*. 129 



provision of popular and inexpensive tribunals for the settle- 

 ment of petty litigation. 



The duties levied under the general stamp law are not 

 very onerous as the rate for transfers of land ^^ on sales and 

 mortgages, which form the bulk of the transactions in regard 

 to which duties have to be paid, is only one per cent. The 

 provisions of the stamp law, which are based mainly on those 

 of the corresponding English Act, are not intelligible in 

 many respects, and this obscurity and the stringency of the 

 provisions made for ensuring compliance with the require- 

 ments of the law sometimes work considerable hardship to 

 ignorant and unlettered peasants who cannot afford to obtain 

 competent legal advice when they have documents to execute. 

 Much of this hardship has, however, been since removed by 

 the orders issued by Government making it obligatory on 

 officers of the Registration department to advise persons 

 consulting them as to the stamp duty payable on documents. 

 At present the opinion of the Registration officer is not 

 conclusive and does not relieve the person who has acted 

 upon it from responsibility for insufficient stamping. An 

 alteration of the law relieving from responsibility persons 

 whose documents have been accepted as sufficiently stamped 

 and acted on for registration purposes by an officer of the 

 Registration department will remove all room for complaint. 

 I do not believe that the revenue will be in the least affected 

 by this change of procedure, as the proceedings of the subor- 

 dinate officers of the Registration department are being very 

 closely scrutinized by the District Registrars in this respect 

 and any laxity observed is promptly taken notice of. 



55. The system of registration and authentication of docu- 

 ments is one of recent introduction and 



Registration fees. .i c iij^i j_ i • • 



the tees collected are, to a great extent, 

 devoted to the maintenance of the establishments required for 

 the purpose. The present revenue is about 11 lakhs of rupees, 

 of which about 8 lakhs of rupees are annually expended. 

 Further improvements in contemplation will reduce the sur- 

 plus, out of which have to be met the pensionary liabilities 

 as regards the officers employed in the department. The 

 registration fee amounts to '63 per cent, of the value of 

 the transaction in the case of sales and '60 per cent, in 

 the case of mortgages and is therefore very moderate. On 



*^ In France the value of immoveable property which changes hands by transfer 

 is estimated et 80 millions sterling and that which changes hands by succession 60 

 millions sterling. The duties charged on both amount to 8 millions or 5"7 per cent, on 

 the value of the property. 



17 



