Circular Letter No. 33760/U1/2022, Fraudulent Registration

What the circular does

Circular Letter No. 33760/U1/2022 dated 27 September 2022 explains how the Inspector General of Registration will implement Tamil Nadu Act No. 41 of 2022. The amendment inserted Section 22-B into the Registration Act, 1908 and authorised the Registrar to cancel a document found to have been registered contrary to Section 22-A or Section 22-B.

An earlier departmental procedure allowed complaints about impersonation, false documents and fake evidence to be examined, with registration annulled if fraud was proved. That procedure was withdrawn after the Supreme Court held in Satyapal Anand versus State of Madhya Pradesh and others that the Department did not have power to cancel a registered document. Tamil Nadu Act No. 41 of 2022 now provides cancellation power for the specified contraventions.

Documents covered

The Registration Act provisions reproduced in Circular Letter No. 33760/U1/2022 require refusal of registration for:

• Forged documents, including documents created through impersonation or supported by forged records such as a patta, tax receipt, death certificate or legal heir certificate.
• Transactions prohibited by a Central Act or State Act.
• Transfers by sale, gift, lease or otherwise of immovable property permanently or provisionally attached by a competent authority, court or tribunal.
• Transfers involving State Government, local authority or Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority property without the required sanction.
• Property belonging to, given to or endowed for a religious institution covered by the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act, 1959, without the required sanction.
• Bhoodan land vested in the Tamil Nadu State Bhoodan Yagna Board and Wakf property supervised by the Tamil Nadu Wakf Board, without the required sanction.
• Ownership transfers of land converted into house sites without planning permission, subject to the stated exception for a house site previously registered as a house site.
• Cancellation of a sale deed without the consent of the person claiming under it.

Who may be affected

Circular Letter No. 33760/U1/2022 is relevant to owners, buyers, claimants and professionals dealing with questioned title documents, attached property, protected institutional land, unapproved house sites or unilateral cancellation of sale deeds. District Registrars were directed to conduct enquiries and pass reasoned orders, while Deputy Inspectors General of Registration were appointed as appellate authorities for orders passed by District Registrars under the cited enquiry provision.