( 1 ) THIS bunch of ten writ petitions under Article 226 of the Constitution of India have been filed praying that a mandamus be issued directing respondent 110. 3 to register the document in favour of the petitioners in respect of the land purchased by them by way of sale deed.

( 2 ) THE respondents had refused to register the sale deed on the ground; i) that No Objection Certificate was not obtained by the petitioners under the provisions of Delhi Land (Restriction on Transfers) Act, 1972; and ii) that the Inspector General of Registration/chief Controlling Revenue Authority had issued instructions to the Sub Registrar vide office order dated 19th March 1990 fixing the minimum rate of land at Rs. 4. 65 lacs per acre in respect of land which was not in the River Belt and since the consideration mentioned in the sale deed is less than Rs. 4. 65 lacs per acre the sale deed cannot be registered.

( 3 ) IT was submitted by the learned counsel for the petitioners that this Court in CWP 1268 of 1989 decided on 28th July 1989 has held that No Objection Certificate is not required to be obtained when the land is not under acquisition and thus the insistence of the respondents for filing the No Objection Certificate is unwarranted. It was further subnutted that it was not open to the respondents to issue office instructions fixing the minimum rate of consideration as done vide office instructions issued by respondents 4 and 5 and non-registration of the sale deed on that ground is unjustified.

( 4 ) LEARNED counsel for the respondents submitted that what is required to be obtained is a status report which take into consideration not only the question of acquisition but even other aspects like violation of Section 33 of the Land Reforms Act and violation of the provisions of the East Punjab Consolidation and Prevention of Fragmentation Act. Learned counsel submitted that unless the status report is obtained, the Sale Deed could not be registered. He further submitted that there was a tendency to under-value land prices for the purpose of registration of sale deed in Delhi in order to save the stamp duty. Furthermore, one of the considerations for determination of compensation for land proposed to be acquired was the amount of consideration mentioned in the sale deed and due to undervaluation the farmers were being paid lesser compensation. Thus, it was felt necessary to fix the minimum rate or the land as was done in other States like Uttar Pradesh so that the interest of farmers could be protected. It was submitted that non-registration of the sale deed on the ground that consideration is less than Rs. 4. 65 lacs per acre is legal and justified.

( 5 ) DURING the course of arguments, since the applications filed by the petitioners for obtaining No Objection Certificates were already pending with the respondents, we had directed the respondents to scrutinise the applications and the respondents have given the status report to the petitioners. In view of this position we do not propose to go into the question regarding requirement of obtaining status report in these writ petitions. The only question, therefore, for consideration is whether the respondents could by issuing office instructions refuse to register sale deed on the ground that the sale consideration was less than the rate fixed by respondents 4 and 5.

( 6 ) THE Supreme Court in Himalaya House Co. Ltd. vs. The Chief Controlling Revenue Authority and Another, AIR 1972 SC 899 has observed that Section 27 of the Stamp Act requires the parties to a document to set forth in the document fully and truly the consideration, if any, and all other facts affecting the chargeability of that document with the duty or the amount of duty with which it is chargeable. Though failure to comply with the requirement of that section is punishable undersection 64, no provision in the Stamp Act empowers the Revenue to make an independent inquiry of the value of the property conve