2008 Supreme(Raj) 2244
RAJASTHAN HIGH COURT
H.R.Panwar, J.
Bherunath - Appellant
Versus
Rajendra & Anr. - Respondent
S.B.Civil Writ Petition No. 2784 of 2008.
Decided On : 30-07-2008
For the Petitioner:Sandeep Saruparia, Advocate.
For the Respondents:N.K. Rastogi, Advocate.
Headnote:Constitution of India, 1950, Art. 226 – Indian Stamp Act, 1899, S. 35 & 36 – Writ Petition dismissed, held – No case is made to invoke the extra ordinary jurisdiction of the high Court as in the instant case where the suit is for specific performance of a contract and the trial has commenced and proceeded after the admission of documents which is an unregistered and unstamped Agreement to Sell in present case, and the suit has proceeded on the footing of the exhibited document even the Trial court itself cannot go back and question the document.>
"The suit was accordingly decreed with costs, as stated above. On appeal by the defendant to the High Court, the High Court also found that the hundis were marked as Exs. P.1 and P.2, with the endorsement "Admitted in evidence" and signed by the judge. The High Court also noticed the fact that when the hundis were executed in December 1946, the Marwar Stamp Act of 1914 was in force and Ss. 9 and 11 of the Marwar Stamp Act, 1914 authorised the Court to realise the full stamp duty and penalty in case of unstamped instruments produced in evidence. Section 9 further provided that on the payment of proper stamp duty, and the required penalty, if any, the document shall be admissible in evidence. It was also noticed that when the suit was filed in January 1949, stamp duty and penalty were paid in respect of the hundis, acting upon the law, namely, the Marwar Stamp Act, 1914. The High Court also pointed out that the documents appear to have been admitted in evidence because the Trial Court lost sight of the fact that in 1947 a new Stamp Act had come into force in the former State of Marwar, amending the Marwar Stamp Act of 1914. The new law was, in terms, similar to the Indian Stamp Act. The High Court further pointed out that after the coming into effect of the Marwar Stamp Act, 1947 the hundis in this case could not be admitted in evidence, in view of the provisions of section 35, proviso (a) of the Act, even on payment of duty and penalty. With reference to the provisions of section 36 of the Stamp Act, the High Court held that the plaintiffs could not take advantage of the provisions of that section because in its opinion, the admission of the two hundis 'was a pure mistake.' Relying upon a previous decision of the Rajasthan High Court reported in