Judgment :

A.K. SIKRI, J.- Leave granted.

2. Eleven agreements for sale were executed in favour of the petitioner herein. In each of these agreements a part of land comprising area 0.385 ha, falling in Khasra No. 25 situated in Village Mahua Kheda, Tehsil Kashipur, Udham Singh Nagar, Uttarakhand was sought to be purchased by the petitioner. The petitioner had also paid earnest money of varying amounts against the total consideration which was agreed to in each of the agreements. For example, in one agreement dated 4-12-2007, total consideration mentioned was Rs. 24,70,000 and at the time of signing the agreement for sale, an advance amount of Rs 6,15,000 was paid. A sum of Rs. 10,000 was paid as stamp duty on this deed of agreement of sale. In a similar manner, other 10 agreements were also presented for registration, paying a sum of Rs. 10,000 as stamp duty on each of them.

3. The Deputy Registrar concerned impounded all these documents as he felt that the documents were not sufficiently stamped. Matter was referred by him to the Assistant Commissioner (Stamp and Registration) for adjudication of proper stamp duty and to recover deficit stamp duty from the petitioner. Notices were