaring the holidays; and (j) generally, regulating the proceedings of the Registrars and Sub-Registrars.

(2) The rules so made shall be submitted to the State Government for approval, and after approval shall be published in the Official Gazette, and on such publication shall have effect as if enacted in this Act.

What the rules govern	Where it shows up in practice
Safe custody and electronic keeping of records	The fire-proof box under Section 16, and the computerised registration systems built on Section 16A
Languages commonly used in each district	Whether Section 19 compels refusal for want of a translation
Recognised territorial divisions	How property must be described under Section 21
Fines under Sections 25 and 34	What a party pays to have delay in presentation or appearance condoned
The discretion under Section 63	When the officer administers an oath
Form of memoranda	The memoranda and copies circulated under Sections 64 to 66
Particulars in the indexes	What a searcher will find in Index I and Index II

3. The Limits of the Rule-Making Power

Rules under Section 69 must be consistent with the Act, must be approved by the State Government, and must be published before they take effect. They cannot enlarge the officer's functions beyond what the statute gives him. That limit was enforced in State of Rajasthan v. Basant Nahata, (2005) 12 SCC 77, where a provision permitting refusal of registration on the ground that a document was opposed to public policy was struck down: deciding what offends public policy is a judicial function, and the registering authority's role under the Act is not adjudicatory in that sense. The same reasoning limits executive instructions and circulars issued in the name of superintendence.

4. Remission of Fines: Section 70

The Inspector General may, on application, remit wholly or in part the difference between a fine levied under Section 25 or Section 34 and the amount of the proper registration fee.
Section 25 is the fine for delay in presentation, and Section 34 the fine for delay in appearance; both may be up to ten times the proper registration fee.
What may be remitted is the excess, not the registration fee itself.
It is a discretion, exercised on application, and the rules under Section 69(d) regulate the amount of such fines in the first place.

5. Registrar and Inspector General Compared

	Registrar, Section 68	Inspector General, Section 69
Territory	His district	All registration offices in the State, or the limits assigned
Nature of the power	Superintendence and control of Sub-Registrars; orders about acts, omissions and errors as to book or office	General superintendence, and rule-making with the State Government's approval
Over documents	He also registers documents himself, and hears matters under Sections 72 and 73	None: he does not register documents or sit in appeal
Financial	None under these sections	Remission of fines under Section 70
Common limit	Cannot cancel a registration once made	The same

6. The Position Stated Shortly

Section 68(1): a Sub-Registrar works under the superintendence and control of the Registrar of his district.
Section 68(2): the Registrar may issue any order consistent with the Act about an act or omission of a Sub-Registrar, or about rectifying an error as to the book or office.
Section 69(1): the Inspector General superintends all registration offices and makes rules on custody, electronic records, languages, territorial divisions, fines, oaths, memoranda, authentication, indexes and holidays.
Section 69(2): the rules require State Government approval and publication, and then have effect as if enacted in the Act.
Basant Nahata: the rule-making power cannot turn the registering officer into an adjudicator of the validity of transactions.
Section 70: the Inspector General may remit the excess of a fine under Section 25 or 34 over the proper registration fee.
Satya Pal Anand: neither officer can cancel a registration once effected.