R.K. Merathia, J.
1. Heard the parties.
2. The contention of petitioner's association is that its members, who have been working as deed writers for more than ten years, should be granted license without appearing in the examination, in terms of Section 68B(2) of the Registration (Bihar Amendment) Act, 1991 (the Act for short) and Rule 7 of Bihar Deed Writers Licensing Rules, 1996 (the Rule for short).
3. To examine such contention, it is necessary to look into the relevant provisions as under:
68-A Prohibition of unlicensed person. (1) No parson who is not licensed us provided under Section 68-B, shall engage himself in the profession of document-writer and document drawn up and signed by a person who does not hold a license shall not be accepted for registration by the Registration Officers;
68.B Grant of license to document- writers.-
(1) The Registrar of District or any other officer authorized by him in this behalf may grant a license, to be valid in one sub-district or one district in the prescribed form to document-writer or apprentice to document writer on an application made in this behalf on such term and conditions as man be prescribed by the Inspector General of Registration in this behalf after conducting a written test as may be prescribed.
2. A license may be granted to any person who has been in the profession of the document-writer for at least ten years prior to the date of the registration (Bihar Amendment) Ordinance, 1991 came into force, without requiring him to appear in the written test referred to in Sub-section (i), if the Registrar of a District or any other officer authorized by him in this behalf is satisfied that he is otherwise fit to take the profession of a document-writer.
4. Rule 3(a) of the rules reads as follows:
3.(a)Qualifications.-The following shall be qualifications for a deed writer.-
a. he is a citizen of India and has attained at least the age of 18 years.
b. he has passed the matriculation examination or any other equivalent recognized examination.
c. he has passed Deed writers licensing examination conducted under Rule :
Provided that a license may be granted to any person who has been in the profession of the documents writer for at least ten years prior to the date of the Registration (Bihar Amendment) Act, 1991 came into force, without requiring him to appear in the written test refereed to in Sub-section (1) if the Registrar of a District or any other officer authorized by him in this behalf is satisfied that he is otherwise fit to take the profession of a document writer.
d. he should be of good moral character.
e. he has the knowledge of regional language of the locality in addition to the knowledge of Hindi or English.
(emphasis supplied)
5. Rule 4 inter alia provides that an application for deed writers license shall be in Form A. Rule 5 provides about conducting the examination. Rule 6 provides that the licensing authority shall fix the number of licensed document writers for each subordinate registration office, keeping in view the requirements of the general public.
6. Rule 7 (1) and (2) reads as follows:
7 Issue of license.-(1) The licensing authority, on being satisfied that the applicant:
(a) has passed the prescribed examination;
(b) is not disqualified under rule for the grant of a license;
(c) is of good moral character, or
(d) is otherwise fit to be given a license may grant a document writers license in Form 'C or apprentice license in Form 'D' as the case may be.
(2) The licensing authority may grant a license to any person who is in the profession for the last 10 years on the date of coming into force of these rules without requiring him to appear in the text examination....
(emphasis supplied).
7. It appears that as per Section 68B(2), exemption from appearing in examination may be given to the persons working as document writers for 10 years or more, prior to the coming into force of the Registration (Bihar Amendment) Ordinance, 1991, if the competent authority is satisfied that he is otherwise fit to work as such. Similarly, under Rule 7 of the rules, exemption can be granted to the persons working for 10 years from the date of coming into force of the rules (i.e. w.e.f. 13.3.1997) without requiring him to appear in the examination. Thus, it appears that such exemptions were provided as one time measure in 1991 and in 1997. There is no provision in the Act or the rules that the persons who have worked as deed writers for 10 years can be exempted from appearing in the examination. Petitioner's contention is that Section 68B(2) and Rule 7(2) should be interpreted to mean that a person who worked for 10 years is exempted from appearing in the examination. If such contention is accepted, it will amount to inserting a provision in the Act/Rules, which is not possible by the Court. Moreover, from the scheme of the Act/Rules, it appears that deed writer's license cannot be claimed us a matter of right. The licensing authority has to fix the number of licensed document writers for each subordinate registration office keeping in view the requirements of the general public. Even under Section 68B(2) and Rule 7(2), discretion was given to the licensing authorities to exempt person, who worked for more than 10 years upto the cut off dates, from appearing in the examination, if they were satisfied that such person is otherwise fit for such the work. Moreover, there is some purpose and object behind such provision about examination.
Taking into consideration the scheme of the Act and Rules, as noticed above, it is not possible to accept the contention of the petitioner that the person who worked for 10 years as deed writers, should be exempted from appearing in the examination. In the result, this writ petition is dismissed. However, no costs.