GOURANG NAIK Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is a person belonging to Scheduled Caste and has obtained permission under Section 22 of the O.L.R. Act to sell a piece of homstead land situated in Bhubaneswar Master Plan Area to one Smt. Labanyabati Samantray and the said permission has been accorded to him by the Revenue Officer in Revenue Miscellaneous Case No. 450/88 by order dated 6-4-1989.

(2.) Having found that there is already a Government executive instruction issued from the Government under the signature of the Additional Secretary to Government to the Inspector General of Registration, Orissa, Cuttack fixing the market value of the land in Bhubaneswar Master Plan area and ensuring the market value fixed for the revenue villages under Bhubaneswar Market area and Town Planning to be set forth in instrument and directing the impounding of the said instrument of transfer by the registering officers by reference to Collector under Section 47(A) of the Indian Stamp Act even if the said market value is not shown on the document, has challenged the same with a prayer to quash the said notification of the Government dated 17-2-1990 as per Annexure-1 of this present writ application and with a further prayer that the valuation indicated in the permission certificate of the Revenue Officer under Section 22 of the O.L.R. Act be accepted as the valuation of the document and stamp duty shall be paid only on that valuation.

(3.) The Opposite Party Nos. 1 and 2, namely the State of Orissa, represented by the Secretary, Revenue and Excise Department and Inspector General of Registration, Orissa have jointly filed a counter to the writ application. In the counter, they have justified the instruction contained in Annexure-1 and have stated that it was within the scope, ambit and jurisdiction of the Government of Orissa to issue such instruction which would help the registering authority to know the exact valuation of the land in Master Plan area, Bhubaneswar. By this method, people who are showing low valuation and thereby evading stamp duty on registration should be checked.