Registration Is Not Ownership: The Evidentiary Nature Of Title Under Indian Property Law
- IJLLR Journal
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
Gagan V, School of Law, CHRIST (Deemed to be University)
ABSTRACT
This paper argues that in India the deed registration process is often confused with legal ownership but that registration is actually a system of public notice and evidentiary construction rather than a transfer of title. Examining the Registration Act of 1908 against the Transfer of Property Act of 1882 and the Evidence Act of 1872 and placing these against the backdrop of Supreme Court case law from Narandas Karsondas v S A Kamtam and Suraj Lamp & Industries (P) Ltd v State of Haryana to Mahnoor Fatima Imran v State of Telangana, this paper shows that registration creates rebuttable presumptions but does not correct defects of entitlement like incapacity, fraud, or interruption of the chain of title. A theoretical model guided by such thinkers as Gray, Hohfeld, Kennedy, Fuller, Raz and Dworkin explains how formalism converts visible procedure into surrogates for rights such that there is a false appearance of ownership. Empirical evidence drawn from property disputes and reviews of the Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme shows that while digitisation adds accessibility of records but does not guarantee title assurance. Comparing the Torrens systems of countries like Australia and New Zealand, the structure of the Land Registration Act 2002 in England and Wales, and the United States' title insurance regimes shows institutional choices that combine registration with verifiable and enforceable entitlement. This paper propounds gradual reform aimed at providing greater clarity on the presumption created by registration, strengthening pre-registration and post-registration verification processes, adopting rectification and indemnity mechanisms and testing Torrens lite areas and regulated title insurance, such that registration develops from a symbol of certainty to an instrument of certainty.
Keywords: Registration Act 1908, Transfer of Property Act 1882, Evidence Act 1872, Ownership, Title, Formalism, Notice, Rectification, Indemnity, Torrens, Land Registration Act 2002, Title Insurance.
