Dear Editor,
Kindly permit me to offer a brief response to two recent letters written by Mr Leon Rockcliffe and Mr Christopher Ram, respectively, in which they sought to address the issue of the legality of the appointment of Ms Rosalie Robertson as the new Registrar of Lands (‘Government should urgently amend the Land Registry Act’ SN, August 15; ‘A Registrar of Lands has been appointed without any amendment to the Land Registry Act’ SN, August 16).
While matters of this nature are better addressed in legal discussions among lawyers rather than by way of letter writing to the press, I felt compelled to offer my views since, like many lawyers, I share their indignation at how the Land Registry was functioning under the previous Registrar of Lands.
A reading of Section 7 of the Land Registry Act does not prohibit the appointment of Ms Rosalie Robertson as the Registrar of Lands unless an amendment is sought. Section 7 simply states that there shall be a Registrar of Lands and a Deputy Registrar of Lands who shall be the persons for the time being holding the office of the Registrar of Deeds and Deputy Registrar of Deeds, respectively.
My understanding of the section is that since at the said time when the legislation was enacted the Land Registration system was a novel one, Parliament must have intended to have the Registrar of Deeds, an already existent personnel to perform the functions of the Registrar of Lands until a replacement can be made in the capacity of a Registrar of Lands.
One ought to observe the peculiar use of the operative words ‘for the time being,’ the purpose of the legislation is to have, at some point in time, a Registrar of Lands. Parliament could not have intended that for this to be done then, there ought to be an amendment to the very section which creates the office of a Registrar of Lands, so that a Registrar of Lands can be appointed. This naturally leads to an absurdity. In the circumstances I am of the opinion that the appointment of Ms Rosalie Robertson does not fall foul of Section 7 of the Land Registry Act.
Yours faithfully,
R N Poonai
Attorney-at-law
