Stamp valuation cannot rest solely on Jantri rates; authorities must consider all relevant factors.

The petitioner purchased two plots bearing Revenue Survey No. 499 paiki, Plot Nos. 23 and 24, admeasuring 1,281.22 sq. metres, under a sale deed executed on 17 April 1999 and registered on 10 March 2000.

The stated consideration was approximately ₹1,55,000, on which stamp duty of ₹21,700 was paid.

After nearly thirteen years, the authorities issued a show-cause notice dated 7 February 2013, alleging that the property ought to have been valued at ₹23,25,500 on the basis of the applicable Jantri value and demanding deficit stamp duty and penalty.

The Deputy Collector, Stamp Duty Valuation, Rajkot, directed the petitioner to pay ₹2,30,550 by order dated 29 January 2016.

The Chief Controlling Revenue Authority dismissed the petitioner’s appeal on 8 August 2016, holding that the Jantri value prevailing on the date of registration, following its revision on 1 November 1999, was applicable.

The petitioner challenged both orders under Article 226 of the Constitution, limiting the challenge before the High Court to the authorities’ reliance solely on the Jantri value.

Whether the authorities were justified in determining the market value of the property solely on the basis of the prevailing Jantri value, without considering other relevant or special circumstances affecting the property’s actual market value.

Whether the orders dated 29 January 2016 and 8 August 2016, directing recovery of deficit stamp duty and penalty, were legally sustainable in light of the Full Bench decision in Vasantbhai Haribhai Gajera v. Chief Controlling Revenue Authority.

The Court applied the principle laid down by the Full Bench in Vasantbhai Haribhai Gajera v. Chief Controlling Revenue Authority, Stamp Reference Nos. 1 and 2 of 2014, decided on 22 August 2016, that Jantri value may be used as a basis for assessing property valuation but cannot automatically be treated as conclusive of market value.

The purchaser must be given an opportunity to establish special circumstances—such as the property’s particular location or inferior access—which may cause it to fetch less than comparable property situated on a main road.

The authority must therefore consider all relevant factors bearing on the correct market value and cannot confine its assessment solely to the Jantri rate.

The judgment does not identify or decide any specific statutory provision of the Gujarat Stamp law beyond the stamp-duty valuation proceedings.

The Deputy Collector and the appellate authority determined the property’s value by relying exclusively on the applicable Jantri rate, particularly the rate prevailing on the date of registration, without examining any other factor affecting the property’s actual market value.

Applying the Full Bench’s rule, the High Court held that Jantri value is not determinative in every case and that the purchaser must have an opportunity to demonstrate circumstances capable of lowering the property’s market value.

Since the record disclosed no consideration of such factors by either authority, the valuation exercise suffered from a material legal error.

The Court accordingly declined to examine the petitioner’s other merits-based objections and confined its decision to the impermissible exclusive reliance on Jantri value.

The matter was remanded to the Deputy Collector, Stamp Duty Valuation, Rajkot, for fresh determination of the property’s market value after considering all relevant factors and without confining the assessment solely to the Jantri value prevailing on the date of registration.

All parties’ rights and contentions were kept open; the Court clarified that it had not examined any other aspect of the dispute.

Rule was made absolute, with no order as to costs.