The main legal point established in the judgment is that the nature of the instrument should be determined based on its content and not on any other transaction or the nomenclature/title of the instrument.

SUNITA AGARWAL, J.

1. By means of the present writ petition, the petitioners are challenging the decision of the stamp authorities in impounding the document namely the agreement for sale and imposition of stamp duty treating it as a conveyance under Article 23 of Schedule 1-B of Indian Stamp Act, as applicable in the State of U.P.

2. The contention of the petitioner is that the document in question is an agreement for sale which contemplates completion of transaction in favour of the petitioner only after execution of another instrument i.e. sale-deed. The contention is that there is no averment in the agreement regarding delivery of possession either prior to the execution of the agreement for sale or at the time of its execution. There is no assertion in the agreement regarding delivery of possession without execution of the sale-deed. The respondent authorities have erred in treating the said document as Conveyance within the meaning of Article 23 of Schedule 1-B of the Indian Stamp Act.

3. Learned Standing counsel on the other hand submits that as the report of Tehsil has been obtained to verify the factum of possession and it was found that the petitioner was given actual physical possession of the land, subject matter of the agreement, the order of impounding the document and imposition of stamp duty by determining the market value passed by the Collector, Stamps cannot be faulted with.

4. The question before this Court, therefore, arises as to whether the instrument in question can be considered as sale-deed or conveyance of sale and would fall under Article 23 of Schedule 1-B of the Act.

5. To decide this question, it would be relevant to go through the relevant provisions.

6. Articles 5 and 23 as contained in scheduled 1-B of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 are quoted as under:-

Article 5 - Agreement or memorandum of an agreement:-

"(b-1) if relating to the sale of an immovable property where possession is not admitted to have been delivered nor is agreed to be delivered without executing the conveyance:	The same duty as on conveyance (No. 23 clause (a) on one half of the amount of consideration as set forth in the agreement.
Provided that when conveyance in pursuant of such agreement is executed, the duty paid under this clause in excess of the duty payable under clause (c) shall be adjusted towards the total payable on the conveyance.
23. Conveyance as defined by Section 2(10) not being a Transfer charged or exempted under no. 62:-
(a) If relating to immovable property where the amount or value of the consideration of such conveyance as set forth therein or the market value of the immovable property which is the subject of such conveyance, whichever is greater does not exceed Rs. 500.	Sixty rupees
Where it exceeds Rs. 500 but does not exceed Rs. 1,000.	One hundred and twenty-five rupees
For every Rs. 1,000 or part thereof in excess of Rs. 1,000	One hundred and twenty-five rupees
	Provided that the duty payable shall be rounded off to the next multiple of ten rupees.
(b) If relating to movable property where the amount or value of the consideration of such conveyance as set forth therein does not exceed Rs. 1,000.	Twenty rupees.
Exemption
Assignment of copyright in musical works by resident of, or first published in India.
Explanation
For the purposes of this Article, in the case of an agreement to sell an immovable property, where possession is delivered before the execution or at the time of execution, or is agreed to be delivered without executing the conveyance, the agreement shall be deemed to be a conveyance and stamp duty thereon shall be payable accordingly:
Provided that provisions