MP High Court: a compromise decree recording a pre-existing adverse-possession right needs no registration

Jagdish Prasad had obtained a compromise decree in 2008 declaring him Bhumiswami of land at village Tanda on the basis of adverse possession. Years later, when he sought mutation of the land in his name on the strength of that decree, the Tehsildar impounded it, holding that it required compulsory registration under the Registration Act, 1908, and demanded deficit stamp duty; the order was affirmed on revenue appeal, and his civil suit challenging it was dismissed by both the trial court and the first appellate court. On second appeal, the High Court held that Section 17(2)(vi) of the Registration Act exempts a court's decree from compulsory registration unless it creates, for the first time, a right, title or interest in immovable property that did not exist before.

Since the 2008 decree only recorded a right the plaintiff had already acquired by adverse possession, and did not confer any fresh title on him, it fell within the exemption and required no registration regardless of the stamp duty otherwise payable. Relying on a line of Supreme Court authority distinguishing decrees that merely record pre-existing rights from those that create new ones, the Court set aside the orders of the Tehsildar and the Sub-Divisional Officer, restrained recovery of the demanded stamp duty, and decreed the suit in the plaintiff's favour, directing correction of the revenue records.