(1) Every document of the kinds mentioned in clauses (a), (b), (c) and (d) of section 17, sub-section (1), and clauses (a) and (b) of section 18, shall, if duly registered, take effect as regards the property comprised therein, against every unregistered document relating to the same property, and not being a decree or order, whether such unregistered document be of the same nature as the registered document or not.
(2) Nothing in sub-section (1) applies to leases exempted under the proviso to sub-section (1) of section 17 or to any document mentioned in sub-section (2) of the same section, or to any registered document which had not priority under the law in force at the commencement of this Act.
Explanation.—In cases where Act No. 16 of 1864 or the Indian Registration Act, 1866 (20 of 1866), was in force in the place and at the time in and at which such unregistered document was executed, "unregistered" means not registered according to such Act, and, where the document is executed after the first day of July, 1871, not registered under the Indian Registration Act, 1871 (8 of 1871), or the Indian Registration Act, 1877 (3 of 1877), or this Act.
Legal Commentary & Landmark Judgments: Section 50
Section 50 of the Registration Act, 1908 establishes the rule of statutory priority of registered documents relating to land over competing unregistered documents.
Section 50 provides statutory priority to registered title documents over unregistered instruments, cementing the legal primacy of public registration.
The section establishes the paramount public policy of the registration system: a purchaser who complies with the law and registers their conveyance is protected against prior or subsequent secret unregistered instruments, encouraging public registration and transparency.
Section 50 protects bona fide registered conveyances against unrecorded private instruments. However, if the registered transferee had actual or constructive notice of a prior unregistered agreement to sell or tenant possession, equity denies them statutory priority under the *Ram Niwas* principle.