TRILOCHAN SINGH Vs. BOARD OF REVENUE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this petition under Art. 227 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner who is a transferee of the lands, transferred by a document of sale (Annexure P/1) for consideration of Rupees 20,500/- executed on 13-6-1981, has challenged the order of the Board of Revenue (Annexure P/19), passed on 4-2-1986 in Appeal No. 27-V-85, whereby the appeal of the petitioner under S. 47A(5) of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899, for short, the 'Act', against the order of the Commissioner, Bastar Division, Jagdalpur's order dated 23-5-1985, passed in Appeal No. 44A-3/8-84, has been dismissed as not competent for want of verification of the foot of the memorandum of appeal.

(2.) Fox the purpose of this petition, it would be appropriate to state that an area of 34.66 acres known as Aam Bagia, situated at the bank of river Indravati, in the township of Jagdalpur, was transferred by the respondent No. 6 Smt. Vedvati, the wife of Maharaj Pravirchandra Bhanjdeo of Jagdalpur, by registered sale-deed dated 13-6-1981 (Annexure P/1) for a consideration of Rs. 22,500/-. The Sub-Registrar after registering the instrument having reason to believe that the market value of the property which is the subject-matter of the instrument has not been truly set forth, referred the instrument to the Collector for determination of market value of such property as in his opinion market value of the subject-matter was Rs. 1,36,000/- and was liable to the stamp duty to the extent of Rs. 12,920/-. The document being deficit of Rs. 10,780/- because of the under-valuation, the deficit was to be recovered.

(3.) This reference by the Sub-Registrar was made under S. 47A(1) of the Act read with R. 4 of the M.P. Prevention of Undervaluation of Instrument Rules, 1975, framed under S. 75 of the Act read with S. 47A for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of S. 47A of the Act, for short, the 'Rules of 1975'.