ALI MOHD BAWAN Vs. GH MOHI-UD-DIN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a revision application directed against an order of the Second Additional Munsiff, Srinagar, by which an unregistered rent deed dated 30th Chet 2000 produced on behalf of the defendants by one Mst. Gilli, a witness for the defendants, has been held to be inadmissible in evidence.

(2.) WE have heard counsel for the parties. The plaintiffs -respondents suit against the defendants was for permanent injunction restraining them from in any way interfering with the rights of the plaintiffs in the property, house and land, specified in the plaint, of which the plaintiffs claimed to be the owners by virtue of the sale deed dated 13th Maghar 2007 (registered on 15th Maghar 2007) executed in their favour by Abdul Aziz, defendant 6. The rent deed in question was sought to be put in on behalf of the defendants to show that Gulam Modh., plaintiff, had admitted that the property specified in the rent deed belonged to Mst. Gilli one of the defendants witnesses. The trial Court has held that the purpose for which the document is sought to be received in evidence by the defendant -appellant cannot be described as collateral as according to him it is not independent or divisible from the transaction "to effect which the law requires registration" and "it must be a transaction not by itself required to be effected by a registered document, as one creating, assigning, alienating etc. any rights, title, or interest in immoveable property."

(3.) THERE is no quarrel with the propositions enunciated by the trial court but it appears to us that the learned Munsiff has not properly construed the purpose for which the document is sought to be received in evidence by the appellant. His real purpose is to show the nature of the possession of the plaintiffs and to indicate that one of the plaintiffs had clearly admitted that he was not the owner of the property in question. In our view this purpose is certainly a collateral one. As stated in Note 14 to S. 49, Registration Act by Chitaley proof as to the nature or character of a persons possession is really proof of a transaction showing in what character a person has come upon the land. Such a transaction is really a collateral one which, by itself does not require to be effected by a registered deed. An unregistered document is, therefore, held to be admissible as evidence of the nature or character of a persons possession.