Stamp Duty on Development Agreement of revenue sharing
Judgment dated 28.8.2026 of the High Court of Bombay in Writ Petition No.11127 of 2018 of M/s Star Developers through Partners Vs State of Maharashtra through Ministry of Revenue and others
Development Agreement – Revenue linked consideration counts for stamp duty
Bombay HC affirms revenue sharing in JV / Development Agreement of land is real consideration for stamp duty.
Deficit Stamp Duty – Development Agree & JV Agreement
Development Agreement dated 29.4.2013 provided for sharing of the revenue generated from the project between the parties.
The fact that the consideration is not a fixed amount in rupees does not mean that there is no consideration. Consideration can be agreed in different forms. Here, the amount which the owner was to receive was connected with the sale proceeds of the constructed units. Therefore, merely because the exact amount was not known on 29 April 2013, it cannot be said that there was no consideration at all.
The contention of revenue sharing is a future amount and therefore cannot be treated as present consideration because the future sale price of the flats was not known. This submission cannot be accepte. The exact amount which may be received may be uncertain. But the method by which that amount was to be calculated had been agreed between the parties. The parties had fixed a percentage of the sale proceeds as the basis of the consideration. Therefore, the future receipt cannot be treated as imaginary. The actual receipt may take place later. The contractual basis for that receipt was present on the date of the 16 Uploaded on – 28/08/2026 Downloaded on – 30/08/2026 21:54:58 26-WP-11127-2018-f.doc Agreement.
On the overall consideration of the matter, I therefore find that the Respondent Authorities were entitled to examine the Agreement under Section 32A. They were entitled to consider the owner’s agreed percentage of the gross sale proceeds as consideration and to determine the market value by applying Section 2(na).
