K. V. VENKATASUBBAIAH Vs. RAJAPPA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In a suit filed for declaration that the two Sale Agreements dated 30.03.1996 (or any other date), executed in favour of first defendant or any other defendants were concocted documents, the defendants filed a memo stating that the said Agreements were insufficiently stamped and offered to pay deficit stamp duty of Rs.25/- and 35/- along with ten times penalty of Rs.250/- and Rs.350/- respectively.

(2.) To the said memo, the plaintiff filed objections contending that the Agreements of Sale indicated that possession has been handed over and therefore, stamp duty was required to be calculated on the market value of the property and the calculation of stamp duty sought to be made by the defendants on the premise that possession was not delivered under the agreements of sale, was wholly incorrect.

(3.) The Trial Court, by the impugned order, came to the conclusion that under the Agreement of Sale dated 30.03.1996 which had been executed in favour of the first defendant and Rajappa, 30 guntas of land in Sy.No.23/19 and 20 guntas of land in Sy.No.8/5 were agreed to be sold for valuable consideration of Rs.45,000/- and Rs.35,000/- respectively. The Trial Court noticed that under the Agreements of Sale, the entire sale consideration was paid and possession was also stated to be delivered under the Agreements and therefore, the assertion of the defendants that only Rs.25/- and Rs.35/- was the deficit stamp duty could not be accepted. The Trial Court came to the conclusion that the proper stamp duty payable on the Agreement of Sale was Rs.2,700/- and Rs.2,100/- respectively. The Trial Court also came to the conclusion that ten times of the said amount i.e., Rs.29,700/- and Rs.23,100/- was required to be paid as penalty. In all, the Trial Court directed the defendants to pay stamp duty and penalty of Rs.52,800/-.