Prem Chand And Others vs State Of Punjab on 11 November, 2009

           IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA
                         AT CHANDIGARH


                   Civil Writ Petition No.17218 of 2009
                   Date of decision: 11th November, 2009

Prem Chand and others
                                                                ... Petitioners
                                   Versus
State of Punjab
                                                               ... Respondent


CORAM:      HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA

Present:    Mr. R.K. Chopra, Sr. Advocate with
            Ms. Maninder, Advocate for the petitioner.


KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA, J. (ORAL)

Petitioners are Stamp Vendors belonging to District Bathinda.

They have sought quashing of Annexure P-7, whereby the Government has

issued instructions that stamp duty amounting to Rs.20,000/- or more in a

single transaction shall be deposited by the Vendee/ Vendor, as the case

may be, at the branches of State Bank of India where Government receipts

are accepted.

The grievance set out by the petitioners is that such

instructions are contrary to Rule 28 (ix) and (x) of The Punjab Stamp Rules,

1934. The same read as under:

“28.(ix) The vendor shall not sell any stamp
exceeding (Rs.50,000) in value in case of Court fee and
Rs.50,000 in case of non-judicial stamps. When application is
made to the vendor for stamps exceeding Rs.50,000/- in value
in case of Court-fee and Rs.50,000/- in case of non-judicial
stamps, he shall refer the applicant to the ex officio vendor.

(x) If application is made to the vendor for non-
judicial stamp of a value not exceeding Rs.50,000/- required in
the form of an impressed sheet to denote the duty on any
document, the licensed or specially licensed vendor shall, if it
Civil Writ Petition No. 17218 of 2009 2

is available in his stock, supply the applicant with a stamp of
the value required, and if a stamp of such value is not
available in his stock he may supply in lieu of it the smallest
number of impressed sheets available in his stock by which
the duty required can be made up. The licensee shall not
attempt to make up stamp duty exceeding Rs.50,000/- by the
issue of two or more stamps of lower denominations.”

A bare perusal of the rules noticed above shows that Stamp

Vendor will not sell stamps exceeding Rs.50,000/-. It does not say that all

stamps below Rs.50,000/- are only to be sold through the Stamp Vendor.

Instructions (Annexure P-7) are in consonance with the needs of the

present time to provide convenience/facility to the end user.

Hence, no interference is warranted and the present writ

petition is dismissed.

[KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA]
JUDGE

November 11, 2009
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