PANKAJ RAMLAKHAN DUBEY Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Admit. Taken up for final hearing by consent.

(2.) His is a letters patent appeal against the judgment of the learned Single Judge holding that the document in question is not a lease and, therefore, the notification dated 12.6.2007 which exempts leases from pay-ment of stamp duty under the Bombay Stamps Act is not applicable.

(3.) The Maharashtra Industrial Develop-ment Corporation had allotted Plot No. C43/2 to Smt. Nitu Vinod Dubey, trading as Pro-prietor of M/s. Yashoda Milk & Allied Prod-ucts. The allotment was made by an agree-ment to lease the plot to the said Smt. Nitu Dubey. The lease-deed was to be executed upon fulfilment of certain conditions by the allottee. The allottee, however, agreed to transfer the rights under the agreement to lease to the appellant/petitioner Pankaj Ramlakhan Dubey. The MIDC signed the said agreement as a consenting party and Clause of that agreement reads as follows : "As soon as the Executive Engineer has certi-fied that the factory building and works on the plot described in the First Schedule to the Principal Agreement have been erected and if the parties of the Third Part shall have observed all the stipulations and condition contained in the Principal Agreement the Grantor will grant and the parties of the Third Part will accept a Lease (which shall be executed in duplicate of the said plot described in the First Schedule to the Principal Agree ment and the factory building erected there