Indian Stamp Act

Mithlesh Kumar filed a suit for perpetual injunction against Manohar Lal to prevent construction that would violate a 1964 agreement restricting openings and structures on the land purchased by the respondent. The respondent argued that the agreement, though unregistered, was a compulsorily registrable document under S…

The State acquired 9.47 acres in 1983 and 14.10 acres in 1985 near Eluru for house sites for the poor. The Land Acquisition Officer fixed compensation at Rs 40,000 per acre, but the reference court and the Andhra Pradesh High Court enhanced the market value to Rs 150 per square yard based on the Basic Valuation Registe…

The Supreme Court examined the compensation payable to P. Ram Reddy for land acquired by the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894. The Court held that the market value of acquired land must include the value attributable to its building potentiality, which must be proved by reliabl…

Ram Sahay filed a suit for declaration of ownership and possession of a shop. The defendant, Nawal Kishore, claimed an agreement to sell the shop existed, but the plaintiff objected to its exhibition on the grounds that it was unregistered and insufficiently stamped. The trial court upheld the objection, holding the do…

Bhagwan Dass obtained an ex‑parte decree in a small causes suit and, within the limitation period, applied for security under the proviso to s.17(1) of the Provincial Small Cause Courts Act, 1887. He furnished a surety bond stamped with a court‑fee of Rs 2, which the court later held was not duly stamped under the Indi…

The father of the parties, a self‑acquired owner of a house and a shop, decided to divide his property on 25‑Oct‑1992 but died on 10‑Sep‑1993. The surviving brothers recorded a memorandum of settlement on 9‑Sep‑1994, signed by their mother and sisters, allocating the entire property between them. The plaintiff sued for…

The appellants, DLF Universal Ltd. and another, were licensed under the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act, 1975 to develop residential colonies and entered into private agreements with plot and flat buyers that included clauses for extension fees and maintenance charges. The Director, Town and Count…

APIIC invited bids to develop a 350‑acre aerospace park and awarded the contract to Unitech, which paid Rs 165 crore in installments. The contract was conditioned on the outcome of a pending litigation concerning the title to the land, which the Andhra Pradesh High Court and later this Court held that the government di…

The Bar Council of Andhra Pradesh disciplined advocate B. Narayan Swamy for attesting blank stamp papers in his capacity as a Notary, finding him in violation of the Notaries Act and Section 35 of the Advocates Act. The State Bar Council imposed a lifetime debarment, which the Bar Council of India stayed and set aside,…

The State of Kerala challenged the classification of a document executed by McDowell & Co. under Form VI of the Distillery and Warehouse Rules, required by Section 7 of the Kerala Abkari Act for deferred export duty, as an agreement rather than a bond for stamp duty purposes. The High Court held the instrument to be an…

The petitioners sought a further increase in compensation for land acquired under a 1964 notification of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, arguing that higher awards in adjacent villages and a later award of Rs. 68,000 per bigha should apply. The Supreme Court examined whether a circular issued under Section 48 of the St…

The Union of India issued four notifications under Section 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 to acquire land in Delhi’s village Rithala. Different compensation rates were awarded by the Land Acquisition Officer, enhanced by a Reference Court, and further increased by the Delhi High Court relying on circle‑rate not…

The respondents Akhlaq Hussain and Saqir Hussain exchanged a small parcel of land for a larger agricultural parcel owned by Mangal Singh, a member of a Scheduled Tribe, through a registered deed. The Assistant Collector declared the exchange void under Sections 157‑B and 161 of the U.P. Zamindari Abolition and Land Ref…

The plaintiff, RABO Bank, sued State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH) in a summary suit under Order 37 of the CPC, claiming payment on several Bills of Exchange that SBH had allegedly accepted via telex/fax messages. SBH denied liability, asserting that the co‑acceptances were unauthorized, that the Bills lacked proper signatur…

The dispute concerned a partition suit filed by Mattulal against his brother Govinddas, wherein Govinddas claimed that the land had been gifted to their cousin sister Kasturibai. The lower courts held that the alleged gift was not valid because no registered deed, signed by the donor and attested by two witnesses, exis…