2024 (9) TMI 303
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.... suit schedule property as part performance under the agreement of sale dated 04.11.1996. An agreement of sale coupled with possession is deemed to be a conveyance warranting payment of ad valorem stamp duty. Admittedly, the suit agreement is written on stamp papers worth Rs.200/-. Article 5(e)(i) of the Schedule of the Act, read with amended Stamp Act No. 8 of 1995, prescribes the duty as payable on a conveyance. The appellant has not produced the original agreement in O.S. No. 610 of 2015. The explanation offered by him is that the agreement is filed in a connected matter between the parties. From the order dated 14.08.2015, it appears that the appellant expressed readiness to pay duty and penalty on the certified copy of the agreement of....
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....appellant argued that the deficit stamp duty should alone be collected at the time of the passing of the judgment and decree, and the levy of penalty is illegal and erroneous. The High Court, through the order impugned in the appeal, rejected. 4. The instant Civil Appeal has been heard with Civil Appeal Nos. 10039-40 of 2024 (@ S.L.P. (C) No. 7249-50 of 2022). After perusing the record, we are of the view that the circumstances in which the decision to pay stamp duty and penalty is rendered are different from the tagged civil appeals. Advocate for the appellant contends that the document should have been sent to the District Registrar to determine deficit stamp duty and penalty under Section 39 of the Act, instead of the court deciding u....
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.... be exercised by a party. 21.2. Section 34 of the Act is titled instruments not duly stamped inadmissible in evidence. This provision bars the admission of an instrument in evidence unless adequate stamp duty and the penalty are paid. Every person so authorised to collect deficit stamp duty and penalty has no discretion except to levy and collect ten-times the penalty of deficit stamp duty. 21.3. Section 35 of the Act is titled admission of instrument where not to be questioned. Section 35 prohibits questioning the admission of an insufficiently stamped instrument in evidence. 21.4. Section 37 of the Act is titled instruments impounded, how dealt with. This Section arises when the party pays the deficit duty and p....
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....ompliant with the checklist of the Act. The finality is subject to the just exceptions envisaged by the Act addressing different contingencies. 21.8. The scheme does not prohibit a party to a document to first invoke directly the jurisdiction of the District Registrar and present the instrument before Court/Every Person after complying with the requirement of duty and penalty. In such an event, the available objection under Sections 33 or 34 of the Act is erased beforehand. The quantum of penalty is primarily between the authority/court and the opposing party has little role to discharge. 6. Having regard to the detailed consideration, the twin points on the collection of deficit stamp duty and the penalty are substantially cove....
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