K MOHANDAS NAYAK Vs. KUMBALA GRAMA PANCHAYAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioners are aggrieved by the insistence by the respondent Panchayat to execute an agreement on stamp paper by calculating the amount of stamp duty at five per cent of the total amount of rent for the period of three years. Case of the petitioners is that they are conducting business for several years and they have been called upon as part of renewal of the licences, to execute agreement on stamp paper at five per cent for the entire period of the licence. According to them, they are licensees and, therefore, they contend that they need not execute agreement for the exorbitant amount demanded by the Panchayat. Instead, they would contend that the stamp paper need only be for Rs. 50/ -. Alternatively, it is their case that even if it is a lease, the demand made by the Panchayat is unsustainable, in view of Article 33 of the Schedule to the kerala Stamp Act. Article 33 of the Schedule in so far as it is pertinent, is extracted below :

(2.) Learned counsel for the petitioners would point out that proceeding on the basis that it is a lease, as the lease is for a period of less than five years, the provision which is applicable is Clause (2) already extracted. He would submit that the petitioners are liable to pay only duty at five per cent for the amount or the value of the average annual rent received. Per contra, it is the case of the respondent Panchayat that as the lease is for a period of three years, five per cent is to be calculated on the rent payable for the entire period of three years and it is not sufficient if the annual rent alone is reckoned for computation of the stamp duty payable.

(3.) Clause (1) of Section 33 deals with the lease which is for a term of less than one year. Both, in respect of Clauses (1) and (2) , the duty payable is as in the case of a bottomry bond.