17. (1) The following documents shall be registered, if the property to which they relate is situate in a district in which, and if they have been executed on or after the date on which, ¹[* * *] this Act came or comes into force, namely:- (a) instruments of gift of immoveable property; ²[(aa) declaration of heba under the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat);] ³[(aaa) declaration of gift under the Hindu, Christian and Buddhist Personal Law;](b) other non-testamentary instruments which purport or operate to create, declare, assign, limit or extinguish, whether in present or in future, any right, title or interest, whether vested or contingent, ⁴[* * *] to or in immoveable property; Explanation − In the case of an assignment of a mortgage the consideration for the deed of assignment shall be deemed to be the value for registration. (c) Non-testamentary instruments (other than the acknowledge-ment of a receipt or payment made in respect of any transaction to which an instrument registered under clause (o) relates) which acknowledge the receipt or payment of any consideration on account of the creation, declaration, assignment, limitation or extinction of any such right, title or interest; and ⁵[(cc) instrument of mortgage referred to in section 59 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882;] (d) leases of immoveable property from year to year, or for any term exceeding one year, or reserving a yearly rent; (e) non-testamentary instruments transferring or assigning any decree or order of a Court or any award when such decree or order or award purports or operates to create, declare, assign, limit or extinguish, whether in present or in future, any right, title or interest, whether vested or contingent, ⁶[* * *] to or in immoveable property; ⁷[(f) instrument of partition of immovable property effected by persons upon inheritance according to their respective personal laws; (g) instrument of sale in pursuance of an order of the Court under section 96 of the State Acquisition and Tenancy Act, 1950]: Provided that the Government may, by order published in the official Gazette, exempt from the operation of this sub-section any leases executed in any district, or part of a district, the terms granted by which do not exceed five years and the annual rents reserved by which do not exceed fifty taka. (2) Nothing in clauses (b) and (c) of sub-section (1) applies to- (i) any composition deed; or (ii) any instrument relating to shares in a Joint Stock Company, notwithstanding that the assets of such Company consist in whole or in part of immoveable property; or (iii) any debenture issued by any such Company and not creating, declaring, assigning, limiting or extinguishing any right, title or interest, to or in immoveable property except in so far as it entitles the holder to the security afforded by a registered instrument whereby the Company has mortgaged, conveyed or otherwise transferred the whole or part of its immoveable property or any interest therein to trustees upon trust for the benefit of the holders of such debentures; or (iv) any endorsement upon or transfer of any debenture issued by any such Company; or (v) any document not itself creating, declaring, assigning, limiting or extinguishing any right, title or interest ⁸[* * *] to or in immoveable property, but merely creating a right to obtain another document which will, when executed, create, declare, assign, limit or extinguish any such right, title or interest; or (vi) any decree or order of a Court except a decree or order expressed to be made on a compromise and comprising immoveable property other than that which is the subject-matter of the suit or proceeding; or (vii) any grant of immoveable property by the Government; or (viii) any instrument of partition made by a Revenue-officer; or (ix) any order granting a loan or instrument of collateral security granted under the Land Improvement Act, 1871, or the Land Improvement Loans Act, 1883; or (x) any order granting a loan under the Agriculturists' Loans Act, 1884, the Bangladesh Krishi Bank Order, 1973 or under any other law for the time being in force relating to the advancement of loans for agricultural purposes, or any instrument under which a loan is granted by a co-operative society for any such purpose, or any instrument made for securing the repayment of a loan so granted; or (xi) any endorsement on a mortgage-deed acknowledging the payment of the whole or any part of the mortgage-money, and any other receipt for payment of money due under a mortgage; or (xii) any certificate of sale granted to the purchaser of any property sold by public auction by a Civil or Revenue-officer; or (xiii)any counter-part of a lease, where the lease corresponding thereto has itself been registered. ⁹[* * *] (3) Authorities to adopt a son, executed after the first day of January 1872, and not conferred by a will, shall also be registered.

¹⁰[17A. (1) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in this Act or any other law for the time being in force, a contract for sale of any immovable property shall be in writing, executed by the parties thereto and registered.(2) A contract for sale referred to in sub-section (1) shall be presented for registration within thirty days from the date of execution of the contract and the provisions regarding registration of instruments shall apply.

17B. (1) Where a contract for sale of immovable property is executed but not registered prior to coming into force of section 17A- (a) the parties to the contract shall, within six months from the date of coming into force of that section,- (i) present the instrument of sale of immovable property under the contract for registration, or (ii) present the contract for sale itself for registration; or, (b) either of the parties, if aggrieved for non compliance with any of the provisions mentioned in clause (a), shall, notwithstanding anything contained to the contrary in any law for the time being in force as to the law of Limitation, institute a suit for specific performance or recession of the contract within six months next after the expiry of the period mentioned in clause (a), failing which the contract shall stand void. (2) The provision of sub-section (1) shall not apply to any contract for sale of immovable property on the basis of which a suit has been instituted in a civil court before coming into force of section 17A.]

18. Any document not required to be registered under section 17 may also be registered under this Act.

19. If any document duly presented for registration be in a language which the registering officer does not understand, and which is not commonly used in the district, he shall refuse to register the document, unless it be accompanied by a true translation into a language commonly used in the district and also by a true copy.

20. (1) The registering officer may in his discretion refuse to accept for registration any document in which any interlineations, blank, erasure or alteration appears, unless the persons executing the document attest with their signatures or initials such interlineations, blank, erasure or alteration. (2) If the registering officer registers any such document, he shall, at the time of registering the same, make a note in the register of such interlineation, blank, erasure or alteration.

21. (1) No non-testamentary document relating to immoveable property shall be accepted for registration unless it contains a description of such property sufficient to identify the same. (2) Houses in towns shall be described as situate on the north or other side of the street or road (which should be specified) to which they front, and by their existing and former occupancies, and by their numbers if the houses in such street or road are numbered. (3) Other houses and lands shall be described by their name, if any, and as being in the territorial division in which they are situate, and by their superficial contents, the roads and other properties on which they abut, and their existing occupancies, and also, whenever it is practicable, by reference to a Government map or survey. (4) No non-testamentary document containing a map or plan of any property comprised therein shall be accepted for registration unless it is accompanied by a true copy of the map or plan, or, in case such property is situate in several districts, by such number of true copies of the map or plan as are equal to the number of such districts.

22. (1) Where it is, in the opinion of the Government, practicable to describe houses, not being houses in towns, and lands by reference to a Government map or survey, the Government may, by rule made under this Act, require that such houses and lands as aforesaid shall, for the purposes of section 21, be so described. (2) Save as otherwise provided by any rule made under subsection (1), failure to comply with the provisions of section 21, sub-section (2) or sub-section (3), shall not disentitle a document to be registered if the description of the property to which it relates is sufficient to identify that property.

¹¹[22A. (1) Every instrument of transfer required to be compulsorily registered under this Act shall contain the particulars necessary to convey the intention of the parties, complete description of the properties to be transferred and nature of the transaction.(2) Photographs of both the executant and the recipient shall be pasted on every instrument and the parties shall sign and put their left thumb impressions across their photographs in the instrument¹²[: Provided that if any party is incapable of signing, he shall not be required to sign.](3) The government shall, within three months of coming into force of the Registration (Amendment) Act, 2004 by notification in the official Gazette, prescribe a format for the purposes of this section.]