REVENUE DIVISIONAL OFFICER ADOOR Vs. THOMAS DANIEL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) As these writ appeals preferred by the State involve a common issue, they are taken up together for consideration and disposed by this common judgment. The issue that arises for consideration is whether a sale certificate, issued by a bank/revenue authority to a purchaser of immovable property, pursuant to a sale conducted at the instance of a bank/financial institution/court/revenue authority of the property of a revenue defaulter, will attract the levy of stamp duty under the Kerala Stamp Act, 1959?

(2.) The writ petitions, from which these appeals arise, were filed by various Banks/Financial Institutions/Auction purchasers who were informed that stamp duty would have to be paid on the sale certificates issued by/to them. It was the registering authority under the Registration Act, 1908 who informed them of this requirement, when the sale certificate in question was sent to the said authority for filing in Book No.1 as required in terms of Sec. 89(4) of the Registration Act. The writ court, by the judgments impugned in these appeals, allowed the writ petitions by holding that the sale certificates issued to auction purchasers were not instruments that attracted the levy of stamp duty and, further, that the obligation of the registering authority under Sec. 89(4) of the Registration Act was only to file a copy of the sale certificate in Book No.1 and he could not insist on a payment of stamp duty on the original of the document as a condition for discharging his statutory duty. It is against the said findings that the State is in appeal before us.

(3.) The submissions of Sri. Mohammed Rafiq, the learned Special Government Pleader (Taxes) appearing on behalf of the State, briefly stated, is as follows: