Bombay High Court Judgment On Stamp Duty Payable On Inter-State Amalgamations

The Hon'ble High Court of Bombay on March 31, 2016 has held that where a Scheme of Amalgamation is executed between two companies registered in two different states pursuant to which two orders of two different high courts are issued for sanctioning of the Scheme of Amalgamation, then the said two orders are two independent instruments. The said two orders cannot be said to be same document especially when the two orders are issued upon two different petitions for two different companies.

Thus, as per the High Court of Bombay, stamp duty becomes payable on all the orders of the High Court/s sanctioning a Scheme of Amalgamation and no set off can be claimed for stamp duty paid in another state in cases where one of the orders sanctioning the Scheme of Amalgamation is of the High Court of Bombay, in terms of Section 4 read with Section 19 of the Bombay Stamp Act, 1958.