The Time of Stamping

In one line

A document executed in Maharashtra must be stamped before or at the time of signing, or at latest on the next working day; one executed outside the State has three months from when it is first received here.

In exam wording: section 17 provides that all instruments chargeable with duty and executed by any person in this State shall be stamped before or at the time of execution, or immediately thereafter on the next working day following the day of execution.

Section 17: instruments executed in the State

The rule is strict and it is the opposite of the registration deadline. Stamping is not something to be attended to later: the duty must be on the document before or at the time of execution, and the only concession is that it may be done immediately thereafter, on the next working day following the day of execution.

The reason is that stamp duty is a tax on the instrument, and the instrument comes into existence on execution. A rule allowing months would let parties wait to see whether the document would ever be needed, and pay only if it was.

The proviso allows a clearance list described in the articles it names to be stamped by an officer authorised by the State Government under rules, where the list is submitted for stamping by the clearing house of an association in accordance with its rules. That is a machinery concession for stock-exchange clearing, not a general extension.

Section 18: instruments executed outside the State

Sub-section (1). Every instrument chargeable with duty executed only out of this State may be stamped within three months after it has been first received in this State.

Two elements: the instrument must have been executed only outside the State, and the three months runs from first receipt here, not from execution.

Sub-section (2). Where such an instrument cannot, with reference to the description of stamp prescribed for it, be duly stamped by a private person, it may be taken within that three months to the Collector, who shall stamp it in the manner prescribed by rules, with a stamp of such value as the person taking it requires and pays for.

Sub-section (2) exists because some kinds of stamp are not available over the counter. The party is not to be defeated by his inability to buy the right stamp himself.

Section 19: instruments executed outside the State and liable to increased duty here

Section 19 deals with the case where an instrument of a kind described in Schedule I, relating to property situate or to a matter or thing done or to be done in this State, is executed out of the State and afterwards that instrument, or a copy of it, is received in the State.