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R. RAGHUNANDAN RAO
N. S. Rama Devi – Appellant
Versus
V. Chitti Babu – Respondent
ORDER :
1. The petitioner herein had filed O.S. No. 181 of 2024 before the Senior Civil Judge, Tirupathi for grant of permanent injunction over the suit schedule property, again the respondents herein. This suit came to be dismissed on 28.06.2022.
2. After the dismissal of the suit, the petitioner filed I.A. No. 704 of 2023 for return of certain documents which had not been marked in the course of trial. However, this application was dismissed for the trial, by an order dated 11.08.2023. The trial had held that documents in serial number 4, 6 and 7 of the list furnished with the application, are unregistered and insufficiently stamped documents. The trial Court on the basis of the circular issued by this Court on 10.07.2006 in ROC No. 1628/SO/2005 had directed that whenever a document is liable to be impounded for stamp duty and penalty are filed before the Court, such documents cannot be returned to the party unless deficient stamp and penalty are paid.
3. On this basis, the trial Court refused to return the documents. Aggrieved by the said order, the petitioner has filed the present Civil Revision Petition.
4. As the respondents had already endorsed “no objection” for the return of t
Documents not marked in evidence cannot be impounded for stamp duty and must be returned to the party.
The court established that trial courts must diligently assess the admissibility of documents, particularly regarding stamping and registration, and have the authority to impound insufficiently stamp....
A document admitted in evidence cannot be questioned for insufficiency of stamp duty, but courts have a mandatory duty to impound such documents regardless of any objections raised.
The court clarified that an unstamped document marked as evidence must be impounded and assessed for stamp duty prior to its admissibility in court.
Deficient stamp duty – Non-payment of stamp duty is a curable defect – Inadmissibility of insufficiently stamped instruments and impounding thereof, is a statutory mandate.
Unregistered and unstamped documents are inadmissible in evidence and cannot be impounded for stamp duty under the Indian Stamp Act.
Under the Indian Stamp Act, once a document is found to be insufficiently stamped, the court is duty-bound to impound the document and send it to the Collector for proper assessment and payment of th....
The court emphasized that compliance with stamp duty regulations should not be a means to delay justice once revenue interests have been served.
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