BOMMI REDDI MUNI REDDI Vs. PERUR SUBBIAH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The only question here is whether, under Section 75, Sub-section (4), of the Indian Registration Act, an order of the Registrar made under that section can be executed by a District Munsif. The District Registrar of Cuddappah held an enquiry under Section 74 and made an award of Rs. 329-14-0 as costs against the respondent, which he sent to the District Munsiff's Court of Proddatur for execution. The District Munsiff held that he had no power to execute it, and that order was reversed on appeal by the learned District Judge of Cuddappah against whose order this appeal has been filed.

(2.) Section 75, Sub-section (4) is as follows: The Registrar may, for the purpose of any enquiry under Section 74, summon and enforce the attendance of witnesses and compel them to give evidence, as if he were a Civil Court, and he may also direct by whom the whole or any part of the costs of any such enquiry shall be recoverable as if they had been awarded in a suit under the Civil P. C., 1908.

(3.) Now that sub-section presumes that the Registrar is not a Civil Court. This High Court in two decisions Manavala Goundan V/s. Kumarappa Reddy (1907) 17 M.L.J. 313 : I.L.R. 30 Mad. 326 and Naganna V/s. Pattabhiramayya (1927) 54 M.L.J. 51 Mad. 245, has already held that his proceedings are not open to revision under Section 115, Civil Procedure Code. But I consider the meaning of the latter part of the sub-section to be that, although he is not a Civil Court, yet any costs ordered by him can be recovered as if he were a Civil Court and as if those costs had been awarded in a suit under the Civil P. C.. Otherwise a Registrar's order as to costs is futile as I can find no other machinery for their recovery outside Section 75 of the Indian Registration Act. G.O. No. 1597 dated the 8 of July 1879 has been quoted to me, which purports to empower a Registrar to imprison persons for nonpayment of costs decreed by him; but that does not decide this matter. In any case the same Government order states as an axiom what is now a matter for decision, namely, that an order for costs can be executed through a Civil Court in the ordinary way. I prefer to place my decision on what I consider to be clear words of Sub-section (4) which, in the view I take, expressly empowers a Registrar to send his order for costs for execution exactly as if they had been awarded in a suit, and the method of their recovery is to be in accordance with the Civil P. C., that is to say, under the provisions of Order 21, etc. It is surprising that this matter has never come up for formal decision before.