Decade on, notice to Rohtak woman for stamp duty evasion

Sunit Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, March 12

Despite having detected the evasion of stamp duty nearly a decade ago, the district revenue authorities failed to recover over Rs25 lakh from a local woman.

The case pertains to the registration of a gift deed involving a chunk of land from Sushila to her son Baljeet on June 10, 2008. However, an objection was raised to the execution of the said gift deed pertaining to the land located near Sheila bypass in Rohtak.

Raising the objection, Baljeet’s father Rattan Singh pointed out the land measuring 10 kanals and 14 marlas (nearly 6,500 square yards) was shown as agricultural land in the gift deed, while it was actually a commercial property.

In 2010, the matter went to the then Divisional Commissioner’s court, which remanded it back to the then Deputy Commissioner.

However, the case remained buried in official files for nearly a decade. The matter came to light after Rattan Singh’s other son Balvir moved an RTI application to know its details.

In the light of the information received in response to the RTI application, Balvir lodged a fresh complaint with the authorities concerned recently.

Acting on the complaint, the District Revenue Officer (DRO) got the matter examined and found an evasion of stamp duty to the tune of Rs25.83 lakh.

On being questioned about the inordinate delay in the disposal of the matter, DRO Poonam Babbar said she took appropriate action as soon as the case came to her notice.