Benefit of exemption under notification of March 23, 2012 providing exemption on stamp duty and registration fees on transfer of property by State government or government authority available to petitioners allotted flats in residential apartment complex developed by company described as joint sector company with West Bengal Housing Board, where Housing Board recorded as vendor in deeds of conveyance.

SANJIB BANERJEE, J.

The issue involved in the six petitions is the same.

2. The petitioners cite their respective deeds of conveyance to claim the benefit under a finance department order of the State government published in the Kolkata Gazette on March 28, 2012. The State contests the claim on the ground that the relevant notification dated March 23, 2012 does not cover ownership flat complexes not owned and developed by the State or Central government or any authority or undertaking of the State or Central government.

3. All the petitions pertain to a residential apartment complex by the name of Sisirkunja in Madhyamgram, off the Airport. The area was once the playground of the rich, but the greens on either side of the national highway that meanders up the length of the State have now mostly been surrendered to concrete jungle. Each set of petitioners was allotted one or more apartments at the complex. The letters of allotment were issued by a company by the name of Bengal Shelter Housing Development Limited and such company is described in its letterhead as a joint sector company with the West Bengal Housing Board. The West Bengal Housing Board is constituted under the West Bengal Housing Board Act, 1972. There is no doubt that the Board is under the control of the State government.

4. The apartment complex has apparently been completed. At any rate, these petitioners have obtained their flats therein and the relevant deeds of conveyance have been executed. The relevant deeds, which are identical in their material terms save as to the area and description of the individual flats, record the West Bengal Housing Board as the vendor, the petitioners as the purchasers and Bengal Shelter Housing Development Limited as the confirming party. The documents are otherwise unremarkable in the sense that they confer the usual rights as any vendor of immovable property would to the vendee.

5. Both the petitioners and the State have placed the deeds, particularly some of the clauses in the recital. Despite the attempt by some of the petitioners to overcook a simple dish and the attempt by the State to needlessly engage the court to assess the “real nature” of the project, what is of relevance is that not only is the Housing Board recorded as the vendor in the immediate deeds of conveyance, but such State government authority or undertaking is also recorded as the purchaser of the property in the immediate previous deed pertaining to the land on which the complex has come up.

6. It is necessary at this stage to notice the essence of the relevant notification to ascertain the circumstances in which the same may operate. The opening clause of the notification of March 23, 2012, in its material part, provides as follows:

“ … the Governor is pleased hereby to remit stamp-duty and registration fees chargeable on the amount of difference, if any, between the market value of such property and the value set forth in the deed of transfer thereof as the State Government or Government of India or any authority under the State Government or Government of India or any undertaking of the State Government or Government of India may transfer on sale/settlement/long term lease/lease in perpetuity for a fine or premium or for money advanced in addition to rent, if any, as the case may be.”

The other clauses of the notification qualify the extent of the benefit in certain cases.

7. Subject to clauses 2 and 3 of the said notification, the benefit thereunder may be obtained only if the transferor is “the State Government or Government of India or any authority under the State Government or Government of India or any undertaking of the State Government or Government of India”. Again, subject to the other provisions of such notification, the benefit thereunder will arise only if any of the entities recognised therein “transfer on sale/settlement/long term lease/lease in perpetuity for a fine or premium or for money advanced in addition to rent, if any