REG 035 Miscellaneous Provisions Sections 85 to 91 — Law of Registration Notes for Judiciary

Miscellaneous Provisions under Sections 85 to 91 of the Registration Act, 1908: Destruction of Unclaimed Documents, Protection of the Officer, Curable Defects, Government Officers and Documents, and Court Sale Certificates

The last part of the Act collects seven provisions that tidy up the scheme. Two protect the officer: Section 86 from personal liability for anything done in good faith, and Section 87 from the consequences of a defect in his appointment or procedure. One clears the shelves: Section 85, on destroying unclaimed documents. The remaining four give government documents and officers a lighter treatment, because they are already public records kept under other laws: Sections 88 and 89 on procedure, and Sections 90 and 91 on exemption and inspection.

The seven provisions in outline, and why government documents are treated differently

1. Unclaimed Documents and the Officer's Protection

Sections 85, 86 and 87, Registration Act, 1908, in substance

85. Destruction of unclaimed documents. Documents, other than wills, remaining unclaimed in any registration office for a period exceeding two years may be destroyed.

86. Registering officer not liable for thing bona fide done or refused in his official capacity. No registering officer shall be liable to any suit, claim or demand by reason of anything in good faith done or refused in his official capacity.

87. Nothing so done invalidated by defect in appointment or procedure. Nothing done in good faith pursuant to this Act or the Acts hereby repealed, by any registering officer, shall be deemed invalid merely by reason of any defect in his appointment or procedure.

Wills are excepted from Section 85, which is consistent with the whole treatment of wills: they may be presented at any time under Section 27, and a deposited will is re-deposited after death under Section 45(2).
Section 86 protects the officer, not the registration. It bars a suit against him personally; it says nothing about the validity of what he did.
Section 87 protects the act, not the officer. It saves what was done from being invalidated by a defect in appointment or procedure.
Both require good faith, and neither protects a dishonest act, which is dealt with by Section 81.

⚠ Section 87 cures a defect, not a want of jurisdiction

The section is often stretched too far. It saves an act done in good faith from a defect in the officer's appointment or in the procedure he followed, so that a title does not fail because of an administrative irregularity. It has long been understood as not curing a fundamental want of authority, as where a document affecting immovable property is registered by an officer in whose sub-district no part of the property lies, contrary to Sections 28 to 30. That distinction, between a curable irregularity in the exercise of jurisdiction and a want of jurisdiction altogether, is drawn in the case law, and the current authority should be checked before the point is argued.

2. Government Officers and Documents: Sections 88 and 89

1. Section 88 exempts certain persons from personal appearance. Where a document is executed by an officer of Government, or by an Administrator General, Official Trustee or Official Assignee, or by a Sheriff, Receiver or Registrar of a High Court, the registering officer may register it without their personal appearance and without requiring the endorsements under Section 58, on being satisfied that the document was executed by the person named.

2. Why. Requiring a Collector or an Official Assignee to attend a Sub-Registrar's office in person for every conveyance would be unworkable, and their identity and authority are not in doubt in the way a private executant's may be.

3. Section 89 deals with the copies that come into the office. Every officer granting a loan under the land improvement and agriculturists' loans legislation sends a copy of his order to the registering officer, and every Court granting a certificate of sale of immovable property under the Code of Civil Procedure sends a copy of the certificate to the registering officer within the local limits of whose jurisdiction the property is situate.

4. The officer files them in Book 1. Nothing is registered: the certificate or order is already a public act, and what the register needs is a record of it so that a search discloses the transaction.

Section 89 fits with Section 17(2)(xii), which exempts a certificate of sale granted to the purchaser of property sold by public auction by a Civil or Revenue Officer from compulsory registration. The certificate does not create the title; the sale does, and the certificate declares it. Registration would add nothing, while the copy filed under Section 89 gives the publicity that matters.

3. Government Records Exempted: Sections 90 and 91

Sections 90 and 91, Registration Act, 1908, in substance

90(1). Nothing contained in this Act or in the Indian Registration Act, 1877, shall be deemed to require, or to have at any time required, the registration of: (a) any sanad, grant or other document relating to any grant of land by Government to which the Crown Grants Act, 1895 applies; (b) any instrument executed by any officer of Government or by any Administrator General, in his official capacity, in the cases the section specifies; (c) any record of survey or settlement, or any village record filed by a patwari or other village officer, or other record prepared under the settlement and land revenue laws.

90(2). All such documents and maps shall, for the purposes of sections 48 and 49, be deemed to have been and to be registered in accordance with the provisions of this Act.

91. The documents mentioned in clauses (a), (b) and (c) of section 90(1) shall be open to the inspection of any person applying to inspect them, and, subject to the rules, copies shall be given to all persons applying for them; and such copies, signed and sealed by the officer having custody, shall be admissible for the purpose of proving the contents of the originals.

The exemption is absolute and retrospective: these documents never required registration, under this Act or under the Act of 1877.
But they are deemed registered for Sections 48 and 50 and, in particular, for Section 49, so they carry the priority and the effect of registered documents without ever passing through the office.
Section 91 supplies the publicity. Inspection and certified copies are available, and the copies prove the contents, which is exactly what Section 57(5) does for the register.
The rationale is that these are already public records, prepared and kept by public officers under other statutes. Registration would duplicate a record that the public can already search.

4. Government Documents and Private Documents

	A private document	A government document within Section 90
Registration	Compulsory if within Section 17	Never required, Section 90(1)
Effect under Sections 48 and 49	Only if actually registered	Deemed registered, Section 90(2)
Personal appearance	The executants must appear, Section 34	Not required for the officers named in Section 88
Public access	Sections 57 and 91 of this Act, through the register	Section 91, from the officer having custody
Where the record lives	In the register books under Section 51	In the departmental record, with copies filed under Section 89 where that applies

5. The Position Stated Shortly

1. Section 85: documents other than wills left unclaimed for more than two years may be destroyed.

2. Section 86: no registering officer is liable to suit, claim or demand for anything done or refused in good faith in his official capacity.

3. Section 87: nothing done in good faith is invalid merely because of a defect in appointment or procedure, but this does not cure a want of jurisdiction.

4. Section 88: officers of Government and the other functionaries named need not appear in person or sign the endorsements.

5. Section 89: copies of court sale certificates and of land improvement loan orders are sent to the registering officer and filed in Book 1.

6. Section 90: sanads and government grants, instruments by government officers, and survey, settlement and village records need no registration, and are deemed registered for Sections 48 and 49.

7. Section 91: those documents are open to inspection, and sealed copies prove their contents.