Court No. - 18
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 24672 of 2019 Petitioner :- Rajvir Singh Respondent :- State Of U P And 2 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Raj Kamal Singh,Aishwarya Pratap Singh Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Ajay Bhanot,J.
Heard Sri Raj Kamal Singh, learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri Sanjay Goswami, learned Additional Chief Standing Counsel, learned counsel for the respondents.
Petitioner is aggrieved by the orders passed by the adjudication authority dated 26.06.2019 wherein the deficit stamp duty on the offending instrument was found and the stamp liability was accordingly fixed. The appellate authority/Additional Commissioner (Administration) Aligarh Division, Aligarh. The appellate authority in the impugned order dated 26.06.2019 agreed with the findings of the adjudicating authority and affirmed its judgment.
Two plots of land namely Gata no. 858 and Gata no. 867 are comprised in the offending instrument which was subjected to payment of stamp duty. For determination of market value of Gata no. 858 reliance was placed by the authorities below on various sale deeds of parts of the aforesaid Gata no. 858 executed in the proximate time period. The said sale deeds of parts of Gata no. 858 depicted that the land was being sold for residential purposes. The said sale deeds and the considerations recited therein have not been disputed before the authorities below. The determination of the market value of Gata no. 858 thus made by the revenue authorities is hence upheld.
However, the revenue authorities erred in law by applying the valuation of Gata no. 858 so determined to Gata no. 867.
No independent enquiry as contemplated in Rule 7 of the Uttar Pradesh Stamp (Valuation of Property) Rules, 1997 was taken out to determine the market value and distinctive features, if any of Gata no. 867. The valuation of Gata no. 867 is found to be vitiated. The valuation is liable to be made by adopting the procedure prescribed in Rule Rule 7 of the Uttar Pradesh Stamp (Valuation of Property) Rules, 1997.
The penalty has been fixed without any supporting reasons in the impugned order. The penalty imposed by the impugned orders upon the petitioner is accordingly set aside.
In the wake of preceding discussion the impugned orders dated 26.06.2019 and 27.02.2017 are set aside. The valuation of the land comprised in Gata no. 858 and the stamp liability fixed thereon is upheld. The matter is remitted to the Collector Stamp to execute the following directions;
(i) The Collector (Stamp) shall proceed with the determination of the market value and stamp liability payable on the offending instrument of Gata no. 867 insofar it is comprised in the offending instrument.
(ii) The Collector (Stamp) shall decide the proceedings within a period of three months from the date of production of a computer generated copy of this order downloaded from the official website of the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad. The concerned Court/Authority/Official shall verify the authenticity of such computerized copy of the order from the official website of High Court Allahabad and shall make a declaration of such verification in writing. .
The amount already deposited shall be subject to adjudication made in pursuance of this order.
The writ petition is partly allowed.
Order Date :- 21.9.2021 Pravin