- (1.) The petitioner has filed the instant petition stating that he being an advocate and having been engaged by his client to give an opinion regarding the authenticity/veracity/genuineness of the Will applied for a copy thereof in the office of Sub-Registrar. The certified copy was supplied to him but the petitioner insisted upon making the document available in order to further establish its veracity/genuineness by getting the thumb impressions compared by the fingerprint expert.
(2.) The prayer having been declined by the competent authority, the petitioner has filed the instant petition. Making a grievance of the action of the respondents reference has been made to Section 57 of the Registration Act, which is extracted herebelow :- "57. Registering Officers to allow inspection of certain books and indexes, and to give certified copies of entries. -- (1) Subject to the previous payment of the fees payable in that behalf, the Books Nos.1 and 2 and the Indexes relating to Book No.1 shall be at all time open to inspection by any person applying to inspect the same; and, subject to the provisions of section 62, copies of entries in such books shall be given to all persons applying for such copies. (2) Subject to the same provisions, copies of entries in Book No.3 and in the Index relating thereto shall be given to the persons executing the documents to which such entries relate, or to their agents, and after the death of the executants (but not before) to any person applying for such copies." (3) Subject to the same provisions, copies of entries in Book No.4 and in the Index relating thereto shall be given to any person executing or claiming under the documents to which such entries respectively refer, or to his agent or representative. (4) The requisite search under this section for entries in Book Nos.3 and 4 shall be made only by the registering officer. (5) All copies given under this section shall be signed and sealed by the registering officer, and shall be admissible for the purpose of proving the contents of the original documents."
(3.) Learned counsel for the petitioner contends that he being an agent is entitled to copy of the document and is also entitled to get the same inspected from the fingerprint expert to get an opinion about the veracity/genuineness of the thumb impressions.;