Page No.# 1/7 GAHC010118132026 2026:GAU-AS:9103 THE GAUHATI HIGH COURT (HIGH COURT OF ASSAM, NAGALAND, MIZORAM AND ARUNACHAL PRADESH) Case No. : WP(C)/3132/2026 JAYA NATH AND 2 ORS W/O- LT. SUKAMAL KANTI NATH, R/O- VILL- KAZIDAHAR PART-II, P.O.- KAZIDAHAR, PIN-788115, DISTRICT- CACHAR, ASSAM. 2: SAMUJJWAL NATH S/O- LT SUKAMAL KANTI NATH R/O- VILL- KAZIDAHAR PART-II P.O.- KAZIDAHAR PIN-788115 DISTRICT- CACHAR ASSAM. 3: DR RAYHAN MAZUMDAR S/O- LT. LUTFUR RAHMAN MAZUMDAR R/O- VILL MADHURBOND P.O.- SILCHAR PIN-788001 DISTRICT- CACHAR ASSA VERSUS THE STATE OF ASSAM AND 3 ORS REPRESENTED BY THE PRINCIPAL SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNMENT OF ASSAM, REVENUE AND DISASTER MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT, DISPUR, GUWAHATI, KAMRUP (M), ASSAM, PIN-781006. 2:THE DISTRICT COMMISSIONER CACHAR ASSAM PIN-788001 Page No.# 2/7 3:THE CIRCLE OFFICER SONAI REVENUE CIRCLE DISTRICT- CACHAR ASSAM PIN-788119. 4:THE NODAL OFFICER INTER RELIGION LAND SALE PERMISSION REVENUE AND DISASTER MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT DISPUR GUWAHATI KAMRUP(M) ASSAM PIN-781006 Advocate for the Petitioner : MR. I H SAIKIA, MR K KASHYAB,MS L HMAR,MR. B BORAH,MR. K KALITA Advocate for the Respondent : GA, ASSAM, SC, REVENUE BEFORE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE MANISH CHOUDHURY JUDGMENT Date : 23-06-2026 Heard Mr. I.H. Saikia, learned counsel for the petitioners; Mr. A. Bhattacharyya, learned Standing Counsel, Revenue & Disaster Management Department for the respondent nos. 1 & 4; and Mr. N. Das, learned Junior Government Advocate, Assam for the respondent nos. 2 & 3. 2. The petitioners, 3 [three] in nos., have joined together to prefer the instant writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. It is stated that the petitioner no. 1 and the petitioner no. 2 are owners of a parcel of land, as described in detail in paragraph 2 of the writ petition. The petitioner no. 1 Page No.# 3/7 and the petitioner no. 2 as proposed sellers have entered into an agreement for sale of the said parcel of land located in Sonai Revenue Circle, District – Cachar, Assam with the petitioner no. 3 as the proposed buyer. After execution of the agreement for sale of the said parcel of land, all the three petitioners applied for land sale permission before the respondent no. 2 as he is the competent authority to issue No Objection Certificate [NOC] for land sale permission under Section 21A of the Registration Act, 1908, as amended by the Registration [Assam Amendment] Act, 2009 and the Registration [Assam Amendment] Act, 2021. 3. Section 21A of the Registration Act, 2009, as amended, reads as under :- 21A. Notwithstanding anything contained in any other provision of this Act, no non - testamentary instrument relating to immovable property, except for house, flat, residential apartment, commercial building or any construction or structure erected on a plot of land, shall be accepted for registration, unless the Deputy Commissioner of the concerned district issues a No Objection Certificate containing the description of such immovable property to be transferred and also such other No objection Certificates, which are required to be issued by the Deputy Commissioner or any other Authority under any law for the time being in force or under any Executive Instruction, Order etc. issued by the State Government from time to time; Provided that all such No Objection Certificates shall be issued within a period of thirty days from the date of the receipt of application and in case No Objection Certificate is not issued within the stipulated period of thirty Page No.# 4/7 days, a speaking order with reasons thereof shall be issued to the applicant within the said stipulated period. 4. The application for land sale permission had to be submitted by the petitioners physically in the offline mode as online application process for issuance of NOC for land sale permission has not yet been implemented in Cachar District till date. The receipt of the said application was acknowledged vide Docket no. 3479 dated 05.12.2025. 5. It is a statutory mandate under Section 21[A] of the Registration Act for the jurisdictional Deputy Commissioner to either issue a No Objection Certificate containing the description of the immovable property to be transferred or to pass a speaking order with reasons thereof within a period of 30 days from the date of receipt of the application in case NOC is not issued within the prescribed period of 30 days. 6. As after submission of the application on 05.12.2025, neither NOC granting sale permission for transfer of the parcel of land indicated in the application has been issued nor a speaking order has been passed. The petitioners, aggrieved thereby are before this Court by the instant writ petition. 7. On 19.06.2026, the learned Government Advocate, Assam was asked to obtain instruction as to why the application submitted by the petitioner for NOC has not been processed to a logical conclusion in terms of Section 21A, as contended on behalf of the petitioners. Page No.# 5/7 8. Today, Mr. Das, learned Junior Government Advocate, on receipt of written instruction vide Office Letter no. SCLR.1/Court/2020/32 dated 22.06.2025 addressed to him, has submitted that the application for issuance of NOC could not be processed further due to incomplete filling up of application form and deficiency of documents, namely, [i] Non-Encumbrance Certificate, [ii] NOC from co-pattadars, [iii] Next of Kin Certificate, [iv] affidavit from the buyers, [v] PAN Card of the seller no. 2 and [vi] PAN Card of purchaser. 9. In response, Mr. Saikia has submitted that the petitioners are in position to submit the documents which the State respondents have stated to be deficient for the application for further processing. He has also submitted that if in addition to the afore-mentioned documents any other document is necessary to process the application for NOC/Sale Permission, the petitioners as applicants will make endeavour to submit those documents if an information to that effect is communicated to them. 10. Having regard to the submissions made by the learned counsel for the parties and considering the fact that the applications of the petitioners has not been processed further for the reason of incomplete filling up of the application form and non-submission of the afore-mentioned documents, this Court is of the considered view that instead of keeping this writ petition pending, the writ petition can be disposed of by providing an opportunity to the petitioners to fill up the required columns in the application form wherever it is required, and to submit the afore-mentioned documents before the respondent no. 2 within a reasonable period of time so that the application of the petitioners for NOC/Sale Permission can be processed for to the logical conclusion by the respondent no. Page No.# 6/7 2 strictly in terms of Section 21A of the Registration Act, as amended. It is ordered accordingly. 11. For the purpose of filling up the application form completely, the petitioners shall appear at the office of the respondent no. 2 within a period of one month from today and if the afore-mentioned documents, mentioned in paragraph 7 above, are available with the petitioners, then all such documents shall be submitted at that time. In the event the afore-mentioned documents are not available presently with the petitioners and some more time period is required to obtain those documents, then the petitioners shall inform in writing to the respondent no. 2 for extension of time period to enable them to submit those documents. The petitioners shall also submit a certified copy of this Order at the office of the respondent no. 2 at the time of their appearance. If the petitioners fulfill all the requirements then the respondent no. 2 shall proceed to give consideration to the application in terms of Section 21A of the Registration Act within the time period prescribed therein. In the Notification dated 09.09.2025 of the Revenue and Disaster management Department, Government of Assam, the time period to process the application is same as the time period prescribed in Section 21A of the Registration Act. The respondent no. 2 shall, therefore, also complete all the formalities mentioned in the Standard Operating Procedure [SOP], notified by the Notification dated 09.09.2025 within such prescribed time period. 12. This order disposes of the writ petition. 13. The Office Letter no. SCLR.1/Court/2020/32 dated 22.06.2025 placed by Page No.# 7/7 Mr. Das is to be kept as part of the case record by marking it as Document-‘X’. JUDGE Comparing Assistant