CIVIL WRIT PETITION NO. 19264 OF 2008 -1-
IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT
CHANDIGARH.
DATE OF DECISION: July 22, 2009.
Parties Name
Nirmaljit Kaur
..PETITIONER
VERSUS
State of Punjab and others
...RESPONDENTS
CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE JASBIR SINGH
PRESENT: Mr. H.S.Dhindsa,
Advocate, for the petitioner.
Mr. Anil Sharma, Addl. A.G., Punjab;
JASBIR SINGH, J. (oral)
Order.
This order will dispose of two Civil Writ Petitions bearing No.
19264 and 19310, both of the year 2008, as common question of facts and
law is involved in both these cases. For facility of dictating judgment, facts
are being taken from CWP No. 19264 of 2008.
Surjit Singh, father-in-law of the petitioner, transferred land in
her favour vide transfer deed dated February 24, 2002, against Vasika No.
16052. It is necessary to mention here that husband of the petitioner,
namely, Harmeet Singh died in the year 2000. Transferred land, otherwise,
if he was alive, would have fallen to his share. The Sub Registrar
CIVIL WRIT PETITION NO. 19264 OF 2008 -2-
impounded the transfer deed by invoking the provisions of Section 47-A of
the Stamp Duty Act, 1899 (for short the Act) by stating that stamp duty paid
was deficient.
Upon notice, petitioner put in appearance and stated that she is
class I legal heir of the transferor and as per provisions of Notification
bearing No. S.O. 66/CA.2/1899/S-9/2001(P-3), she is exempt from payment
of stamp duty. Her contention was not accepted and an amount of Rs.
1,72,560/- was ordered to be recovered from her, towards deficient stamp
duty fixed on the transfer deed. In order passed by the Collector on 11th
January, 2006, it was stated that she cannot get benefit of the exemption as
she does not fall in class-I category of the legal heirs of the transferor, i.e.,
father-in-law of the petitioner. She went in appeal, which was also
dismissed on the ground that the exemption is granted only to the blood
relations, regarding agricultural land. Hence this writ petition.
After hearing counsel for the parties, this Court feels that this
writ petition deserves to be allowed. The State of Punjab by issuing
Notification in the year 2001, as per provisions of Section 9 of the Act,
exempted stamp duty chargeable in case of transaction of transfer, by an
owner of agricultural land and residential property, to his/her class I heirs,
as defined in Section 8 and Schedule 1 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956.
To decide this matter, it is necessary to note down the provisions of Section
8 of the Hindu Succession Act, which reads thus:
“8. General rules of succession in the case of males.- The
property of a male Hindu dying intestate shall devolve
according to the provisions of this Chapter-
(a) firstly, upon the heirs, being the relatives specified in class I
CIVIL WRIT PETITION NO. 19264 OF 2008 -3-of the Schedule;
(b) secondly, if there is no heir of class I, then upon the heirs,
being the relatives specified in class II of the Schedule;
© thirdly, if there is no heir of any of the two classes, then upon
the agnates of the deceased; and
(d)lastly, if there is no agnate, then upon the cognates of the
deceased.”
This provision lays down the norms for inheriting property of a
male Hindu dying intestate. In the first instance, the property shall devolve
upon the heirs as specified in class I of the Schedule. If no heir of class I is
available, then the property will devolve upon legal heirs as specified in
class II of the Schedule. If no heir of any of the two classes is available,
then the property will devolve upon ignates of the deceased, in their
absence, upon cognates of the deceased. If we look into the Schedule
attached with Hindu Succession Act, widow of a pre-deceased son, is shown
in the category of class I heir. Their Lordships of the Supreme Court in
Sadhu Singh v. Gurdwara Sahib Narike and others, AIR 2006 Supreme
Court 3282, in paragraph 12 of the judgment has observed as under:
“12. When a male Hindu dies possessed of property after the
coming into force of the Hindu Succession Act, his heirs as per
the schedule, take it in terms of Section 8 of the Act. The heir
or heirs take it absolutely. There is no question of any limited
estate descending to the heir or heirs. Therefore, when a male
Hindu dies after 17.6.1956 leaving his widow as his sole heir,
she gets the property as class I heir and there is no limit to her
CIVIL WRIT PETITION NO. 19264 OF 2008 -4-estate or limitation on her title. In such circumstances, Section
14(1) of the Act would not apply on succession after the Act, or
it has no scope for operation. On, in other words, even without
calling in aid Section 14(1) of the Act, she gets an absolute
estate.”
In the present case, it is not in dispute that husband of the
petitioner had died in the year 2000, and as per provisions, referred to
above, the petitioner will fall in the category of class I legal heirs being
widowed daughter-in-law of predeceased son of the transferor. If that is so,
findings given to the contrary by the Collector and the Commissioner, in the
orders under challenge, are not correct. Even in notification, issued on
November 3, 2006, widow of a predeceased son has been specifically
mentioned as a person entitled to get exemption from provisions of the Act.
No notification to the contrary has been shown to this Court.
In view of above, these writ petitions are allowed and the
impugned orders dated July 16, 2008 (P-5) and January 11, 2006 (P-2) are
set aside.
July 22, 2009 ( Jasbir Singh ) DKC Judge
