Registration vs. Stamping: Bombay High Court On Partition Deeds

Introduction

Can a civil court treat an unregistered partition deed as insufficiently stamped and refer it to the Collector of Stamps merely because the document creates substantive rights? In Balaso Bhimgonda Patil v. State of Maharashtra & Others, the Bombay High Court answered this question in the negative, holding that registration and stamping are distinct legal requirements the mere fact that a document is unregistered does not, by itself, justify its impounding under the Maharashtra Stamp Act, 1958.

The Underlying Dispute

The dispute arose in Regular Civil Suit No. 105 of 2014 pending before the Civil Judge, Senior Division, Gadhinglaj. The suit had been instituted by Tatyasaheb Bhimgonda Patil, Madhukar Bhimgonda Patil (Respondent Nos. 2 and 3) and other family members seeking partition of family properties and a declaration that the sale deed dated February 11, 2003 was not binding on them.