Section 17 Registration Act -

The transactions which are related to the property are regarded by law as per the Registration Act. Basically, the enactments which deal with registration of the documents come under the Registration Act. Registration act actually provides more authenticity and accuracy to the documents. It provides awareness regarding legal rights and obligations in concerned with property disputes. It aspires to prevent fraud and scams related to properties. In general, an assigned officer records the document and keeps it as a public record under the process of registration. This document attains its legal validity and used as an evidence wherein if any dispute arises, no opposite party can show it to be false. Section-17 of the Registration act, deals with the mandatory registration of certain documents.

Section-17 of the Registration Act
Section-17 of this act deals with the mandatory registration of certain documents. These documents are as follows:

It is necessary to register gift deeds of the nature of immovable property for the transfer, which is to be given without consideration.
The documents which are non-testamentary under which it assign or limit a person’s interest in the immovable property valued rupees one hundred or above.
Those documents are for leasing the immovable property for the term which exceeds one year or against the yearly rent according to the Registration Act.
Where there is a payment or receipt of any registration, then it is mandatory for those documents to be registered.
The contract documents regarding the transfer of an immovable property for consideration as per section- 53 A of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882.
The documents wherein assigning of an order of the court where such decree or order creates a title of one hundred rupees and above in the case of an immovable property.

Objective of Section-17

The major objective of this section is to prevent fraud, scams or forgery of the documents by maintaining discipline or orderliness in respect of immovable property. However, it is necessary for an immovable property to have the registered documents of transfer, if they don’t have the same, then it would be treated as illegal and it would not be regarded as evidence in the court of law. This has been discussed in the case of Suraj Lamp and Industries Pvt. Ltd. vs. State of Haryana and Another.

When does a document need to be registered?

To attain the legal value, some documents need to be registered. As per section-17 of this act, some documents are compulsory to be registered whereas it is optional for some documents to be registered under section-18. By registering the document, some scams or frauds are to be avoided like the deception of title, encroachment, without authorization dealing, delayed possession, promised returns, etc.
Registration creates transparency in dealing. As per section-23 of this Act, apart from will every document needs to be presented for registration within four months of its execution. Similarly, if there are multiple persons who are executing a document need to get it presented for re-registration within four months from the execution’s date.
Procedure for Registration

As per section-28 of this Act, sub-registrar registers the document in case of an immovable property and the documents must have been registered within the period of four months from its date of execution under proper jurisdiction. The documents should be submitted in the office of sub-registrar and in case if the registrar refuses to register it without giving any reason, then the aggrieved can approach to the district registrar.

Effects of non-registration

The documents should be registered in order to avoid any frauds or mishappenings. As per section-49 of the Registration Act, if a document is not registered, there may have some difficulties:

There may arise, the question regarding the validity of the ownership of the property in case of non-registered documents.
If the document is not registered within the specific period of time, it will become invalid.
A non-registered document will not be regarded as evidence in the court of law or at any place where the dispute might arise.
As per section-49 of this Act, a document would not affect any power to adopt.

Conclusion
Section-17 of the Registration Act makes it mandatory for some documents to be registered in order to get prevented by the unlawful activities like fraud, scam or other illegal activity. This section provides discipline and orderliness among people in terms of immovable property. Registration provides legal validity to a property and the owner will get the actual title which would be evident in the court of law. Registration actually upholds the legal sanctity and brings justice. The authenticity of the document cannot be question any further if the document is registered. A registered document acts as a guard to protect the immovable property. However, it creates an importance to get registered.