The central legal point established in the judgment is the entitlement of a Charitable Trust for exemption from payment of stamp duty, based on the fulfillment of conditions and the interpretation of relevant legal provisions.

HARPREET KAUR JEEWAN, J.

The present appeal has been directed against the judgment dated 20.08.2019, passed by the learned Single Judge in CWP-23272-2018, challenging the dismissal of the writ petition whereby the appellant sought quashing of the communication dated 25.04.2018 (Annexure P-2) issued by respondent No. 4 (Sub-Registrar, Rajpura, District Patiala), vide which the prayer made by the appellant for refund of excess stamp duty and registration charges paid by the appellant on the sale deeds (Annexures P-5 to P-9), was declined.

2. It is pleaded that the appellant “Mukat Educational Trust” is a Charitable Trust registered since 30.12.1994 and has also been registered with the Income Tax Authorities under Section 12-A of the Income Tax Act, 1962 (hereinafter referred to as the Act of 1962). The appellant Trust is running an Educational Institution in the name and style of 'Mukat Public School' since 1996 and has been imparting quality education to the residents of the area of Rajpura and its peripheral villages with the cooperation of SGPC, Amritsar. In order to provide more educational facilities and development infrastructure for running the said educational institution, the appellant purchased additional land, vide registered sale deeds dated 11.07.2014, 25.07.2014, 30.07.2014, 05.09.2014 and 10.07.2017 (Annexures P-5 to P-9). It is further alleged that the appellant being a Charitable Trust is entitled for exemption of stamp duty and registration charge in terms of the notification dated 20.02.1981 (Annexure P-4), issued by the Government of Punjab. The appellant approached respondent No. 4 for refund of the stamp duty and registration fee by way of submitting an application dated 12.07.2017 (Annexure P-10). Subsequently, a reminder dated 25.10.2017 (Annexure P-11) was also sent by the appellant. Respondent No. 4 directed the appellant to submit a trust certificate, vide communication dated 11.12.2017 (Annexure P-12), the same was submitted by the appellant, vide communication dated 05.01.2018 (Annexure P-13). However, respondent No. 4 had rejected the request of the appellant, vide letter dated 25.04.2018 (Annexure P-2) and refused to refund the amount on the ground that at the time of registration of the sale deeds, no approval from the Registrar, Patiala, with regard to exemption from payment of stamp duty was taken for the transfer of the land in favour of the appellant Trust.

3. The learned Single Bench dismissed the writ petition by placing reliance upon a Memo dated 29.08.2014 (Annexure P-16), issued by the Department of Rehabilitation and Disaster, Government of Punjab, whereby Sub-Registrar/Joint Sub-Registrar has been authorized to consider such request for grant of exemption to Charitable Institutions, on the basis of the guidelines issued in the said letter which also inter alia includes that institution seeking exemption should have been established at least 03 years out of which at least, for a period of 02 years, charitable activities should be in operation till the time exemption is being sought; and 1/4th share of the income of the institution should be spent on charitable activities. The objection raised by the State was also taken into consideration by the learned Single Bench that neither the appellant has mentioned any charitable activities in the Memorandum and Article of Association (MOA), nor any such activity has been proved and nor has it come on record that 1/3rd of the total income was spent on the charitable activities. It was also observed that out of the five sale deeds, four sale deeds were registered in the year 2014 and one of the sale deed was got registered on 10.07.2017 and only after execution of these sale deeds, for the first time, the appellant had approached the authorities for refund of the stamp duty and registration charges on 12.07.2017. It was further observed that a specific order was required to be passed by the Sub-Registrar/Joint Sub-Registrar, in view of the Memo date