Time for Presenting Documents, and Delay

In one line

A document must be taken for registration within four months of execution, and if urgent necessity or an unavoidable accident causes delay, the Registrar may accept it up to four months late on payment of a fine of up to ten times the registration fee.

In exam wording: section 23 provides that, subject to sections 24, 25 and 26, no document other than a will shall be accepted for registration unless presented for that purpose to the proper officer within four months from the date of its execution.

Section 23: the four-month rule

The period is four months and it runs from the date of execution, that is from the date of signing, not from the date the parties choose to act.

Wills are excluded, and section 27 confirms that a will may be presented or deposited at any time.

The proviso deals with decrees: a copy of a decree or order may be presented within four months from the day on which the decree or order was made, or, where it is appealable, within four months from the day on which it becomes final. The alternative is sensible, since an appealable decree may be undone.

Section 24: several executants at different times

Where there are several persons executing a document at different times, the document may be presented for registration and re-registration within four months from the date of each execution.

So a document signed by three people over six weeks does not have a single deadline. Each signature starts its own four months, and presentation within four months of any execution is good as to that execution.

Section 25: unavoidable delay

Sub-section (1). If, owing to urgent necessity or unavoidable accident, a document executed, or a copy of a decree or order made, in India is not presented within the prescribed time, the Registrar, in cases where the delay does not exceed four months, may direct that, on payment of a fine not exceeding ten times the amount of the proper registration-fee, the document shall be accepted for registration.

Four limits, and each is examinable:

The cause must be urgent necessity or unavoidable accident. Mere forgetfulness or convenience is not enough.

The outer limit is a further four months, so the longest possible period from execution is eight months.

The officer is the Registrar, not the Sub-Registrar.

The price is a fine up to ten times the proper registration fee.

Sub-section (2). An application for such a direction may be lodged with a Sub-Registrar, who must forthwith forward it to the Registrar to whom he is subordinate. So the party need not travel to the Registrar's office; he applies where he would have registered.