SECRETARIAT OF THE KERALA LEGISLATURE

NOTIFICATION

No. 5030/Legn. 2/2012/Leg.

Dated, Thiruvananthapuram, 30th October 2012.

The Kerala Stamp (Amendment) Bill, 2012 together with the Statement of

Object and Reasons, the Financial Memorandum is published, under Rule 69 of

the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Kerala Legislative

Assembly.

P. K. MURALEEDHARAN,

Secretary-in-charge,

Legislative Assembly.

G. 90/2012/DTP.

Kerala Gazette No. 21 dated 30th October 2012.

PART II

Thirteenth Kerala Legislative Assembly

Bill No. 143

THE KERALA STAMP (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2012

BILL

further to amend the Kerala Stamp Act, 1959.

Preamble.—WHEREAS, it is expedient further to amend the Kerala Stamp

Act, 1959 for the purposes hereinafter appearing ;

BE it enacted in the Sixty-third Year of the Republic of India as follows:—

Short title and commencement.—(1) This Act may be called the Kerala

Stamp (Amendment) Act, 2012.

(2) It shall be deemed to have come into force on the 1st day of

April, 2010.

2. Amendment of section 28A.—In the Kerala Stamp Act, 1959 (17 of 1959)

(hereinafter referred to as the principal Act), in sub-section (4) of section 28A,—

(a) for the words “thirty days”, the words “one year” shall be

substituted ;

(b) to the existing provision, the following proviso shall be added,

namely:—

“Provided that the Collector may admit an appeal preferred after the

said period of one year if he is satisfied that the appellant had sufficient cause

for not preferring the appeal within the said period.”.

3. Validation.—Notwithstanding anything contained in the principal Act or

in any judgment, decree or order of any court or authority, all appeals filed or

deemed to have been filed by any person under sub-section (4) of section 28A

of the principal Act during the period on and from the 1st day of April, 2010 to

the 25th day of October, 2010, the date of publication of the Kerala Stamp

(Amendment) Ordinance, 2010 (54 of 2010), and any action taken or deemed to

have been taken by any authority in respect of such appeal, not inconsistent

with the provisions of the principal Act as amended by this Act, shall be

deemed to have been validly filed or taken under the principal Act as amended

by this Act.

4. Repeal and saving.—(1) The Kerala Stamp (Amendment) Ordinance,

2012 (47 of 2012) is hereby repealed.

(2) Notwithstanding such repeal, anything done or deemed to have

been done or any action taken or deemed to have been taken under the

principal Act as amended by the said Ordinance shall be deemed to have been

done or taken under the principal Act as amended by this Act.

STATEMENT OF OBJECTS AND REASONS

Sub-section (1) of section 28A of the Kerala Stamp Act, 1959 (17 of 1959)

empowers the Revenue Divisional Officer to fix the fair value of the lands situate

within the area of his jurisdiction for the purpose of determining the duty

chargeable at the time of registration of instruments involving lands.

Accordingly, twenty one Revenue Divisional Officers in the State have fixed the

fair value of lands in the State and necessary Gazette notification was published

in the Kerala Gazette Extraordinary No. 515 dated 6th March, 2010.

2. Sub-section (4) of the said section provides that any person aggrieved

by the fixation of fair value under sub-section (1), may within thirty days of its

publication under sub-section (3), appeal to the Collector. As it was found

necessary to provide further time to the persons aggrieved by fixation of fair

value to file appeal, Government decided to extend the time limit for filing appeal

under sub-section (4) of section 28A from thirty days to ninety days.

As the Gazette notification fixing fair value of land was published on 6th March,

2010, in order to carry out the purpose, the Government consider it necessary to

give retrospective effect to the amendment from the 1st day of April, 2010.

3. As the Legislative Assembly was not in session and as the above

proposals had to be given effect to immediately, the Governor of Kerala had

promulgated the Kerala Stamp (Amendment) Ordinance, 2010 on the 26th day of

May, 2010 and the same was published as Ordinance No. 20 of 2010 in the

Kerala Gazette Extraordinary No. 1223 dated 27th May, 2010.

4. A Bill to replace the Kerala Stamp (Amendment) Ordinance, 2010

(20 of 2010) by an Act of the State Legislature could not be introduced in, and

passed by, the Legislative Assembly of the State of Kerala during its session

which commenced on the 28th day of June, 2010 and ended on the 29th day of

July, 2010. Therefore, in order to keep alive the provisions of the said

Ordinance, the Kerala Stamp (Amendment) Ordinance, 2010 was promulgated by

the Governor of Kerala on the 8th day of August, 2010 and the same was

published as Ordinance No. 39 of 2010 in the Kerala Gazette Extraordinary

No. 1819 dated 8th August, 2010.

5. Since the Gazette notification fixing fair value of land was published on

6th March, 2010 and the appeal period extended to ninety days by Ordinance

No. 39 of 2010, expired on 4th June, 2010. The Government have examined the

matter again in detail and found it necessary to further extend the time limit for

filing appeal to one year from the date of publication of notification fixing the fair

value of land and to empower the District Collector to admit appeal even

after the period of one year, if he is satisfied that the appellant had sufficient

cause for not preferring the appeal within the stipulated period.

As the Legislative Assembly was not in session and the above

proposals had to be given effect to immediately, the Kerala Stamp (Amendment)

Ordinance, 2010 repealing the Kerala Stamp (Amendment) Ordinance, 2010

(39 of 2010) and giving retrospective effect to the provisions of the Ordinance

from the 1st day of April, 2010 and by validating all acts done or deemed to have

been done during the period, was promulgated by the Governor of Kerala on the

22nd day of October, 2010 and the same was published as Ordinance No. 54 of

2010 in the Kerala Gazette Extraordinary No. 2357 dated 25th October, 2010.

7. A Bill to replace the Kerala Stamp (Amendment) Ordinance, 2010

(54 of 2010) by an Act of the State Legislature could not be introduced in, and

passed by, the Legislative Assembly of the State of Kerala during its session

which commenced on the 21st day of December, 2010 and ended on the 3rd day

of January, 2011. Therefore, in order to keep alive the provisions of the said

Ordinance, the Kerala Stamp (Amendment) Ordinance, 2011 was promulgated by

the Governor of Kerala on the 22nd day of January, 2011 and the same was

published as Ordinance No. 5 of 2011 in the Kerala Gazette Extraordinary

No. 151 dated 23rd January, 2011.

8. A Bill to replace the Kerala Stamp (Amendment) Ordinance, 2011 (5 of

2011) by an Act of the State Legislature could not be introduced in, and passed

by, the Legislative Assembly of the State of Kerala during its session which

commenced on the 4th day of February, 2011 and ended on the 24th day of

February, 2011. Therefore, in order to keep alive the provisions of the said

Ordinance, the Kerala Stamp (Amendment) Ordinance, 2011 was promulgated by

the Governor of Kerala on the 17th day of March, 2011 and the same was

published as Ordinance No. 30 of 2011 in the Kerala Gazette Extraordinary

No. 654 dated 18th March, 2011.

9. A Bill to replace the said Ordinance by an Act of the State Legislature

could not be introduced in, and passed by, the Legislative Assembly of the

State of Kerala during its session which commenced on the 1st day of June,

2011 and ended on the 20th day of July, 2011.

10. As per the provisions of sub-clause (a) of clause (2) of article 213 of

the Constitution of India, an Ordinance promulgated shall cease to operate at

the expiration of six weeks from the re-assembly of the Legislature. Accordingly,

the said Ordinance ceased to operate on the 13th day of July, 2011.

11. As the Legislative Assembly was not in session and the provisions of

the said Ordinance had to be kept alive again and for validating anything done

or deemed to have been done or any action taken or deemed to have been taken

under the principal Act as amended by the Kerala Stamp (Amendment)

Ordinance, 2011 (30 of 2011) and also during the period from the 1st day of April,

2010 to the 25th day of October, 2010 in the matter of filing appeal under sub-

section (4) of section 28A by any person and any action taken in furtherance

thereof by any authority and anything done or any action taken after the cesser

of operation of the Kerala Stamp (Amendment) Ordinance, 2011 (30 of 2011), the

Kerala Stamp (Amendment) Ordinance, 2012 was promulgated by the Governor of

Kerala on the 16th day of January, 2012 and the same was published as

Ordinance No. 2 of 2012 in the Kerala Gazette Extraordinary No. 113 dated

17th day of January, 2012.

12. A Bill to replace the Kerala Stamp (Amendment) Ordinance, 2012

(2 of 2012) by an Act of the State Legislature could not be introduced in, and

passed by, the Legislative Assembly of the State of Kerala during its session

which commenced on the 1st day of March, 2012 and ended on the 23rd day of

March, 2012. Therefore, in order to keep alive the provisions of the said

Ordinance, the Kerala Stamp (Amendment) Ordinance, 2012 was promulgated by

the Governor of Kerala on the 11th day of April, 2012 and the same was

published as Ordinance No. 28 of 2012 in the Kerala Gazette Extraordinary

No. 730 dated 11th April, 2012.

13. Though a Bill to replace the Kerala Stamp (Amendment) Ordinance,

2012 (28 of 2012) by an Act of the State Legislature was published as Bill No. 98

of the Thirteenth Kerala Legislative Assembly, the same could not be introduced

in, and passed by, the Legislative Assembly of the State of Kerala during its

session which commenced on the 11th day of June, 2012 and ended on the 25th

day of July, 2012.

14.

As per the provisions of sub-clause (a) of clause (2) of article 213 of

the Constitution of India, an Ordinance promulgated shall cease to operate at

the expiration of six weeks from the re-assembly of the Legislature. Accordingly

the said Ordinance ceased to operate on the 23rd day of July, 2012.

15. As the Legislative Assembly was not in session and the provisions of

the said Ordinance had to be kept alive again and for validating anything done

or deemed to have been done or any action taken or deemed to have been taken

under the principal Act as amended by the Kerala Stamp (Amendment)

Ordinance, 2012 (28 of 2012) and anything done or any action taken after the

cesser of operation of the above said Ordinance, the Kerala Stamp (Amendment)

Ordinance, 2012 was promulgated by the Governor of Kerala on the 11th day of

August, 2012 and the same was published as Ordinance No. 47 of 2012 in the

Kerala Gazette Extraordinary No. 1702 dated 13th August, 2012.

16. The Bill seeks to replace Ordinance No. 47 of 2012 by an Act of the

State Legislature.

FINANCIAL MEMORANDUM

The Bill, if enacted and brought into operation, would not involve any

additional expenditure from the Consolidated Fund of the State.

ANOOP JACOB.