IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No.17218 of 2009 Date of decision: 11th November, 2009 Prem Chand and others … Petitioners Versus State of Punjab … Respondent CORAM: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA Present: Mr. R.K. Chopra, Sr. Advocate with Ms. Maninder, Advocate for the petitioner. KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA, J. (ORAL) Petitioners are Stamp Vendors belonging to District Bathinda. They have sought quashing of Annexure P-7, whereby the Government has issued instructions that stamp duty amounting to Rs.20,000/- or more in a single transaction shall be deposited by the Vendee/ Vendor, as the case may be, at the branches of State Bank of India where Government receipts are accepted. The grievance set out by the petitioners is that such instructions are contrary to Rule 28 (ix) and (x) of The Punjab Stamp Rules, 1934. The same read as under: “28.(ix) The vendor shall not sell any stamp exceeding (Rs.50,000) in value in case of Court fee and Rs.50,000 in case of non-judicial stamps. When application is made to the vendor for stamps exceeding Rs.50,000/- in value in case of Court-fee and Rs.50,000/- in case of non-judicial stamps, he shall refer the applicant to the ex officio vendor. (x) If application is made to the vendor for non- judicial stamp of a value not exceeding Rs.50,000/- required in the form of an impressed sheet to denote the duty on any document, the licensed or specially licensed vendor shall, if it Civil Writ Petition No. 17218 of 2009 is available in his stock, supply the applicant with a stamp of the value required, and if a stamp of such value is not available in his stock he may supply in lieu of it the smallest number of impressed sheets available in his stock by which the duty required can be made up. The licensee shall not attempt to make up stamp duty exceeding Rs.50,000/- by the issue of two or more stamps of lower denominations.” A bare perusal of the rules noticed above shows that Stamp Vendor will not sell stamps exceeding Rs.50,000/-. It does not say that all stamps below Rs.50,000/- are only to be sold through the Stamp Vendor. Instructions (Annexure P-7) are in consonance with the needs of the present time to provide convenience/facility to the end user. Hence, no interference is warranted and the present writ petition is dismissed. [KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA] JUDGE November 11, 2009 rps 2