(1)In addition to all or any of the directions laid down in the Act or Rules made thereunder for securing the identification of executants of documents registering officers shall take the thumb impressions of all executants of documents, whether personally known to them or not. in the following cases:(1)Registrations under section 17. clauses (a), (b), (c), (d) and (e) of the Act.(2)Registrations under section 18. clauses (a), (b) and (c) of the Act.(3)Powers of attorney authenticated under section 33.(4)Of all pardanashin women.(2)This rule may be relaxed only in the case of persons of position, regarding whose identity there can be no doubt or room for suspicion and in the case of persons suffering from leprosy or similar highly contagious disease notwithstanding that such persons are not personally known to the registering officer. In the case of pardanashin women, the impression shall be made either in the presence of the registering officer or of the person who identifies the women, and in the latter case the name of the person who takes the impression should be noted. A note shall be made in the register and on the document of the fact and grounds of relaxation of the rule.(3)The impression taken shall be of the left thumb. If the left thumb be defective or injured, the right thumb or any other digit may be used, and a note made in the register and on the document, of the particular digit employed. If none of the above methods be possible special care should be taken that the directions contained in rule 109 are strictly complied with.(4)The impression shall be taken (1) on the document, in a clear space immediately under the signature of the executant to the endorsement required by section 58 of the Act. and (2) in Register no. VIII (Form No. 8, Appendix 1), which shall be maintained in all registration offices.(5)The apparatus to be employed will be supplied by the office of the Inspector General of Registration, and shall ordinarily consist of a tin box containing (1) a roller, (2) a tin plate, (3) a pot of printer's ink. and (4) a phial of turpentine.(6)The mode of taking impressions is as follows:(a)A small quantity of ink should be applied to the plate and worked with the roller till it forms an even layer on the surface, which must be so thin as to allow the plate to show through it.(b)The executant's left hand should be taken and the ball of the thumb, after being wiped, should be laid on the inked plate and rolled from side to side (not rubbed) and pressed gently, but firmly with the operators own hand until sufficiently inked, and the inked finger should then be placed and lightly and carefully rolled on the paper on which the print is to be taken, in such a way that the pattern of the whole ball of the thumb, from side to side, is clearly impressed on it. It must be specially borne in mind that any reverse movement, either at the time of applying or removing the thumb, will cause a smudge and spoil the impression.(c)The roller and plate must be thoroughly cleaned daily.(7)Some difficulty is occasionally experienced in obtaining satisfactory thumb impressions when the executant is a pardanashin woman or an ignorant agriculturist. In such cases it is advisable to take first a few impressions on a piece of waste paper and not to take an impression on the document or on the register until the executant and the operator (when as in the case of a pardanashin woman, the registering officer is not the actual operator) are fully acquainted with the method to be employed. In cases when the thumb impression taken on the document or on the register is blurred or indistinct, a second or, if necessary', a third impression should be taken alongside the first, a note being made in the register and signed by the registering officer whenever more than one impression is taken on the document itself.
