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TMI Blog2009 (9) TMI 580X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... l liquidator to issue "certificate of sale" in favour of the nominee of Mr. P.S. Ramachandran in respect of the said lands, Mr. P.S. Ramachandran nominated the petitioner to be the auction purchaser and the auction consideration was paid. Possession of the property was given to the petitioner and certificate of sale was issued to the petitioner by the Official Liquidator, High Court, Madras on December 22, 2006. 3. The office of the official liquidator of this court sent a copy of the sale certificate dated December 22, 2006, to the office of the respondent to file the same in Book No. 1 as per section 89 of the Registration Act, 1908. However it is seen that after a lapse of more than two years, the respondent sent the impugned order dated July 29, 2009, demanding a sum of Rs. 10,39,122 which was said to be the deficit stamp duty payable for filing the sale certificate in Book No. 1 as per the year 2008 audit objection. Against the said order dated July 29, 2009, only, the present writ petition has been filed on the ground that the said communication was issued in contravention of section 17(2)(xii) and section 89 of the Registration Act, 1908. 4. Mr. Ramakrishna Reddy, learned ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... K. Chidambara Manickam v. Shakeena [2008] 1 CTC 660 ; [2009] 152 Comp. Cas. 196, relying upon the judgment of the hon'ble Supreme Court mentioned above held that the sale certificate issued by the authorised officer under the SARFAESI Act does not require registration as per section 17(2)(xii) of the Registration Act. 6. Mr. D. Srinivasan, learned Additional Government Pleader submits that even though there is no necessity for the sale certificate to be registered, when it is submitted for registration, necessarily stamp duty has to be paid for registration of the document. 7. It is relevant to note section 17 of the Registration Act, 1908, which is extracted as follows : "17. Documents of which registration is compulsory.-(1) The following documents shall be registered, if the property to which they relate is situate in a district in which, and if they have been executed on or after the date on which, Act No. 16 of 1864, or the Indian Registration Act, 1866 (20 of 1866), or the Indian Registration Act, 1871 (8 of 1871), or the Indian Registration Act, 1877 (3 of 1877), or this Act came or comes into force, namely :- (a)instruments of gift of immovable property ; (b)other non ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... erty except in so far as it entitles the holder to the security afforded by a registered instrument, whereby the company has mortgaged, conveyed or otherwise transferred the whole or part of its immovable property or any interest therein to trustees upon trust for the benefit of the holders of such debentures ; or (iv)any endorsement upon or transfer of any debenture issued by any such company ; or (v)any document other than the documents specified in subsection (1A) not itself creating, declaring, assigning, limiting or extinguishing any right, title or interest of the value of one hundred rupees and upwards to or in immovable property, but merely creating a right to obtain another document which will, when executed, create, declare, assign, limit or extinguish any such right, title or interest ; or (vi)any decree or order of a court except a decree or order expressed to be made on a compromise and comprising immovable property other than that which is the subject-matter of the suit or proceeding ; or (vii)any grant of immovable property by the Government; or (viii)any instrument of partition made by a Revenue Officer; or (ix)any order granting a loan or instrument of collat ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ale of immovable property under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (5 of 1908), shall send a copy of such certificate to the Registering Officer within the local limits of whose jurisdiction the whole or any part of the immovable property comprised in such certificate is situate, and such officer shall file the copy in his Book No. 1 or get it scanned. (2A) Every court passing an order for effecting or raising an attachment of immovable property under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (Central Act 5 of 1908) shall send a copy of such order together with the memorandum giving the details of properties to the Registering Officer within the local limits of whose jurisdiction the whole or any part of the said immovable property is situated and such registering officer shall file the copy of such order in his Book No. 1 or get it scanned." 10. What is Book No. 1 ? Details regarding register-books to be kept in several offices are given in section 51 of the Act. Book No. 1 to Book No. 5 are mentioned in section 51(1)A. Book No. 1, "Register of non-testamentary documents relating to immovable property". 51(2) reads as follows : "(2) In Book No. 1 shall be filed, (i) true copies of all ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... , that being the method of registration prescribed by the Act for sale of the certificate." 15. The judgment of the Supreme Court in B. Arvind Kumar v. Government of India [2007] 5 SCC 745, states (page 752) : "when a property is sold by public auction in pursuance of the order of the court and the bid is accepted and the sale is confirmed by the court in favour of the purchaser, the sale becomes absolute and the title vests in the purchaser . . . The sale certificate is merely evidence of such title, ... no further deed of transfer from the court is contemplated ... In this case, the sale certificate itself was registered, though such a sale certificate issued by a court or an officer authorised by the court, does not require registration." 16. In view of the above judgment and exemption granted under section 17(2), the copy of the document is only required to be filed in Book No. 1 under the special procedure under section 89 of the Act. If stamp duty is required even for filing of the copy of instrument under section 89 of the Act, the exemption given under section 17(2) of the Act would become meaningless. In that event, there is no necessity for the special procedure under ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ction 2(10) of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899, passing of right, title, interest in the immovable property and this court opines that the sale certificate should be treated as normal sale deed which is compulsorily registrable under section 17(1) of the Act. Merely because the property was purchased in court auction, it does not fail to convey the title of the property, i.e., it conveys title to the purchaser as held by the apex court in [1990] 183 ITR 481; AIR 1991 SC 1880 (Smt. Shanti Devi L. Singh v. Tax Recovery Officer). 20. The Registration Act, 1908 (Act No. XVI of 1908) received assent of the Governor General on December 18, 1908 and the Act came into force on January 1, 1908. During that time, the people might not have shown interest to purchase court auctioned property, as it was considered to be a distress sale. There is a saying in Tamil . . .1 (the house in which the turtle entered and the property which was attached by ameena cannot prosper). Hence this court feels that above should have been the reason why the policy makers at that point of time, would have encouraged the people to participate in the court auction by giving concession through exemption under section 17( ..... 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