IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CWJC No.11632 of 2002 1. Anil Kumari Jain, Wife of Late Munnalal Jain. 2. Harshit Jain, Son of Late Munnalal Jai. Both, Resident of Anil Market, Khandakpar, P.S. Biharsharif, District Nalanda. ----- Petitioners Versus 1. The State of Bihar. 2. The Collector, Nalanda, At and P.S. Biharsharif, District Nalanda. 3. The Additional Collector, General, At & P.S. Biharsharif, District Nalanda. 4. The District Sub-Registrar, Registry Office, Biharsharif. 5. The Branch Manager, Canara Bank, At & P.S. Biharsharif, District Nalanda. ------ Respondents ----------- 8 4.5.2009 Heard counsel for the petitioners and counsel for the State as also counsel for the Canara Bank, respondent no.5. The impugned order in this writ application passed by the Collector of the district is one relating to imposing the liability of payment of five times of the deficit amount of stamp in terms of Section 40(i)(v) of the Stamp Act. Counsel for the parties initially had some reservation on the issue of liability, inasmuch as, counsel for the petitioners relies on the provision of the Stamp Act to show that the entire amount of stamps by way of duty on the document in question was to be paid by the Bank, the lessee and the 2 petitioner being a lessor, he was not liable to pay the same. This aspect of the matter, however, was seriously contradicted by the counsel for the Bank who would say that there has been always a practice in the Bank that it is the lessor and lessee who are jointly liable to share the amount of registration cost including stamp on the lease deed. He has also submitted that even in this case there was a clear communication by the Bank to the petitioner that the cost of registration had to be borne by both the parties in equal ratio. He would, therefore, submits that there is an agreement to the contrary as provided under Section 29(C) of the Stamp Act and it would, therefore, not be correct on the part of the petitioner to deny such liability as a whole. In the opinion of this Court, once the aforesaid fact of there being an agreement between the petitioner and the respondent no.5 to share the cost of registration is admitted, it becomes clear that it was the petitioner who wanted to deprive the state the revenue on the ground of either presenting the document 3 with a shortage of stamps by taking a false plea that such liability to pay the cost of registration of the lease deed was on the Bank alone. In fact, the plea taken by the petitioner before the Collector of the district was contrary to the agreed terms and conditions. In fact now the matter specially in the light of the specific uncontroverted stand taken by the Bank, this Court must hold that the petitioner’s attitude of not paying the amount to the agreed extent of 50% was itself unfair which was also sought to be reiterated before the Court by suppressing the material fact and therefore, this Court would find no infirmity in the impugned order. This Court, however, upon taking into consideration that the amount of shortage in the stamps was not only on the ground of lack of knowledge but also that half of such amount has to be made by Bank, a public authority from the public fund, would reduce the amount from five times to two and half times. The reduced amount must be paid by the petitioner within a period of three months from the date of receipt/production of a copy of this order, 4 whereafter, it will be open for the parties to adjust their accounts by sharing the cost of registration in equal proportion as per the agreement. If however, the petitioner fails to pay the amount in the aforesaid period, the order of the Collector to pay five times of the amount shall remain in force and the Bank will not be liable to pay the penal amount of five times and its liability would remain confirmed to make payment of only half of the original cost of registration, leaving the petitioner alone to pay the entire penal cost of registration. With the aforesaid observations and directions, this writ application is disposed of. Rsh (Mihir Kumar Jha, J.)