Home  /  Registration Act  /  Section 28

Section 28: Place for registering documents relating to land

Registration Act • Official Statutory Text & Practice Guide

Statutory Regulation
Legal Standard
Competent Court / Tribunal
Act 1908
Section 27 All 93 Sections of Registration Act Section 29

Legal Commentary & Landmark Judgments: Section 28

Section 28 of the Registration Act, 1908 prescribes the territorial jurisdiction for registering documents affecting immovable property, requiring presentation in the sub-district where some portion of the property is situated.

  • Core Legal Standard: Section 28 mandates that save as otherwise provided in this Part, every document mentioned in Section 17(1) clauses (a), (b), (c), (d).
  • Operational Application: (e), Section 17(2), and Section 18 clauses (a), (b), (c), and (cc) shall be presented for registration in the office of a Sub-Registrar within whose sub-district the whole or some portion of the property to which such document relates is situated.

Section 28 ensures territorial jurisdiction in property registrations, requiring documents to be registered where some portion of the immovable property is located.

The section establishes territorial competence. Where property comprises multiple parcels located across several sub-districts, registration in any one sub-district where a bona fide parcel is situated is valid for the whole. However, the inclusion of a fictitious, non-existent, or insignificant parcel solely to confer jurisdiction on a favored registrar constitutes a 'fraud on registration' which vitiates the entire registration as void ab initio.

Key Landmark Precedents:
  • Collector of Gorakhpur v. Ram Sundar Mal, AIR 1934 PC 157: The Privy Council established the foundational rule: the inclusion of a tiny, fictitious parcel of land in which the vendor has no real interest, solely to confer jurisdiction on a particular Sub-Registrar, constitutes fraud on the registration law and renders registration invalid.
  • M.M. Rubber Co. Ltd. v. State of T.N., 1992 Supp (2) SCC 471: The Supreme Court held that Section 28 requires a genuine, subsisting proprietary interest in the property situated within the registering officer's sub-district to vest lawful territorial jurisdiction.
Legal Commentary:

Parties must ensure that the property within the chosen sub-district is genuine, marketable, and intended to be transferred. Colorable inclusion of an imaginary sliver of land to register an out-of-district estate before a metropolitan Sub-Registrar results in a complete nullity that destroys the purchaser's title.

Section 27 All 93 Sections of Registration Act Section 29