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5. We have considered the rival submissions, and have also gone through the pleadings, statutory provisions and precedents cited before us. To decide the issue in these cases, we have to consider the interplay between the statutory provisions under the Registration Act, 1908 and the Kerala Stamp Act, 1959. While the former is a regulatory legislation traceable to Entry 6 of List III under the VII th Schedule to the Constitution of India, the latter is a fiscal legislation traceable to Entry 44 of List III, as qualified by Entry 63 of List II thereof. The enforcement of the provisions of a fiscal legislation has necessarily to be through the machinery provided under that legislation, and not through the machinery provided under a general regulatory legislation. We have chosen to begin our discussion with the said observation because we find that in these cases, the State has resorted to the provisions of the Registration Act to try and recover dues under the Kerala Stamp Act.

6. The larger question, however, is whether the charge of stamp duty under the Kerala Stamp Act is attracted to a sale certificate issued by a bank/financial institution/revenue authority to an auction purchaser? To answer the said question, we need to first notice the relevant statutory provisions under the Kerala Stamp Act, 1959. 

& con. cases                                         :: 23 ::


                                                                                            2025:KER:53343



                 Section 2 (j):

8. The question as to whether a sale certificate qualifies to be an 'instrument' for the purposes of the Stamp Act and, if so, at what stage, has been considered by the Supreme Court in a plethora of cases. It would suffice for our purposes to notice only the recent judgment of the Supreme Court in State of Punjab & Another v. Ferrous Alloy & con. cases :: 27 ::

2025:KER:53343 Forgings (P) Ltd. & Ors - [2024 SCC Online SC 3372], where after referring to the earlier precedents in Municipal Corporation of Delhi v. Pramod Kumar Gupta - [(1991) 1 SCC 633], Smt. Shanti Devi L. Singh v. Tax Recovery Officer - [(1990) 3 SCC 605], B. Arvind Kumar v. Govt. of India - [(2007) 5 SCC 745], the court found for the purposes of the Registration Act that, a sale certificate issued to the purchaser pursuant to the confirmation of an auction sale, is merely evidence of such title and does not require registration under Section 17(1) of that Act. The court also observed that it is not the issuance of the sale certificate that transfers the title in the property in favour of the auction purchaser and that the title is transferred upon successful completion of the sale and its confirmation by the competent authority after all objections against the sale have been disposed of. This last observation of the court is significant for our present purposes since, as already noticed, the definition of 'instrument' under the Kerala Stamp Act, takes within its fold only such documents by which "any right or liability is, or purports to be, created, transferred, limited, extended, extinguished or recorded". Accordingly, it is only if and when the sale certificate in question creates, transfers, limits, extends, extinguishes or records a right or liability in praesenti that it becomes an 'instrument' for the purposes levy of stamp duty. A sale certificate, at the time of its issuance to an auction purchaser, does none of the above since it only records the fact of a transaction of sale having been concluded between the parties, without going further to adjudicate or express any opinion on the rights or liabilities of the parties to the said transaction. We are therefore clear in our minds that, at the time of its issuance to an auction & con. cases :: 28 ::

15. The upshot of the above discussions is that we find the judgments impugned in these writ appeals to be legally unassailable. While the registering authority under the Registration Act cannot exercise his powers under Sections 33 or 34 of the Kerala Stamp Act in relation to the copy of a sale certificate that is sent to him for filing in terms of Section 89(4) of the Registration Act, even the original of the sale certificate concerned will not attract the levy of stamp duty under the Kerala Stamp Act, save in the exceptional circumstances when it & con. cases :: 35 ::