NARPAT RAI SHARMA Vs. INSPECTOR FENERAL OF REGISTRATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India, which is concerned with certain rules made in exercise of the powers of the Inspector General of Registration Delhi, under Section 69 (1) (b)ofthe Indian Registration Act,1908: The petitioner Shri Narpat Rai Sharma is a Writer of Documents and petitions. He claims to be carrying on the profession of petition and Documents Writsr. The rules inquestion were issued by a notification dated 1st December, 1966, published in the Delhi Gazette of that date. They regulate the writing of documents. They also limit the fees that can be charged by Document Writers. I shall presently refer to some of the rules to show that very low fees have been prescribed and the question that I have to. deal with turns on the effect of these rules. The rules are challenged by the petitioner as being framed without authority of law on the ground that Section 69(1)(bb) of the Indian Registration Act, 1908, amounts to excessive delegation of Legislative authority, and secondly, the rules are illegal and ultra vires of Articles 14 and 19 of the Constitution of India. These questions depend on the reasonableness 'of the rules and I have been concerned with finding out the proper legal meaning to be given to the rules in question. As I have already indicated, the fees to be charged by Document Writers like the petitioner arc extremely low, and in fact, would hardly cover the typing charges for the documents concerning which the fees are to be charged. It has thus become important to determine the exact scope of the rules before the question of validity can be gone into.

(2.) The petition has been heard along with four other petitions of similar Petition or Document Writers, but the challenge is exactly the same in each one of those cases, and this judgment will, therefore, dispose of Civil Writ Petitions Nos. 237 to 241 of 1966

(3.) Before dealing with the questions raised with regard to the validity of the rules, I will proceed to analyse the same. The rules are made under Section 69(1) (bb) of the Indian Registration Act, 1908. This section does not exist in the Act as originally framed, but was introduced in 1961, by the Indian Registration (Punjab Amendment) Act, 1961, which received the assent of the President: of India on 24th April, 196L. This amending Act introduced sub-clause (bb) into the other provisions of Section 69. On 20th March, 1965, the Punjab Act was extended to the Union Territory of Delhi, by the Central Government with effect from 1st April, 1965, by exercise of the powers conferred by Section 2 of the Union Territories (Laws) Act, 1950. Thus, the amended provisions of the Indian Registration Act, as applicable to -Punjab have been extended also to Delhi. Acting under the amended provisions of Section 69, the Inspector General of Registration, New Delhi,issued the impugned rules, which were described as 'The Delhi Document Writers Licensing Rules, 1966'. These rules were framed after previous approval of the Administrator of the Union Territory.