Commercial land valuation for stamp duty can follow actual use and access, even where land is separately described in the deed.

Land separately described as Plot-B was treated as commercial for stamp duty valuation because it functioned as the only access land for Plot-A, where a petrol pump was installed, and Plot-B abutted the State Highway. The sale deed's separate description did not displace that factual use, and the appellant produced no rebuttal material; on that basis, the Collector (Stamps), the Rajasthan Tax Board and the Single Judge had all treated the land as commercial, with no ground made out for interference.

---

---

Issues: Whether the land described as Plot-B was liable to be treated as commercial land for the purpose of stamp duty valuation under the Rajasthan Stamps Act, 1998, and whether the concurrent findings of the Collector (Stamps), the Rajasthan Tax Board and the Single Judge required interference.

Analysis: The instrument was impounded under Section 47A(1) of the Rajasthan Stamps Act, 1998 on the footing that the sale deed was deficiently stamped. The record showed that Plot-A, on which the petrol pump was installed, could be accessed only through Plot-B, and Plot-B abutted the State Highway. The appellant failed to produce documentary material to rebut the finding that Plot-B functioned as the access land for the commercial use of Plot-A. The separate description of the two plots in the sale deed did not, by itself, establish that Plot-B retained an agricultural character for stamp valuation purposes. The statutory authorities had, on the material before them, treated the land in question as commercial, and the Single Judge had affirmed that view.

Conclusion: Plot-B was rightly treated as commercial land for stamp duty purposes, and no ground for interference with the concurrent findings was made out.

Final Conclusion: The intra-court appeal failed and the impugned order was left undisturbed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the factual matrix shows that land described separately in a conveyance deed is integral to and exclusively provides access to an admittedly commercial use of adjoining land, the authorities may treat it as commercial for stamp valuation notwithstanding its separate description in the deed, absent rebuttal evidence to the contrary.

---