Briefly state the following issues-

i) Objects & Utilities of the Registration Act, 1908

ii) Historical background behind the enactment of the
Registration Act, 1908.
iii) Role of Inspector General under the Registration Act,
1908.

Objective of Registration act-

The main purpose of registration of documents or the object of The Registration

Act 1908, amongst other things is to provide a method of public registration of
documents so as to give information to people regarding legal rights and
obligations arising or affecting a particular property and to perpetuate
documents which may afterwards be of legal importance, and also to prevent
fraud.

Therefore the objectives can be listed as follows:

 The conservation of evidence,
 Assurance of title, publicity of documents and prevention of fraud.
 Registration ensures and safeguards the interest of an intending
purchaser.
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Brief History of the Registration Act 1908

Before the year 1864, there existed multiple enactments as to registration of

documents in British India. There were regulations applicable to each of the

provinces of Bengal, Bombay and Madras, providing for the registration of

documents. The first complete enactment as to registration of documents was

passed by Act XVI of 1864, consolidating and amending all the previous laws

relating to the registration of assurances. It introduced for the first time a system

of compulsory registration in British India as to certain clauses of the

documents and also abolished the provisions limiting the rights of priority to

registered deeds as against unregistered document of the same nature. But even

under this Act, the right of priority was given to document optionally

registerable and not to documents compulsorily registerable. Thus, if two

documents A and B were both optionally registerable, and one of them A was

registered, then A would have priority over B. But if A was compulsorily

registerable and B was optionally registerable, the fact that A was registered did

not entitle it to priority over B.

The law relating to registration of assurances was again consolidated and

amended by Act XX of 1866. It was again amended by Act VIII of 1871. The

Act of 1871 was subsequently amended by Act III of 1877. The Act of 1877 for

the first time introduced a provision to give priority to registered documents

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irrespective of the fact that whether they were optionally or compulsorily

registerable.

In 1908, a new Act namely the Indian Registration Act, 1908 (Act No. XVI of

1908) was enacted for consolidation of enactments relating to the registration of

the documents. It came into force on the first day of January, 1909 in British

India. The said act came into force in Bangladesh accrding to The Bangladesh

Laws (Revision And Declaration) Act, 1973.

Role of Inspector General under the Registration Act, 1908.

Section 69 of the Registration Act, 1908 deals with the role of Inspector
General. The Inspector General has the following roles under this act-

(1) The Inspector-General shall exercise a general superintendence over all

the registration offices and shall have power from time to time to make rules
for the following functions-

(a) providing for the safe custody of books, papers and documents;

(b) declaring what languages shall be deemed to be commonly used in each

district;

(c) declaring what territorial divisions shall be recognized under section 21;

(d) regulating the amount of fines imposed under sections 25 and 34,
respectively;
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(e) regulating the exercise of the discretion reposed in the registering officer
by section 63;

(f) regulating the form in which registering officers are to make memoranda
of documents;

(g) regulating the authentication by Registrars and Sub-Registrars of the

books kept in their respective offices under section 51;

(h) declaring the particulars to be contained in Indexes Nos. I, II, III and IV,
respectively;

(i) declaring the holidays that shall be observed in the registration-offices;

(j) generally, regulating the proceedings of the Registrars and Sub-Registrars;

(k) framing of policy in respect of determining market value of property

under section 63A.

(2) The rules so made shall be submitted to the Government for approval, and,
after they have been approved, they shall be published in the official Gazette,
and on publication shall have effect as if enacted in this Act.