Ram Nath Mandal And Ors. vs Jojan Mandal And Ors. on 26 August, 1963
In Ram Nath Mandal and others v. Jojan Mandal and
others, AIR 1964 Pat-1, the Full Bench of the Patna High Court held
that under Sec.117 of the T.P.Act, a lease for agricultural purposes is
not necessary to be made by a written instrument and it may be
effected by an oral agreement in which case the question of
registration will not arise. However, if the transaction is reduced to
writing, then in the case of a lease from year to year or for any term
exceeding a year or reserving a yearly rent, registration would be
required under Sec.17 of the Registration Act, and if unregistered the
lease will be inadmissible in evidence under Sec.49 of the
Registration Act and other evidence of its terms will be precluded
under Sec.91 of the Evidence Act. In that case, the claim of creation
of tenancy on the basis of rent receipts in pursuance of an oral
agreement was negatived on the ground that no such case had been
put forward by the plaintiff in the plaint.