A revision under Section 61(1) of the Stamp Act should be placed before the Court to which appeals lie from the order of the first-mentioned Court or to the High Court.

( 1 ) WE have before us the matter of clarification sought by the office as to before whom the revision filed under Section 61 (1) of the Stamp Act should be placed for hearing.

( 2 ) THE facts in brief are that Sri Bhagat Ram undertook to construct a house at Himyatnagar on behalf of Sri P. V. Narayana for an estimated construction value of Rs. 17,500. 00. The contractor received Rs. 12,000. 00 and agreed to receive the balance of Rs. 5,500. 00 after completion of the construction. He drew up a receipt for Rupees 12,000/- in favour of the owner Sri P. V. Narayana on 21-2-1963 with the agreement referred to above. He also stated that he delivered the title deeds of his house situate at Beer Bhan Hyderabad as security for the advance.

( 3 ) THE said document is entitled "a receipt". It was filed before the I. Addl. Chief Judge , City Civil Court in O. P. 47/67. The Court acting under Section 35 of the Indian Stamp Act , found that the document was unstamped. He found that under Article 53 of Schedule I to the Indian Stamp Act, it requires a stamp of Rs. 0-10 ps. The Court therefore, levied a penalty of Re. 1/- under provisio (b) of Section 35 of the Indian Stamp Act. The said amount thus collected was remitted to the Government by challan dated 7-8-1971 and bank receipt of the same date. The Court also sent a copy of the document to the applicant under Section 30 (1) of the Indian Stamp Act.

( 4 ) THE Inspector General of Registration and Stamps , who happens to be the Collector under the Indian Stamps Act for the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad held the view that the document does not fall under the term receipt. He is also of the opinion that it does not fall under Art. 6 of Schedule 1-A of the Act viz. , agreement relating to deposit of title deeds as the advance received and the purpose for which the deposit of title deeds was made was not for repayment of the loan or debt. He therefore expressed the opinion that the document creates a right over specific property falling under the definition of "mortgage deed" as defined by Section 2 (17) of the Indian Stamps Act. He therefore opined that the document requires a stamp duty of Rs. 360. 00 under Article 35 (a) read with Art. 20 of Schedule 1-A of the Indian Stamp Act.

( 5 ) SINCE the High Court is the Court to which appeals lie from the Chief Judge, City Civil Court, Hyderabad and it is also a Court of reference , the applicant, that is to say the Collector , referred this application under Section 61 (1) of the Act.

( 6 ) THERE are three provisions under the Act which one has to bear in mind before the forum for such revision petitions is identified. Section 57 relates to a reference made by the Chief Controlling Revenue Authority. Section 57 (2) in such cases, expressly enjoins that every such reference shall be decided by not less than 3 Judges of the High Court to which it is referred. Section 60 is the second provision which relates to the reference made by any Court other than the Court mentioned in Section 57 which provides that if such Court feels doubt as to the amount of duty to be paid in respect of any instrument etc. , it may draw up a statement of case and refer it with its own opinion thereon for the decision of the High Court to which , if he were the Chief Controlling Revenue Authority, he would under Sec. 57 refer the same. Sub-section (2) of Section 60 then goes on to say that the High Court shall deal with the case as if it had been referred under Section 57. That would evidently mean that such a reference also , like a reference made under Section 57 has to be decided by not less than 3 Judges of the High Court.

( 7 ) WE then come to Section 61 , which is the third provision relevant for our purpose. This section does not deal with references , but deals with revisions. In the first part of Section 61 (1) it is stated that when any court in the exercise of its civil or revenue jurisdiction or any Criminal Court in any proceeding,