"Document Registration System in Sri Lanka"

In sri lanka document registration system governs under the document registration ordinance no 23 of 1927

2. Land registries.
(1) There shall continue to be in Colombo a land register office for the purposes of this
Ordinance and the Land Registration Ordinances, No. 5 of 18771 and No. 4 of 1889,1 with
branch offices at such places as the Minister may from time to time direct, and the Land register
office and branch offices established under the land Registration Ordinance, 1891, or any
enactment repealed by that Ordinance shall be deemed to be duly established under this
Ordinance.
(2) The business of the land register office and branch offices shall be conducted by a
Registrar-General of Lands (in this Ordinance called the "Registrar-General), a Deputy
Registrar-General of Lands and such number of Assistant Registrars-General (in this Ordinance
called "Assistant Registrars-General) and Registrars of Lands (in this Ordinance called
"Registrars) as the Minister may from time to time consider necessary. Acting appointments may
be made as may be necessary in the event of the Registrar-General or the Deputy RegistrarGeneral of Lands or any Assistant Registrar-General or Registrar being ill or incapable of acting
or temporarily absent from duty.
(3) All appointments under this section shall be made, and may at any time be revoked, in
accordance with the law for the time being in force relating to the appointment of public officers:
Provided that in the case of death, illness, incapacity, absence from duty, or other emergency, the
Registrar-General may appoint any person to act as a Registrar for not more than thirty days at
any one time and may at any time revoke such appointment.
2(4) All appointments under this section shall be notified in the Gazette.
(5) All appointments made under the Land Registration Ordinance, 1891,3 shall be deemed to
have been made under this Ordinance.
(6) The Registrar-General may, if he thinks fit exercise all or any of the powers possessed by a
Registrar.
(7) Subject to the directions of the Registrar-General, any matter or thing which by this
Ordinance or any regulation may or is to be done by the Registrar-General may also be done by
a 4Deputy Registrar-General or any Assistant Registrar-General.
3. Definitions of Land.
In this Ordinance, unless the context otherwise requires, "land includes things attached to the
earth or permanently fastened to anything attached to the earth and any estate or interest in
land, and a mortgage of or charge on land.
CHAPTER II
REGISTRATION OF DUPLICATES OF DEEDS

4. Duplicates to be transmitted to Registrar.

(1) Every District Judge, Judge of a Primary Court, or Justice of the Peace shall, on or before
the fifteenth day of each month, deliver or transmit to the Registrar of the district wherein he
resides the duplicates of all deeds or other instruments executed before him during the previous
month under the provisions of the Deeds and Documents (Execution before Public Officers)
Ordinance, together with two copies of a list of such duplicates, and, if the land affected by any
such deed or instrument is situated in a district other than that in which he resides, he shall also
on or before the day aforesaid transmit or deliver an attested copy of the deed or instrument to
the Registrar of the last-mentioned district.
(2) Every public officer by or before whom any document affecting land is executed shall, if
subsection (1) of this section does not apply thereto, on or before the fifteenth day of the
following month deliver or transmit a duplicate or an attested or certified copy thereof to the
Registrar of each district in which the land affected thereby is situated together with two copies of
a list of all duplicates or copies so delivered by him.
5. Registrar to bind all duplicates.
(1) Every Registrar shall from time to time cause all duplicates and copies transmitted or
delivered to him under the preceding section or any other written law, or by any notary under the
provisions of the Notaries Ordinance, to be bound in convenient volumes distinguished by the
name of the court to which the judge is attached, or by the name of the Justice or notary who
attested the deed or instrument, or, in the case of duplicates or copies transmitted or delivered
under subsection (2) by the official designation of the public officer by or before whom the deed
or instrument was executed, and shall keep and preserve the same in his office.
(2) All duplicates and copies transmitted or delivered to a Registrar or bound in volumes under
the corresponding provision in the Land Registration Ordinance, 1891, or any enactment
repealed by that Ordinance shall be deemed to have been so transmitted, delivered, or bound
under this Chapter.
CHAPTER III
REGISTRATION OF INSTRUMENTS AFFECTING LAND
6. Meaning of "instrument.
In this Chapter, unless the context otherwise requires, "instrument means an instrument
affecting land.
7. Unregistered instruments void against subsequent registered instruments.
(1) An instrument executed or made on or after the 1st day of January, 1864, whether before or
after the commencement of this Ordinance shall, unless it is duly registered under this Chapter,
or, if the land has come within the operation of the Land Registration Ordinance, 1877, 5 in the
books mentioned in section 26 of that Ordinance, be void as against all parties claiming an
adverse interest thereto on valuable consideration by virtue of any subsequent instrument which
is duly registered under this Chapter, or, if the land has come within the operation of the Land
Registration Ordinance, 1877, in the books mentioned in section 26 of that Ordinance.

(2) But fraud or collusion in obtaining such subsequent instrument or in securing the prior
registration thereof shall defeat the priority of the person claiming thereunder.
(3) An instrument duly registered before the commencement of this Ordinance, under the Land
Registration Ordinance, 1891, or any enactment repealed by that Ordinance, shall be deemed to
have been duly registered under this Chapter.
(4) Registration of an instrument under this Chapter shall not cure any defect in the instrument
or confer upon it any effect or validity which it would not otherwise have except the priority
conferred on it by this section.
8. Meaning of "affecting lands.
For the purpose of this Ordinance, the following instruments shall be deemed to affect land,
namely
(a) if executed or made before the commencement of this Ordinance, every deed or other
instrument of sale, purchase, transfer, assignment, or mortgage of any land, or of promise,
bargain contract, or agreement for effecting any such object, or for establishing or transferring
any security, interest, or incumbrance affecting any land (other than a lease at will, or for any
period not exceeding one month); or of contract or agreement for the future sale or purchase
or transfer of any land; and every deed or act of release, surrender, or annulment of or
affecting any such deed or other instrument, and every will disposing of any land, and every
grant of administration, affecting any land; and every judgment or order of court affecting land;
(b) if executed or made after the commencement of this Ordinance, all instruments, including
wills, decrees and orders of any court or authority, and awards, which purport or operate to
create, confer, declare, limit, assign, transfer, charge, incumber, release, or extinguish any
right, title, or interest, whether vested or contingent, past, present, or future, to, in or over
land, or which create or record or are evidence of any contract for effecting any such object,
and also a notice of seizure issued under section 237 of the Civil Procedure Code:
Provided that paragraph (b) of this section shall not apply to
(i) any decree or order of court where the action in which the decree or order is made has
been duly registered as a lis pendens;
(ii) a writ of execution issued under section 225 of the Civil Procedure Code;
(iii) any letters of administration to the estate of an intestate;
(iv) a decree or order adjudging a person to be insolvent or bankrupt;
(v) a decree, order, or other instrument appointing or recording, certifying, or confirming the
appointment or election of an assignee or trustee in insolvency or bankruptcy;
(vi) any document relating to shares in a registered company notwithstanding that the assets
of the company consist in whole or in part of land;

(vii) a mortgage or debenture by a registered company, so long as its only effect, as respects
the land affected thereby, is to create a floating charge thereon in such form that the
company can, until the security is enforced, dispose of the land in the ordinary course of
its business free from the mortgage or debenture;
(viii) any debenture issue by any such company the only effect of which, as respects the land
affected thereby, is to entitle the holder to the benefit of the security afforded by a duly
registered instrument;
(ix) any endorsement upon or transfer of any debenture specified in (vii) or (viii);
(x) any receipt for payment of money due under a mortgage or charge;
(xi) any instrument if the only interest in land created or dealt with thereby is a tenancy at Will
or for a period not exceeding one month or determinable by the landlord by not more than
one month's notice.
9. Registration of notice of seizure.
(1) A notice under section 237 of the Civil Procedure Code, of a seizure of land effected after
the commencement of this Ordinance is an instrument affecting the land seized and may be
registered under this Ordinance.
(2) A notice of a seizure effected before the commencement of this Ordinance may also be
registered under this Ordinance.
(3) Registration of a notice of seizure shall remain in force for six months only from the date of
registration but may be re-registered as often as may be necessary.
(4) Registration of a notice of a seizure in the book kept under section 237 of the Civil
Procedure Code, shall remain in force for six months only from the commencement of this
Ordinance. But the notice may be re-registered under this Ordinance. No re-registration shall be
effected under section 237.
10. Will when defeated by conveyance by heir.
(1) A Will shall not, as against a disposition by any heir of the testator of land affected by the
Will, be deemed to be void or lose any priority or effect by reason only that at the date of the
disposition by the heir the Will was not registered under this Chapter.
(2) This section applies whether the testator died before or after the commencement of this
Ordinance, but does not apply
(a) where the disposition by the heir was executed before the commencement of this Ordinance;
or
(b) where, at the time of the disposition by the heir, being not less than one year after the death
of the testator, letters of administration to the estate of the testator have been granted on the
footing that he died intestate.

11. Registration of lis pendens.

(1) No lis pendens affecting or relating to land instituted on or after the 9th day of November,
1917, shall bind a purchaser, unless and until the lis pendens is duly registered under this
Chapter.
(2) But a lis pendens duly registered before the commencement of this Ordinance under the
provisions of Ordinance No. 29 of 1917, shall be deemed to have been duly registered under this
Chapter.
(3) In this section, "purchaser means any person (including a mortgagee or lessee) who, for
valuable consideration, takes any interest in or charge on land.
(4) For the purpose of registering a lis pendens a document in the prescribed form shall be
presented for registration, and such document shall be registered in the same manner as other
instruments affecting land, but shall be retained by the Registrar.
(5) A lis pendens may be registered at any time after the plaint has been accepted by the court
in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Procedure Code.
(6) For the purpose of the application of the doctrine of lis pendens, an action duly registered
as lis pendensshall be deemed to be pending from the time of registration notwithstanding that
the summons has not been served on the defendant.
(7) Where a lis pendens has been duly registered on a date before the 1st day of May, 1947,
such registration shall continue in force until such time as it is cancelled under section 33 of this
Ordinance.
[S 11(7) am by s 2 of Act 13 of 1947.]
12. Books for registration of instruments affecting land.
(1) Every Registrar shall prepare and keep the prescribed books for the registration of
instruments, allotting to each book (which may be in as many volumes as necessary) a defined
division of his province or district.
(2) The books for the registration of instruments established under the Land Registration
Ordinance, 1891, or any enactment repealed by that Ordinance shall continue to be used, and
shall be deemed to be kept under this Chapter.
13. Mode of description of lands in instruments.
(1) Every instrument (other than a will) presented for registration shall embody therein or in a
Schedule annexed thereto, an accurate and clear description of the land or immovable property
affected thereby, its boundaries, extent and situation specifying the District, Pattu, Korale,
Divisional Secretary's Division, local authority division and the Grama Niladari Division and the
village, of the District in which the land is situated and in case the land or immovable property
affected by this instrument is situated in within any municipality, town or developed area,
declared under section 2 of the Municipal Councils Ordinance, section 2 of the Urban Councils
Ordinance and section 2 of the Pradeshiya Sabha Act, No. 15 of 1987 respectively, the

assessment number and the name, if any, of the street, in which such land or immovable
property is situated.