RAMAN NAYAR, C.J. :- On the 25th May, 1967, the United Commercial Bank, Mavoor (for short, the Bank)

executed what has been called a letter of guarantee in favour of the President of India on non-judicial stamp paper of the value of Rs. 40.25 - a copy thereof has been marked as Ex. P-1 in the writ petition. By that instrument, the Bank guaranteed, to the tune of Rs. 12,37,250/- the payment to the Central Government by one of the Bank's customers, the Gwalior Rayon Silk Mfg. (Wvg.) Co. Ltd., Mavoor (for short, the Company), the rupee equivalent of foreign exchange made available to it by the Central Government for the import of certain goods. The Central Government was insisting that the instrument should be certified as duly stamped by the competent authority, and, therefore, the Bank presented it before the Additional Personal Assistant to the District Collector of Kozhikode, a Collector within the definition in Section 2 (c) of the Kerala Stamp Act, 1959 (Having been duly appointed as such thereunder - we shall hereafter refer to him as the Collector but he is not to be confused with the District Collector) for adjudication under Section 31 of the Act.

2. By his proceeding