Jodhpur: The Rajasthan High Court has ruled that a family settlement document does not need to be registered if it only records a settlement that the family had already reached earlier.
Justice Farjand Ali passed the order while dismissing a challenge to a trial court’s decision to allow a 2003 family settlement document to be used in a property dispute.
The case involved a dispute over Plot Nos. 163 and 167 in Hanumangarh. Shahnawaz and Mohammad Nawaz claimed that the property was still jointly owned by the family and had never been divided. They approached the court seeking partition of the property.
The other side produced a document dated April 24, 2003, saying that the family had already divided the plots after reaching a settlement through a Panchayat and since then, the family members had been separately using their respective shares.
The petitioners objected to the document, claiming that it was forged, unregistered and not properly stamped. They argued that it actually divided the property and therefore could not be used in court without registration. The trial court rejected their objection and allowed the document to remain as evidence.
The High Court agreed with the trial court and said that the name of a document is not important. What matters is what the document actually says and what the parties intended when they made it.
The Court found that the 2003 document appeared to only record a family settlement that had already happened. It did not appear to divide the property for the first time. Therefore, the Court said that such a document does not need compulsory registration.
However, the High Court did not decide whether the family settlement actually happened or whether the document was genuine. These questions will be decided by the trial court after looking at the evidence presented by both sides.
Hence, The High Court found no legal error in the trial court’s decision and dismissed the petition.