Stamped Out Or Locked In? The Crisis Of Certainty In Indian Property Law: Case Comment On Mahnoor Fatima Imran & Ors. V. Visweswara Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. & Ors. (Supreme Court, 7 May 2025; 2025 INS
- IJLLR Journal
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
Neha Kanungo, Government Law College, Mumbai
Introduction
For decades, Indian property law has lived in a grey zone between formalism and lived practice. Despite a statutory regime that mandates timely registration under the Registration Act, 1908, property routinely changes hands through informal or semi-formal mechanisms. These include unregistered “agreement-cum-GPA-cum-Will” bundles in cities, oral partitions in rural areas, and family settlements scribbled on stamp paper but never brought before the registrar. These methods emerged not from lawlessness, but from necessity—whether to avoid high stamp duties, navigate slow bureaucracies, or preserve community harmony.
Into this ambiguous terrain, the Supreme Court’s decision in Mahnoor Fatima Imran lands like a gavel. The Court has declared that if a sale agreement is not registered within four months of execution, it is void for all purposes—even if validated later or followed by registered instruments. While the ruling seeks to impose certainty and integrity on the land registration process, it threatens to destabilise countless transactions entered in good faith.
This article unpacks the decision in five parts. Part I outlines the facts and the holding. Part II revisits precedent that embraced a more context-sensitive approach. Part III explores the likely fallout for markets, registrars, and courts. Part IV proposes reforms. Part V concludes with a reflection on the balance between formal legality and equitable justice.
I. Facts, Procedure and Holding
The case concerns 53 acres on Hyderabad’s western edge, an area transformed by rapid urbanisation. In 1982, a general power-of-attorney (GPA) holder executed a sale agreement in favour of Bhavana Co-operative Housing Society for ₹50,000. Crucially, the agreement was never registered within the four-month period mandated by § 23 of the Registration Act, nor within the extended window allowed by § 34.
