Court No. - 33

Case :- WRIT - C No. - 4786 of 2010

Petitioner :- Prem Lal

Respondent :- Chief Controlling Rev. Authority Alld. And Others Petitioner Counsel :- Nagendra Kumar Srivastava,Km. Pratima Srivastava Respondent Counsel :- C.S.C.

Hon'ble Pankaj Mithal,J.

A lease deed was executed and registered in favour of the petitioner on 12.12.02. The lease is in respect of a immovable piece of land for a period of 30 years.

On the aforesaid lease the petitioner paid stamp duty in accordance with the provisions of Article 35 (a) (v) of Schedule 1B of the Indian Stamp Act. However, the authorities below in view of the renewal clause contained in the lease deed treated it to be a lease of more than 30 years and have demanded stamp duty in accordance with the provisions of Article 35(a)(vi) of Schedule 1B of the Act.

In view of the above the question which arises for consideration is as to whether the lease in question is chargeable to stamp duty as a lease of 30 years or as a lease exceeding 30 years. The aforesaid aspect of the matter is no longer res integra as it has already been decided by me in Writ Petition No.1785 of 2010 Ashish Kumar vs. Deputy Commissioner (Stamp) and others decided on 21st July, 2010. In the said decision it has been held that until and unless the lease is renewed or the initial period of lease expires the lease shall remain to be of the period as mentioned in the lease i.e. 30 years and accordingly it will fall under Clause (V) of Article 35(a) of Schedule 1B of the Act. It has also been held that renewal of lease as distinguished from extension of the period of lease is actually a fresh lease and therefore the period of renewal of lease cannot be clubbed with the initial period of the lease. In view of the aforesaid decision the controversy raised stand squarely covered by the aforesaid decision. Accordingly the writ petition deserves to be allowed in terms of the aforesaid referred judgment.

In view of the above writ petition is allowed. The impugned orders dated 24.12.08 passed by respondent no.3 and 19.1.2010 passed by respondent no.1 are quashed and the respondents are directed to realise stamp duty on the lease in question as per Article 35(a)(v) of Schedule 1B of the Act as a lease for less than 30 years.

Any amount deposited by the petitioner pursuant to the impugned orders shall be refunded forthwith.

Order Date :- 28.7.2010

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