THE BOMBAY STAMP ACT, 1958 - Igrmaharashtra.gov.in

provides as to haw the instrument which is undervalued should be dealingwith. Almost all States have made provision for dealing with the instrumentwhich according to the Registering Officer is undervalued after registeringsuch instrument and not before registering the same as is the case withMaharashtra.2. Many States while providing Rules for deciding the market value providedthat if any broad guideline that may be contained in the list prepared by theState Government falls within any of the principles refereed to in section47A and Rules, the same may be considered. Such guidelines therefore,were followed by most of the stamp authorities. Such guidelines werechallenged in many States and some of the Courts had held that suchguideline had no force of law and should be treated only as guidelines. TheState of Andhra Pradesh had prepared the guidelines which is known as“basic valuation register” in order to enable the registering office to verifywhether the true market value was truly reflected in the instrument for thepurpose of stamp duty.3. The matter arose before the Supreme Court from the judgement and orderdated 29 th October, 1982 of the Andhra Pradesh High Court. The High Courtfound that the basic valuation register had no evidential value, and that ithad not statutory basis. According to the Supreme Court, Section 47Aclearly shows that the exercise of power there under is with reference to abroad line covered by the instrument brought for registration and thatSection 47A conferred not express power to the Government to determinethe market value of the lands prevailing in a broad area, village, block,district or the region ad to maintain basic valuation register for levy forstamp duty for registration of an instrument etc. After considering variousjudgement and provisions of Section 47A as enacted by various States, theSupreme Court held that the basic valuation Register has no statutory base.4. Thus according to the Supreme Court the basic value register of guideline orready reckoner by whatever name called has no statutory force and value ofeach immovable property comprised in the instrument has to be decidedaccording to the Rules governing true market value.5. The valuation department has to make valuation of each individual propertyaccording to the Rules prescribed under the Stamp Act.The principles to determine fair market value of the property are laid down invarious decisions of the Supreme Court. These Principles are adopted whiledetermining the compensation payable in respect of property under the LandAcquisition Act.The price has to be determined on the basis of what a hypothetical purchaserwilling to purchase land from the open market and prepared to pay areasonable price would offer. Assumption is that the vendor is willing to sellthe land at a reasonable price. Normally, Authority takes into accountgenuine instances. The most comparable instances out of the genuineinstances have to be identified of the consideration of proximity from timeangle and from situs angle. After identifying the instances which provide theindex of market value, the price reflected therein, may be taken as a norm