Swatantra Bihar Sahkari Avas Samiti Ltd. vs The State of U.P. and Others

V.N. Khare, J.—Petitioner is a Housing Cooperative Society registered as such under the provisions of the U.P. Cooperative Societies'' Act 3 965 and the rules made there under By means of this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution, the Petitioner seeks quashing of orders dated 25-7-1990 and 12-7-1990 (Annexure 3 and 4 respectively to the writ petition). The order dated 12-7-1990 (Annexure 4 to the writ petition) is an order issued by the State Government u/s 9(1)(a) of the Indian Stamp Act 1899 (hereinafter referred as the ''Stamp Act'') read with Section 21 of the General Clauses Act, withdrawing the exemption from stamp duty chargeable on instruments executed in favour of any housing Cooperative Societies registered or deemed to be registered under any law relating to cooperative Societies for the time being in force with effect from 15th July 1990. The order dated 25th July 1990 (Annexure 3 to the writ petition) is in the nature of a circular issued by the Additional Secretary, Board of Revenue, Uttar Pradesh, Allahabad to all Additional District Magistrates (Finance and Revenue) informing them of the Government order dated 12-7-90.

Sri Murli Dhar, learned Senior Advocate, appearing for the Petitioner contended before us that the impugned order dated 12-7-1990 is characteristic of an executive instruction, in that it was duly published in the official Gazette and therefore the earlier notification/Government order issued by the State Government in exercise of its power u/s 9(1)(a) of the Act granting exemption to the Housing Cooperative Societies from liability to pay stamp duty, cannot be legally said to have been superseded. The submissions made by the Learned Counsel for the Petitioner proceeds on a wrong and fallacious assumption that the Government order dated 12-7-90 (Annexure 4 to the writ petition) was not published in the official gazette. As a matter of fact, the said Government order/notification No. SB-2260/XI-90-33-75, 1, July 12, 1990, was duly published in the U.P. Gazette (Extraordinary) Part-4, Section (kha) dated 15th July 1990 at page 2. This notification/Government order dated July 12, 1990, was issued by the State Government in exercise of power under Clause (a) of Sub-section (1) of Section 9 of the Act read with Section 21 of the General Clauses Act 1897 in partial modification of the previous notifications issued in this behalf withdrawing with effect from July 15, 1990, the exemption from stamp duty chargeable on instruments executed in favour of any housing Cooperative Societies registered or deemed to be registered under any law relating to cooperative societies for the time being in force in view of this, the submissions made by the Learned Counsel for the Petitioner are devoid of merits.

The Learned Counsel for the Petitioner then contended before us that the impugned order/notification dated 12-7-90 is discriminatory and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution, in that there are still certain cooperative societies exempted from stamp duty chargeable on instruments executed in their favour while exemption granted from Stamp duty chargeable on instruments executed in favour of the housing Cooperative Societies, has been withdrawn. This submission too of the ''earned counsel for the Petitioner does not carry any substance. It is not the case of the Petitioner that the cooperative societies other than the Housing Cooperative Societies still enjoying the exemption from stamp duty chargeable on instruments, executed in their favour, are similarly circumstanced. Article 14 of the Constitution ensures equality amongst equals and does not prohibit reasonable classification based upon an intelligible different is which distinguishes persons or things that are grouped together from others left out of the group. The expression "when executed by or in favour of any particular class of persons, or by or in favour of any members of such class" occurring in Section 9(1)(b) of the Act, empowers the State Government to exempt any particular class of cooperative society from stamp duty chargeable on instruments executed by such cooperative society. The U.P. Cooperative Societies Act 1968 also recognises different classes of cooperative societies. In the writ petition, there are no averments that the Housing Cooperative Societies are similarly circumstanced as the Cooperative Societies which still enjoy the exemption from stamp duty granted by notification dated 18th July 1979. In view of this, the submissions about discrimination and violation of equality clause enshrined in Article 14 of the Constitution, cannot be accepted. No other argument has been pressed into service before us.

In the result, the petition fails and is dismissed in limine.