Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 19: The High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has directed the Sub-Registrar, Awantipora, to decide a sale deed pending before him in accordance with law, holding that a registration authority cannot keep a document pending without passing any legal order.
Justice Mohd Yousuf Wani passed the order in WP(C) No. 90/2026, filed by Nazira Begum, who had approached the court seeking a direction to the Sub-Registrar, Awantipora, to register a sale deed relating to 4 kanals of land under Survey No. 268 Min situated at Revenue Estate Jawberara, Tehsil Awantipora, District Pulwama.
The petitioner submitted that the vendor, a Kashmiri migrant, had obtained permission for sale of the land from the Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, under the J&K Migrant Immovable Property (Preservation, Protection and Restraint on Distress Sales) Act, 1997, vide order dated August 7, 2025. After execution of the formal sale deed, the document was presented before the Sub-Registrar for registration.
However, the petitioner alleged that the Sub-Registrar kept the document pending on the ground that a structure existing on the land was not mentioned in the sale permission. According to the petitioner, the structure had been raised in good faith after execution of the agreement to sell and did not belong to the migrant vendor.
The Court observed that although the Sub-Registrar appeared to be confronted with a “facto-legal query,” he was still required to address the document under law instead of keeping it pending. The Court noted that by keeping the sale deed undecided for nearly seven months, the authority had caused hardship to the parties and left them remediless.
The High Court held that the Sub-Registrar is competent to verify the facts and revenue record. It directed that if, upon verification, the structure standing on the land is found not to belong to the vendor and is found to have been raised by the petitioner or her attorney holder, the sale deed may be admitted to registration with an appropriate note, provided the document is otherwise legally complete.
Disposing of the petition, the Court directed the Sub-Registrar to address the pending document in accordance with law while keeping in view the observations made in the order.
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