Licensed deed writers must be aware that law enjoins certain duties on them: Karnataka High Court

Karnataka High Court emphasizes duties of licensed deed writers, refusing to quash criminal case over forged land sale agreement.

Licensed deed writers must be aware that they are functioning on a licence granted under the Karnataka Registration (Deed Writers Licence) Rules, 1979, which enjoins certain duties upon them in preparing the deeds for registration, the Karnataka High Court has said.

The court made these observations while refusing to quash a criminal case registered against a deed writer for scribing an agreement for the sale of a land parcel based on a general power attorney (GPA), which was allegedly a forged one, without doing even a basic verification as has been specified under the Rules.

Justice M. Nagaprasanna passed the order while dismissing a petition filed by 52-year-old Shekhar of Doddaballapur taluk in Bengaluru Rural district.

The petitioner-deed writer had claimed that he could not be roped in as an accused in the criminal case as his role was limited while pointing out that he had verified the revenue records and the records of Rights, Tenancy and Crops (RTC) presented to him and affixed his seal and signature on the deed of agreement of sale, a draft of which was handed over to him by an advocate.

Declining to interfere with the investigation at this stage, the court pointed out that Rule 2(i) specifically states “a deed writer is one engaged in the profession of preparing or writing deeds for registration, which includes the work of conveyancing, investigation of title, preparation of draft deed, and engrossing deed on stamp paper.”

Therefore, the court said, it cannot be said that the petitioner, who is a licensed deed writer, in terms of the Rules, has no duty to look into all the papers, as his duty includes conveyancing and investigation of title.

The first information report (FIR) was registered on the complaint given by the actual GPA holder, who holds the GPA for his father-in-law, alleging that a person impersonating the complainant had entered into an agreement for sale of around three acres of land belonging to complainant’s father-in-law for ₹1.15 crore. The agreement for sale was registered in the office of the Doddaballapur sub-registrar, who is also arraigned as one of the accused in the case. However, the sale deed is yet to be registered.