A sub-registrar has no power under the Registration Act, 1908, to cancel a registered General Power of Attorney (GPA) by registering another deed in the name of ‘Cancellation of GPA’, the High Court of Karnataka has said.
“Though a registrar/sub-registrar has no power to desist from registering a document submitted along with necessary documents, but the registrar is not competent to cancel an already registered document,” the court said.
Case background
Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum passed the order while dismissing a petition filed by Madhumathi of Bagalkot, who wanted to cancel the GPA registered jointly by her and her husband in favour of the husband for controlling her business, to pay income tax, to redeem a mortgaged property by paying outstanding from his own fund, etc.
The petitioner had questioned the endorsement give by a sub-registrar in Belagavi refusing to register the deed of “Cancellation of GPA’ and asking her to approach the competent civil court.
“The cancellation of a deed can be equated to rescission of contract. A deed of cancellation amounts to rescission of contract. In contractual matters, the term rescission is used to denote cancellation. And therefore, when a party having executed the document seeks cancellation of the said document, it needs to be viewed in the light of Section 62 of the Indian Contract Act and therefore, cancellation must be done bilaterally and not unilaterally,” the court observed.
Efficacious remedy
Once a registered GPA coupled with interest is executed, the court said the person who seeks cancellation of such registered document has an efficacious remedy available to him under law namely, to seek cancellation under Section 31 of the Specific Relief Act.
“There is no express provision in the Registration Act, 1908, which empowers the registrar to recall a registered document. It is equally trite law that power to cancel the registration is a substantive matter. Therefore, in absence of any express provision in that behalf, it is not open to assume that sub-registrar is competent to cancel the registration of the GPA in question,” the court said.
