law: Registration Act, 1908
  17. Documents of which registration is compulsory
  (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, Act No. XVI of 1864, or the Indian
  
  Registration Act, 1866, or the Indian Registration Act, 1871, or the Indian
  
  Registration Act, 1877 or this Act came or comes into force, namely:-
  (a) instruments of gift of immovable property;
  (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, of the value of one hundred rupees, and upwards, to or in immovable
  
  property;
  (c) non-testamentary instruments 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
  (d) leases of immovable property from year to
  
  year, or for any term exceeding one year, or reserving a yearly rent;
  12[(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, of the value of one hundred rupees and upwards,
  
  to or in immovable property:]
  PROVIDED that the State 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 rent reserved by
  
  which do not exceed fifty rupees.
  (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 immovable 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 immovable property except insofar 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 immovable 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 of
  
  the value of one hundred rupees and upwards to or in immovable 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 13[except
  
  a decree or order expressed to be made on a compromise and comprising immovable
  
  property other than that which is the subject-matter of the suit or
  
  proceeding;] or
  (vii) any grant of immovable property by
  
  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, or instrument for securing the repayment of a
  
  loan made under that Act; or
  14[(xa) any order made under the Charitable
  
  Endowments Act, 1890, (6 of 1890) vesting any property in a Treasurer of
  
  Charitable Endowments or divesting any such treasurer of any property; 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 when the receipt
  
  does not purport to extinguish the mortgage; or
  (xii) any certificate of sale granted to the
  
  purchaser of any property sold by public auction by a civil or revenue-officer.
  15[Explanation: A document purporting or operating to
  
  effect a contract for the sale of immovable property shall not be deemed to
  
  require or ever to have required registration by reason only of the fact that
  
  such document contains a recital of the payment of any earnest money or of the
  
  whole or any part of the purchase money.]
  (3) Authorities to adopt a son, executed after the 1st day of
  
  January, 1872, and not conferred by a will, shall also be registered.