Section 4 Stamp Act – Stamp Duty Cannot Multiply on Different Documents If Transaction is one
Judgment dated 23.8.2026 of the High Court of Bombay in Writ Petition No.13655 of 2017 of Kumar Housing Corporation Private Limited Vs. The State of Maharashtra and others
Several documents were executed and registered for completing one transaction of sale and development agreement.
Section 4 of the Stamp Act provides that several instruments used in single transaction of development agreement
The documents dated 9 June 1995, 31 December 1999, 4 September 2003, and 19 March 2012 were all part and different steps of one transaction. The transaction had started when the owners agreed to transfer their rights in the land in favour of the Petitioner and possession was handed over. The later documents were only steps for completing and recording the same transaction.
Merely because different names were given to the documents, that by cannot change this conclusion. Consequently, the benefit of Section 4 could not have been refused only because the earlier documents were described as Development Agreements and the later instrument was described as a Conveyance or Agreement for Sale.
