IMPORTANT POINT
The nature of user for stamp duty assessment must relate to the date of purchase, not future intentions.

JUDGMENT :

Per Dr. Pushpendra Singh Bhati, J:

1. Since all the instant writ petitions involve a common controversy though with marginal variation in the contextual facts, therefore, for the purposes of the present analogous adjudication, the facts and the prayer clauses are being taken from the above-numbered D.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 7620/2015, while treating the same as a lead case; rival submissions of the parties and the observations of the Court, in the present judgment, would also be based, particularly, on the factual matrix of the lead case.

1.1. The prayer clauses read as under :

“It is therefore, humbly prayed, that this writ petition may kindly be allowed and:-

(i) by an appropriate writ, order or direction, the impugned notifications dated 26.03.2012 (Annexure-6), 08.05.2012 (Annexure-7) and 12.07.2012 (Annexure-8) be declared illegal and be quashed;

(ii) by an appropriate writ, order or direction, the impugned notice dated 13.11.2013 (Annexure-4) be declared illegal and be quashed;

(iii) by an appropriate writ, order or direction, the notification dated 09.03.2015 (Annexure-9) may be given retrospective effect from the date of impugned notifications;

(iv) by an appropriate writ, order or direction, the respondents be directed to refund to the petitioner the excess stamp duty recovered pursuant to the impugned notice dated 13.11.2013 (Annexure-4) along with the rate of 12% per annum from the date it is recovered till the amount is paid back to the petitioner;

(v) by an appropriate writ, order or direction, the respondents may be directed to effect registration of the documents submitted by the petitioner in future without making valuation on the basis of the impugned notifications but on the basis of nature/classification of the land existing on the date of sale deed;

(vi) any other appropriate order or direction, which this Hon’ble Court considers just and proper in the facts and circumstances of this case, may kindly be passed in favour of the petitioner;

(vii) costs of the writ petition may kindly be awarded to the petitioner.”

2. Brief facts of the case are that the petitioner, a private limited company, engaged M/s Sterling and Wilson Services Pvt. Ltd. (in short, "the contractor") to set up a 1 MW Solar PV Plant. Pursuant to this, a Letter of Award dated 08.05.2013 was issued, stipulating that the contractor would establish, operate, and manage the Solar PV Plant on behalf of the petitioner at agreed costs.

2.1. In connection with setting up of the power plant, the petitioner purchased an agricultural land in Village Birami, Tehsil Sumerpur, District Pali, under respondent No. 3's jurisdiction, by a registered sale deed dated 09.07.2013, after negotiations with the vendor. The purchased land was later converted for industrial use under the Rajasthan Land Revenue (Conversion of Agricultural Land for Non-Agricultural Purposes in Rural Areas) Rules, 2007, read with the Rajasthan Land Revenue (Industrial Area Allotment) Rules, 1959.

2.2. As per the notification dated 09.03.2015, the D.L.C. rates for agricultural land away from the main road (as involved herein), were Rs.1,19,392/-, but the petitioner purchased the land at a market value i.e. five times the prescribed value.

2.3. Respondent No.3 issued a notice dated 13.11.2013, under Section 54 of the Rajasthan Stamp Act, 1998 (hereinafter referred to as ‘Act of 1998’), informing the petitioner that the agricultural land purchased by registered sale deed was undervalued and that stamp duty on the revised amount must be paid, failing which proceedings under Section 51 of the Act of 1998 would be initiated against the petitioner.

2.3.1. Subsequently, notifications dated 26.03.2012, 08.05.2012, and 12.07.2012 (hereinafter referred to as ‘impugned notifications’), were issued by the respondent imposing stamp duty based on the future use of the land purchased by the petitioner, and informed that in case the same is not paid, it would result into cancellation of such conversion of