SOHANI, J. :- This is a reference under Section 57 (1) of the Indian Stamp Act (hereinafter referred to as the Act).

2. The material facts giving rise to this petition briefly are as follows:-

The applicants appeared before the Sub-Registrar Indore on 3rd December 1972, for registration of sale deeds executed by them. During the course of registration, another document purporting to be an acknowledgment of an oral partition made by the applicants, who were members of a joint Hindu family, came to the notice of the Sub-Registrar, who impounded it. He forwarded it to the collector of stamps for assessment of duty and imposition of penalty on the ground that the document was an instrument of partition. The collector of stamps by his order dated 3rd January 1977, held that the document in question was an instrument of partition and that stamp duty was required to be paid accordingly. Aggrieved by that order, the applicants preferred appeal before the Board of Revenue. The learned Member of the Board of Revenue was of the opinion that the document in question was not covered by the definition of 'instrument' of partition' contained in S.2 (15) of the Act. The learned Member of th