SANKA VENUGOPALA SWAMY Vs. CHINNARI SATYANARAYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The 1st respondent instituted O.S. No. 2 of 1979, on the file of the Court of Subordinate Judge, Parvathipuram, for recovery of a sum of Rs. 30,000 and interest thereon, on the basis of a document dated 5th September, 1975. The 1st respondent called the suit document a 'bond'. At the same time, he filed the document before the Assistant Collector, Parvathipuram, to redeem it from the penal clauses of the Stamp Art, offering to pay the stamp duty and penalty. On coming to know of the same, the petitioner appeared before the Assistant Collector and contended that the suit document is not a bond, but on unstamped promissory note and that, therefore, the application filed by the respondent must be rejected. The Assistant Collector (2nd respondent herein) overruled the contentions of the petitioner, and levied a stamp duty of Rs. 900 and penalty of Rs. 100 treating the suit document as a 'bond'. Against that order, the petitioner preferred a revision before the Commissioner, Survey, Settlement and Land Record, Hyderabad who dismissed the revision under an elaborate order, upholding the view taken by the Assistant Collector.

(2.) In this writ petition directed against the judgment and order of the Commissioner confirming the order of the Assistant Collector, the main contention urged is that the document in question is a 'promissory note' and, being unstamped, is inadmissible in evidence and that respondents 2 and 3 were in error in treating it as a bond, and in seeking to validate it.

(3.) The document is in Telugu language and, as translated, it runs as follows:-