VIDARBHA ADVOCATES ASSOCIATION Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) RULE returnable forthwith. Shri S. Chawda, Assistant Government Pleader, waives service on behalf of the respondents. By consent, heard the matter finally at this stage.

(2.) UNDER the cover of public interest litigation, the Vidarbha Advocates Association, a society registered under the societies registration Act, and one P. N. Kothari, advocate, have filed this writ petition, high-lighting non-availability of the judicial and non-judicial stamps of the small denominations by the respondents and thereby seeking a direction that an appropriate writ, order or direction be issued to the respondents to perform their statutory duty and obligation to procure and make available the small denomination judicial and non-judicial stamps i. e. general stamps below the denomination of Rs. 50/- from Rs. 5/- onwards, and particularly the court-fee stamps of the denomination of 20 n. P. , 75 N. P. , Re. 1/-, Rs. 1. 25, Rs. 3/-, Rs. 4/-as well as the stamps of the denomination from Rs. 5/- to Rs. 50/ -. The petitioners have refered to various provisions of the Bombay Court Fees Act, 1959 and the Bombay Stamp Act, 1958, and submitted that for number of items detailed under the said acts, court-fee stamps and stamp duty of the small denomination are required to be paid, and due to non-availability of the court-fee stamps and other judicial and non-judicial stamps of small denomination, the litigants and consumers have to spend much more amount on higher denomination of judicial and non-judicial stamps.

(3.) THE respondent Nos. 1 and 2 filed their written submissions on 27-4-1994 and respondent no. 3 also filed the written submission to-day. The crux of the defence is that every step is taken by the respondent No. 3 to meet the requirement of various judicial and non-judicial stamps and for that purpose the indent is sent by the respondent No. 3 to the Central stamp Depot, nasik, for the supply of stamps, which is based on average demand and sale of the relevant stamps during the last quarter. The respondent No. 3 along with the additional submission has also placed on record the statement for the period from april 1995 to September 1996, showing the submission of the indent and quarterly approval to the indent by the Deputy Controller of stamps, nasik (Annexure R-3-A), the position showing the demand and supply of court fee in sheets labels (small denomination of stamps of 25 paise, 50 paise, 65 paise, 75 paise, Re. 1/-, Rs. 2/-, Rs. 4/-, Rs. 5/- and Rs. 10/-) (Annexure R-3-B), the statement showing the general stamps obtained from neighbouring District Treasuries and Sub-Treasuries (Annexure R-3-C), as and when indented, the statement showing the stamp boxes brought by the special police van with police escort (Annexure R-3-D), and the position showing the balance of stamps as on 22-4-1995 (Annexure R-3-E ).