Sub-registrar not competent to cancel an already registered document: High Court

The High Court has said that a sub-registrar is incompetent to cancel an already registered document.

Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum said this while dismissing a petition filed by a businesswoman from Bagalkot. The petitioner, Madhumati, had executed a GPA in favour of her husband Mahadevappa.

However, alleging breach of the conditions in the GPA, she approached the jurisdictional sub-registrar to register the deed styled as ‘Cancellation of GPA’. 

On February 10, 2023, the sub-registrar issued an endorsement declining to register the ‘Cancellation of GPA’ deed on the grounds that the disputed GPA is coupled with interest and therefore, he has no power to register the cancellation of the deed. The sub-registrar also stated that the applicant has to approach the competent civil court for necessary relief. 

Madhumati challenged this endorsement in the high court’s Dharwad bench, arguing that a sub-registrar is bound to register a document presented before him. 

The court referred to the provisions of the Registration Act as well as various judgements of the high court on the issue. 

Specific Relief Act

Justice Magadum noted that once a registered GPA coupled with interest is executed, the person who seeks cancellation of the said document has an efficacious remedy available under the law, seeking cancellation under Section 31 of the Specific Relief Act. 

“The role of a Sub-Registrar stands discharged once the document is registered under section 17 of the Registration Act, 1908. There is no express provision in the Registration Act, 1908, which empowers the Registrar to recall such registration. It is equally trite law that power to cancel the registration is a substantive matter,” the court said. 

The court further said that a deed of cancellation amounts to the rescission of the contract. In contractual matters, the term rescission is used to denote cancellation.