A person who is inheriting the property can dispose of its right by way of either a release deed or relinquishment deed if the same is to be done to another co-sharer or co-owner of the property. When a person is surrendering or giving up its rights and title or releasing its right or title in favour of another person out of free will and wish, the document executed to do the same is called as release deed. It is usually made when a property is inherited by two persons and one of them doesn’t want to claim the share devolved upon him. Release deed is different from relinquishment deed wherein the person making the relinquishment deed is transferring its legal right to another legal heir with their consent. Registration of both the deeds is compulsory under the law and there is a thin line of difference between both the deeds.

Registration of a Release deed is compulsory as per Registration Act and the Release Deed must carry requisite stamp duty as prescribed by the State where the property is situated. The Executor and the Beneficiary of the Deed together with two witnesses are required to visit the Sub-Registrar/Registrar Office for registration of the Release Deed.

VALIDITY OF UNREGISTERED RELEASE DEED AND ITS EVIDENTIARY VALUE

Only a registered Release deed is considered to be a valid and admissible document acknowledging the transfer of the right of immovable property to the other. Release deed is different from relinquishment deed wherein the person making the relinquishment deed is transferring its legal right to another legal heir with their consent.

Hon’ble Supreme Court has time and again held and reiterated by various Courts as well that it is trite law that any document which purports or operates to create, declare, assign, limit or extinguish any right, title or interest, in respect of an immovable property having a value of more than one hundred rupees is compulsorily required to be registered as envisaged under section 17 of the Registration Act, 1908.

Further Section 49 of the Registration Act, any document which is required to be registered under Section 17 of the Act shall have no effect on any immovable property nor will it confer any power to adopt. Sub-section (c) of Section 49 of the Act bars receiving a document which is not registered as evidence, if it is required to be compulsorily registrable under Section 17 of the Act or under the provisions of the Transfer of property Act.

Moreover, Section 17 of the Act mandates that documents relating to gift of immovable property or non testamentary instruments which create a transfer of interest in an immovable property having a value of more than Rs.100/-will have to be compulsorily registrable. Thus, by virtue of the bar created under Section 49(c) of the Act, whenever, any document relates to any transaction affecting any immovable property and is not registered, the same cannot be received in evidence. In other words, there is a complete bar for receiving in evidence any document which contains any transaction affecting immovable property, unless it is registered. This observation was also made recently by the Karnataka High Court in Gangamma Rangappa versus Rangaiah late Ambalappa and others (2020) wherein the Court as regards the evidentiary value observed that an unregistered document which normally cannot be received in evidence can nevertheless be received as evidence of any collateral transaction, which by itself, is not required to be effected by way of a registered instrument. To put it differently, if an unregistered document contains two transactions, one of which is required to be effected by means of a registered instrument and another transaction which is not required to be effected by any registered instrument, then the said unregistered instrument can be received as evidence of that collateral transaction. It is therefore clear that only to this limited extent, an unregistered instrument can be received in evidence i.e., to evidence a collateral transaction which by itself is not required to be effected by a registered instrument.

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