- (1.) In the end, there appears to have been much ado about nothing. The appellants here purchased an immovable property pursuant to an auction conducted by the Recovery Officer attached to a Debts Recovery Tribunal under the Recovery of Debts due to Banks and Financial Institutions Act, 1993. Section 29 of the Act of 1993 makes the provisions of the Second and Third Schedules to the Income Tax Act , 1961 and the provisions of the Income Tax (Certificate Proceedings) Rules, 1962 applicable as far as possible to matters pertaining to a sale conducted under the Act of 1993. Accordingly, by virtue of Clauses 54, 63 and the like of the Second Schedule to the Act of 1961, the Recovery Officer attains the status of a Revenue Officer when conducting a sale to realise a debt due as defined in the Act of 1993. Clause 65 of the Second Schedule to the Act of 1961 provides for the issuance of a sale certificate by the Tax Recovery Officer bearing the date on which the sale became absolute. Since such provision would apply mutatis mutandis to a sale conducted by a Recovery Officer under the Act of 1993, a sale certificate is required to be issued to the purchaser of any immovable property in a sale conducted by the Recovery Officer.
(2.) Section 89 of the Registration Act, 1908 deals with certain orders, certificates and instructions. Sub-section (4) of such provision mandates as follows: "(4) Every Revenue Officer granting a certificate of sale to the purchaser of immovable property sold by public auction shall send a copy of the certificate to the registering officer within the local limits of whose jurisdiction the whole or any part of the immovable property comprised in the certificate is situate, and such officer shall file the copy in his Book No.1.".
(3.) It, therefore, logically follows that when a Recovery Officer under the Act of 1993 makes over a sale certificate to a purchaser upon the conclusion of a sale of an immovable property for the recovery of a debt due under such Act to a bank or financial institution, such certificate enjoys the same status as that of a sale certificate issued by a Revenue Officer. A fortiori, a sale certificate obtained by a purchaser of an immovable property at a sale conducted by a Recovery Officer under the Act of 1993 for the recovery of a debt due under such Act to a bank or financial institution becomes the veritable deed of conveyance which may be registered under Section 89(4) of the Act of 1908. A separate deed of conveyance becomes wholly unnecessary.;