Circular, Letter No. 41530/U1/2017, 25 March 2022

What the circular governs

Circular Letter No. 41530/U1/2017, issued by the Head of the Registration Department on 25 March 2022, provides consistent procedures for inquiries into fraudulent document registrations. It addresses fraud caused by failure to follow registration laws, rules, government orders and departmental circulars, as well as the use of missing, inadequate or false supporting evidence.

The guidance affects property owners, buyers, heirs, power of attorney holders, document writers, advocates and parties to later transactions based on a fraudulent deed.

Action when a document is found fraudulent

District Registrars are instructed to:

• Record in Schedule II that the document was found fraudulent, with the reasons and the District Registrar's proceeding number.
• Add an appropriate note to the document copy. For a scanned document, the note must be placed on a signed white sheet and added as a link page.
• Direct that the fraudulent document must not be used as a parent document for further registrations.
• Permit the true property owner to register later documents.
• Make a police complaint under section 83 of the Registration Act, 1908 against persons who prepared or assisted in registering the fraudulent document.
• Examine later document holders where subsequent transactions were registered using the fraudulent document, and pass appropriate orders concerning those documents.

Document writers and advocates

The inquiry must include the document writer or advocate who prepared the document, and their statements must be obtained. If involvement in the fraud is established, criminal action must be taken.

For document writers holding B or C licences, the District Registrar must take action to cancel the licence under the Tamil Nadu Document Writers Licence Rules, 1982. For an A licence, a report must be sent to the relevant Deputy Inspector General of Registration for cancellation action. If an advocate is involved, the District Registrar must report the matter to the Bar Council.

Situations covered

The procedures apply to proven impersonation, transactions after cancellation of a power of attorney or death of the principal, repeated sale of the same property, fabricated parent deeds or certificates, concealment of heirs, and concealment of a civil court judgment.

A pending civil case does not prevent a District Registrar from investigating fraudulent registration because the inquiry does not decide property ownership. If a principal remains alive and the power of attorney remains valid, a false life certificate alone does not make the registered deed fraudulent, but criminal proceedings should be directed against those responsible for the false certificate.