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2013 DIGILAW 4099 (MAD)

ITC Limited Chennai v. Secretary to Government Chennai

2013-12-05

V.DHANAPALAN

body2013
Judgment 1. By consent the writ petition itself is taken up for final disposal. Heard the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner and the learned Government Advocate appearing for the respondents. 2. Petitioner has approached this Court for issuance of a writ of writ of certiorarified mandamus to quash the impugned demand notice dated 22.08.2013 issued by the 2nd respondent and consequentially direct the 2nd respondent to register, in accordance with Sections 60 and 61 of the Registration Act, 1908, the Lease Deed dt. 10.02.2012 executed between the Petitioner and Wimco Limited which was presented for registration on 10.02.2012 and numbered as P46/2012 Book 1, dt. 10.02.2012. 3. Considering the nature of disposal, it is not necessary to go into the merits of the issue involved in this writ petition. By the order impugned in this writ petition, the petitioner was called upon to pay a sum of Rs.50,51,920/- towards deficit stamp duty within 10 days by way of demand draft drawn in favour of "The Sub Registrar, Thiruvottiyur" payable at Chennai. Challenging the same, petitioner has come forward with the present writ petition. 4. Learned Government Advocate, on instructions, submits the Document No: P46/2012 has been kept pending for collection of Stamp duty and it has been informed to the concerned parties while it was presented for registration. As per Article 25 of Stamp Act, the stamp duty shall be leviable on any advance, lump sum payment and also when a lessee undertakes to pay any recurring charges, such as Government revenue, the landlord share of cesses or the owner's share of the municipal rates of taxes which is by law recoverable from the lessor; the amount so agreed to be paid by the lessee shall be deemed to be part of the rent. 5. On noticing the aforesaid submission, Mr. Krishna Srinivas learned counsel appearing for the writ petitioner submits that the petitioner is a reputed company having a larger business interest in this country and is a huge income-tax payer and therefore, petitioner is prepared to abide by whatever the conditions to be imposed by this Court. He wold also submit that in similar situation relating to the very same petitioner, this Court has released the document with certain conditions in W.P. No: 12216 of 2005 by its order dated 26.04.2005. He has also produced the relevant order copy. 6. He wold also submit that in similar situation relating to the very same petitioner, this Court has released the document with certain conditions in W.P. No: 12216 of 2005 by its order dated 26.04.2005. He has also produced the relevant order copy. 6. At this juncture, learned Government Advocate appearing for the respondents submits that the document is question in this writ petition has not been registered. From a reading of the impugned order, it is clear that the document on presentation has been taken for valuation and for want of stamp duty, it has been kept pending. 7. Since the document has not been registered yet, this writ petition stands disposed of with a direction to the 2nd respondent, the Sub Registrar, Thiruvottiyur, Chennai, to register the document and thereafter, refer the matter same to the competent authority, namely The District collector, under Section 47A of the Indian Stamp Act. Pending appeal, the respondents are directed to release the document in question, subject to the following condition : "the petitioner shall file an affidavit of undertaking not to alienate the property and to produce the document as and when necessary and the document may be released with an endorsement of the pendency of the proceedings under Section 47 A of the Indian Stamp Act." Connected miscellaneous petitions are closed. There shall be no orders as to the costs.