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Section 47-A of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 provides as under :-

"47-A" Instruments undervalued, how to be, dealt with :--(1) If the Registering Officer appointed under the Registration Act, 1908 (No.16 of 1908), while registering any instrument finds that the market value of any property which is the subject matter of such instrument has been set forth less than the minimum value determined in accordance with any rules under this Act, he shall before registering such instrument refer the same to the Collector for the determination of the market value of such property and the proper duty payable thereon.
[(1-A) Where the market value as set forth in the instrument is not less than the minimum value determined in accordance with any rules under this Act, and the Registering Officer has reason to believe that the market value has not been truly set forth in the instrument, he shall register such instrument and thereafter refer the same to the Collector for determination of market value of such property and proper duty thereon.] (2) On receipt of a reference under sub-section (1), the Collector shall, after giving the parties a reasonable opportunity of being heard and after holding an enquiry in such manner, as may be prescribed, determine the market value of the property which is the subject matter of such instrument and the duty as aforesaid.

23. Scope of Section 47A is different from the scope of Section

33. Section 47A as obtaining in the State of M.P. provides and deals with an instrument which is undervalued. Therefore, the scope of Section 47A is only to examine whether the properties mentioned in an instrument presented to the officer concerned is properly valued or not i.e. true and correct value of the property as per the market guidelines has been disclosed or not. Sub-Section 1 of Section 47A clearly provides that while registering any instrument, if the registering authority finds that the market-value of any property which is the subject matter of such instrument has been set-forth less than the minimum value determined in accordance with any rules under this Act, he shall before registering such instrument refer the same to the Collector for determination of the market-value of such property and the proper duty payable thereon. Thus, there is no provision under Section 47-A to impound a document. It only deals with determination of market value, whereas Section 33 empowers an authority except an officer of police, before whom any instrument chargeable, in his opinion, with duty, is produced or comes in the performance of his functions, shall, if it appears to him that such instrument is not duly stamped, impound the same. In this Section, 'shall' cannot be read as 'may', as has been held by Supreme Court in case of Government of Andhra Pradesh v. P. Laxmi Devi (2008) 4 SCC 720(735). Under Section 47A market value of any property, which is subject matter of conveyance as fixed by or on behalf of the Central Government or the State Government or any authority or body incorporated by or under any law for the time being in force, shall be estimated to be the price which, in the opinion of the Collector or the Appellate Authority, as the case may be, such property would have fetched or would fetch, if sold in the market on the date of execution of instrument, whereas under Section 33 of the Stamp Act requirement is two fold; firstly to examine such document or conveyance whether such instrument is duly stamped or not and if in the opinion of such officer, it is not duly stamped, then to impound the same. Sub-section 2 of Section 33 clearly provides that for the purpose of Section 33 every such person shall examine every instrument so chargeable and so produced or coming before him, in order to ascertain whether it is stamped with a stamp of the value and description required by the law in force when such instrument was executed or first executed. Once a document is impounded, then the course which follows is prescribed under Section 38 of the Stamp Act or under Section 40 or 41, as the case may be.