A sale deed of cinema hall and machinery is chargeable with a stamp duty under Art. 20 of Sch. 1-A of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899, and also liable for surcharge under Section 120 of the Andhra Pradesh Municipalities Act, 1965.

( 1 ) THE document marked P-2 executed in 1968 was presented for registration before the Sub-Registrar , Bhimavaram on 7. 3. 1968 by the executants. The document calls itself a sale deed. It is drawn up on stamp papers of value of Rs. 6,525. 00. The Sub-Registrar, Bhimavaram, before whom this document was presented for registration entertained a doubt about the exact stamp duty payable on the document. He therefore made a reference to the District Registrar of Assurances, Eluru. The district registers held that the said document to be a sale for consideration of Rs. 1,44,444. 44 chargeable with a stamp duty of Rs. 6,525. 00 under Art. 20 of Schedule 1-A of the Indian Stamp act. He was also of the opinion that a transfer duty of Rs. 7,222. 20 is payable under Section 120 of the Andhra Pradesh Municipalities act, 1965.

( 2 ) AS the document was insufficiently stamped it was impounded by the Sub-Registrar and the District Registrar, Eluru, as Collector levied deficit stamp duty of Rs. 7,199. 70 and a penalty of Rs. 50. 30.

( 3 ) AGGRIEVED by that order Kottu Kanna rao, the purchaser preferred a revision petition to the Board of Revenue under section 56 (1) of the Indian Stamp act, 1899.

( 4 ) THE Board of Revenue acting as the Chief Controlling Revenue authority has made this reference under Section 57. The following question is posed in the reference :" Whether the document No. P-2 of 1962 pending registration before the Sub-Registrars office, Bhimavaram is one of cinema hall and machinery chargeable with surcharge under Section 120 of the A. P. Municipalities Act, 1965 in addition to stamp duty payable under Article 20 of the Schedule 1-A, of the Indian Stamp act, 1899, even though it does not involve the transfer of any right or interest in the land. or Whether the document is a simple conveyance chargeable with a stamp duty under article 20 of schedule 1-A of Indian Stamp Act, 1899. "

( 5 ) BEFORE we deal with the said question a few more facts must be mentioned. The document purports to sell a cinema hall together with machinery for a sum of Rs. 1,44,444. 44. the site on which the said cinema hall is constructed and the machinery fixed belongs to a third person. It was obtained on lease and the cinema theater was constructed thereon and the machinery was also fixed. The Sale deed merely sells the superstructure embodied in the site as well as the machinery fixed therein for the sum mentioned above. The construction on the site is stated to be Rs, 62,000 and the value of the machinery to be rupees 82,444. 44. apart from selling outright the cinema hall as well as the machinery relating thereto the sale deed contains what is stated below.

( 6 ) THE original sale deed is in Telugu. The following is the translation of the relevant passage given to us by the learned Government pleader, as all of us thought that the translation of the said passage which appeared in the paper book is not correct. "we shall see that the rent chit Executed jointly by the said Sri Tenneti Krishna Murthy Garu, the owner of the site on which the theatre was constructed , and you for a period of 25 years is also registered and delivered. "

( 7 ) AT one stage the reference order stated that the point for consideration is " whether the transfer of lease which the purchasers of the cinema hall and machinery have to obtain from persons other than the executants is only a consequential action of the main transaction of sale of machinery and cinema hall in which case the transfer duty under Section 120 of the A. P. Municipalities act, 1965 has also to be levied in addition to the duty under Article 20 of Schedule 1-A of the Stamp act. "

( 8 ) BUT it would immediately be seen that the question actually referred for our determination does not contain anything in reference to the site on which the theatre was constructed. In order to get it out of way however we would dispose it of. Admittedly the site does not belong to the executants of the sale deed