RAM LAKHAN Vs. COMMISSIONER, KANPUR DIVISION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By means of the present writ petition, the petitioners are challenging the decision of the stamp authorities in impounding the document namely the agreement for sale and imposition of stamp duty treating it as a conveyance under Article 23 of Schedule 1-B of Indian Stamp Act, as applicable in the State of U.P.

(2.) The contention of the petitioner is that the document in question is an agreement for sale which contemplates completion of transaction in favour of the petitioner only after execution of another instrument i.e. sale deed. The contention is that there is no averment in the agreement regarding delivery of possession either prior to the execution of the agreement for sale or at the time of its execution. There is no assertion in the agreement regarding delivery of possession without execution of the sale deed. The respondent authorities have erred in treating the said document as Conveyance within the meaning of Article 23 of Schedule 1-B of the Indian Stamp Act.

(3.) Learned Standing counsel on the other hand submits that as the report of Tehsil has been obtained to verify the factum of possession and it was found that the petitioner was given actual physical possession of the land, subject matter of the agreement, the order of impounding the document and imposition of stamp duty by determining the market value passed by the Collector, Stamps cannot be faulted with.