HC quashes cancellation of sale deed

CHENNAI: Holding that the district registrar nor the inspector general of registration vested with powers to cancel the sale deed executed at the relevant point of time, the Madras High Court quashed the cancellation of the sale deed executed in favour of a private technology company.

Only if a prima facie case has been established for cancellation on the ground of fraud or impersonation, then alone the district registrar has to pass orders for cancellation of the document, wrote a division bench comprising Justice SM Subramaniam and Justice K Rajasekar while allowing an appeal preferred by Netvantage Technologies.

The private technology company moved the HC seeking to quash the cancellation of the sale deed and set aside the writ court disposing of the petition without granting relief.

According to the appellant, the district registrar Tindivanam has cancelled the sale deed which was executed in favour of the company in 2007 by a vendor who bought the land in 2004. Since some private individuals approached the district registrar claiming over the title of the subject property the sale deed was cancelled and the inspector general of registrations also confirmed the cancellation. Aggrieved by the cancelation of the sale deed the company approached the court to quash the cancellation of the sale deed. However, the writ court refused to grant the relief sought by the company.

Senior counsel Raghavachari appearing for the company submitted that the power to cancel the sale deed had not been conferred on the district registrar during the relevant point of time. Thus the application entertained for cancellation of the sale deed, per se, is without jurisdiction, he added.

After the submission, the bench wrote that the scope under the Registration Act to cancel the documents on the grounds of fraud or impersonation is undoubtedly limited. While conducting a summary enquiry, if the district registrar finds that there is prima facie proof to establish fraud or impersonation, then alone the document is to be cancelled, read the judgment.