MURAT VINIYOG LTD Vs. REGISTRAR OF ASSURANCES

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this writ petition a pure question of law has been raised. The question that calls for consideration by the Court is whether in respect of sale of property by execution of a registered document, the confirming party, namely, the respondent 3 who originally entered into an agreement with the respondents 4 and 5 whereby the respondents 4 and 5 agreed to sell the property either to the respondent 3 or to his nominee, was required to produce an Income-tax Clearance Certificate under S.230A of the Income-tax Act before the Registrar of Assurance as a condition before the registration of the sale deed by which the owners of the property namely, the Respondents 4 and 5 transferred the property to the petitioner.

(2.) The fact of this case in short is that the Respondents 4 and 5 were the owners of the premises No. 15, Raja Santosh Road, Calcutta and on 14th Nov. 1986 the Respondents 4 and 5 agreed to sell for valuable consideration the rear portion of the said premises measuring about 10 cottahs of land to the Respondent 3, or his nominee as the case may be and received a sum of Rs. 10 lakhs as earnest money. The said agreement for sale was filed before the Income-tax Authority as well as before the competent authority under the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, 1976. The Income-tax Authority issued 'No Objection Certificate' in favour of the Respondents 4 and 5 for the sale of the said property. Necessary permission was also obtained from the competent authority under the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, 1976 by the owners of the property namely, the Respondents 4 and 5, the Respondent 3 nominated the writ petitioner as the purchaser and the said nomination was duly accepted by the Vendors namely the respondents 4 and 5. The Respondents 4 and 5 agreed to convey the said property to the writ petitioner and a formal Deed of Conveyance was executed by the Respondents 4 and 5 in favour of the writ petitioner wherein the Respondent 3 added as a mere confirming party inasmuch as the said sale was made pursuant to an agreement for sale entered into by and between the Respondent 3 and the Respondents 4 and 5 whereby the Respondents 4 and 5 agreed to sell the said property either to the Respondent 3 or to his nominee. The Respondent 3 was shown as a mere confirming party in the said Deed of Sale in order to avoid any future controversy. The consideration money of 40 lakhs was paid by the petitioner to the Respondents 4 and 5 out of which a sum of Rs. 10,000/- has been paid to the Respondent 3 by way of reimbursement of the earnest money paid by him to the Respondents 4 and 5 at the time of execution of the agreement for sale. The requisite stamp duty of Rs. 7,93,650/- was affixed to the Deed of Conveyance and that the said Deed of Conveyance was presented before the Respondent 1, Registrar of Assurances, Calcutta on 5th of August, 1987.

(3.) The Registrar of Assurances, Calcutta went to the residence of the Respondents 4 and 5 on Commission, upon payment of requisite commission fee for the purpose of execution of the said document and in the presence of the Respondent 1, the Vendors, namely the Respondents 4 and 5 and the confirming party, namely, the Respondent 3 duly signed the said Deed of Conveyance at the residence of the Respondents 4 and 5 and the original Deed of Conveyance was handed over to the Registrar of Assurances, Calcutta and the Registrar of Assurances, Calcutta took the said Deed of Conveyance for registration under the law. Upon payment of the consideration money as mentioned in the said Deed of Conveyance, the vendors namely the Respondents 4 and 5 handed over vacant possession of the aforesaid property to the writ petitioner. The Vendors, namely the Respondents 4 and 5 obtained 'No objection Certificate' from the I.-T. Authority as provided under S.230A of the I.-T. Act, 1961 and filed the same before the Registrar of Assurances, Calcutta along with the written permission granted by the Urban Land Ceiling Authorities at the time of execution of the said Deed of Conveyance on commission.