Paying the right amount of stamp duty is only half the statutory command. The Rajasthan Stamp Act, 1998 also dictates the mode in which that duty must be expressed on the paper. Sections 10 to 16, grouped under the marginal heading "B. Of Stamps, and the mode of using them", tell us which stamps may be used, how adhesive stamps must be cancelled, how impressed-stamp paper must be written upon, and when a defectively stamped instrument is deemed unstamped. Get the mode wrong and an otherwise fully paid instrument may be treated as if it bore no stamp at all. This note maps the mode-of-stamping scheme against the definitions of "duly stamped" and "impressed stamp" and the leading case law.
The Statutory Anchor: "Duly Stamped"
Everything in this chapter is calibrated to the definition in section 2(xii). An instrument is "duly stamped" only when it "bears an adhesive or impressed stamp of not less than the proper amount and that such stamp has been affixed or used in accordance with law for the time being in force in the State." The definition carries two cumulative limbs: a quantum limb (not less than the proper amount, fixed by section 3 read with the Schedule) and a mode limb (affixed or used in accordance with law). Mode-of-stamping provisions police the second limb. An instrument carrying the correct value but stamped in the wrong manner fails the conjunctive test and is not duly stamped. The consequence is severe: under section 35 a document not duly stamped is inadmissible in evidence and cannot be acted upon until the defect is cured by paying duty and penalty before the Collector.
The Two Kinds of Stamps: Adhesive and Impressed
The Act recognises two species of stamp. An adhesive stamp is a label gummed onto the paper after the document is written. An impressed stamp, defined inclusively in section 2(xvi), covers labels affixed and impressed by the proper officer, stamps embossed or engraved on stamped paper, an impression by a franking machine, an impression or print on paper "by any other method including electronic method", and such other impressions as the State Government may notify. The 2013 amendment widening clause (d) to electronic methods is what permits e-stamping and online franking now used at Rajasthan sub-registrar offices. The distinction is not cosmetic: section 11 confines adhesive stamps to a short closed list of low-value or out-of-State instruments, while everything else must bear an impressed stamp. The kinds of stamp interlock with the schedule of article-wise duty, since the Schedule prescribes the amount and the rules under section 10 prescribe the description of stamp for each kind of instrument.
Section 10: Duties How to Be Paid
Section 10 is the gateway. Sub-section (1) directs that, except as otherwise expressly provided, all chargeable duties "shall be paid, and such payment shall be indicated on such instruments by means of stamps" either according to the provisions of the Act or, where none applies, as the State Government may by rule direct. Sub-section (2) authorises rules regulating the description of stamps usable for each kind of instrument, the number of impressed stamps usable, and the size of paper for bills of exchange and promissory notes; these are now the Rajasthan Stamp Rules, 2004. Sub-sections (3) to (6) form the franking-machine code: the Inspector General of Stamps may authorise the use of a franking or other notified machine, may authorise persons or organisations to operate one in the public interest having regard to the volume of instruments and duty, and "an impression made" under those sub-sections "shall have the same effect as if duty of an amount equal to the amount indicated in the impression has been paid." Franking is thus statutorily equated with payment by means of stamps.
Section 11: When Adhesive Stamps May Be Used
Section 11 lists the only five categories that may be stamped with adhesive stamps: (a) instruments chargeable with a duty not exceeding twenty paise, except certain parts of bills of exchange payable otherwise than on demand and drawn in sets; (b) bills of exchange and promissory notes drawn or made out of India; (c) entry as an advocate on the roll of a High Court; (d) notarial acts; and (e) transfers by endorsement of shares in any incorporated company or other body corporate. The list is exhaustive. An instrument outside these heads, for example a conveyance or a lease, cannot validly be stamped with adhesive labels and must bear an impressed stamp. The deliberate narrowness of section 11 reflects the legislature's distrust of adhesive stamps, which are easy to peel and reuse, and explains the strict cancellation duty in section 12 that follows. The twenty-paise ceiling in clause (a) confines adhesive stamping to trivial-duty instruments where the revenue risk from reuse is negligible, while clause (b) accommodates negotiable instruments originating abroad that could not practicably be written on Indian impressed paper. Clauses (c), (d) and (e) cover discrete acts, roll-entry, notarial acts and share-transfer endorsements, where affixing a label is the established commercial practice. Because the list is closed, an attempt to stamp, say, an agreement or a power of attorney with adhesive labels is simply an impermissible mode, and the instrument is treated as not stamped in the proper manner.
Section 12: Cancellation of Adhesive Stamps
Where an adhesive stamp is permissible, section 12 imposes a cancellation duty designed to defeat re-use. Sub-section (1)(a) requires the person affixing the stamp to cancel it when affixing, so that it cannot be used again; sub-section (1)(b) requires the executant of an instrument written on paper already bearing an adhesive stamp to cancel it at the time of execution unless already cancelled. The sanction is in sub-section (2): "Any instrument bearing an adhesive stamp which has not been cancelled so that it cannot be used again, shall, so far as such stamp is concerned, be deemed to be unstamped." An un-cancelled adhesive stamp is therefore treated as no stamp, and if the duty is wholly carried by that stamp the instrument is not duly stamped. Sub-section (3) is liberal on method: cancellation may be by writing the name or initials (with the true date) across the stamp "or in any other effectual manner." Courts read "effectual" purposively, a line drawn or signature across the stamp suffices if it makes re-use impossible; the test is effect, not form. The provision mirrors section 12 of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899, on which the body of precedent is directly transferable.
Section 13: How Impressed-Stamp Instruments Must Be Written
Section 13 governs the dominant mode. Every instrument written on impressed-stamp paper "shall be written in such manner that the stamp may appear on the face of the instrument and cannot be used for or applied to any other instrument." The object, as with cancellation, is single-use integrity. Two Explanations meet practical situations. Explanation 1 covers multi-sheet instruments where several impressed sheets make up the duty: either a portion of the instrument must be written on each sheet used, or the un-written sheet must be signed by the executant(s) with an endorsement that it is attached to the sheet bearing the writing. Explanation 2 permits sub-joining plain paper where a single impressed sheet is insufficient, provided a substantial part of the instrument is first written on the stamped sheet before any writing on the plain sub-joined paper. These rules prevent the stamp from floating free of the substantive text and being recycled onto another document.
Sections 14 and 15: One Instrument Per Stamp
Section 14 enforces the one-stamp-one-instrument principle: "No second instrument chargeable with duty shall be written upon a piece of stamped paper upon which an instrument chargeable with duty has already been written." A proviso saves an endorsement that is itself duly stamped or not chargeable, made for transferring a right created by the instrument or acknowledging receipt of money or goods secured by it. Section 15 supplies the teeth for both this section and section 13: "Every instrument written in contravention of section 13 or section 14 shall be deemed to be not duly stamped." Thus a conveyance written so that the stamp does not appear on its face, or a second chargeable instrument squeezed onto an already-used stamp paper, is by statutory fiction unstamped, regardless of the value actually borne. Section 15 is the bridge that converts a mode defect into the same disability as a quantum shortfall, attracting the inadmissibility consequences under section 35.
Section 16: Denoting Duty
Section 16 handles the dependent-duty situation. Where the duty chargeable on one instrument, or its exemption, depends on the duty actually paid on another instrument, the payment of that other duty "shall, if application is made in writing to the Collector for the purpose, and on production of both the instruments, be denoted upon such first mentioned instrument, by endorsement under the hand of the Collector or in such other manner" as may be prescribed. The classic illustration is a release or further charge whose duty turns on the duty paid on the principal mortgage. Denoting is the mechanism by which the connected payment is evidenced on the face of the dependent instrument, completing its mode of stamping. Without the denoting endorsement the dependent instrument may not demonstrate that it is duly stamped, so section 16 is functionally part of the mode-of-stamping machinery rather than a mere clerical convenience. The endorsement is conclusive only as to the connected payment it records; it does not certify that the dependent instrument is adequately stamped in every other respect, so the executant must still satisfy the quantum and mode limbs independently. In practice the denoting endorsement is sought when the dependent instrument is presented for registration, letting the registering officer verify the chain of duty before admitting the document.
Case Law: A Mode Defect Is Curable, Not Fatal
The Stamp Act is a fiscal statute, and the courts have consistently refused to let mode defects defeat substantive rights once revenue is secured. In Hindustan Steel Ltd. v. Dilip Construction Co. (1969) 1 SCC 597 : AIR 1969 SC 1238 the Supreme Court held that the Act "is not enacted to arm a litigant with a weapon of technicality"; an instrument not duly stamped may still be acted upon once duty and penalty are paid per the prescribed procedure. That principle governs cancellation and impressed-stamp defects equally: section 15 deems the instrument not duly stamped, but the deeming triggers the curative impounding mechanism, not destruction of the transaction. The Constitution Bench in In Re Interplay Between Arbitration Agreements under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 and the Indian Stamp Act, 1899, 2023 INSC 1066, reaffirmed that non-stamping or insufficient stamping is a "curable defect" rendering an instrument inadmissible but not void, overruling the contrary view in N.N. Global. A document failing the mode test under sections 12 to 15 is therefore in the same remediable position as one short-paid in amount.
Case Law: Stamp Defects, Validity and Market Value
Two further decisions bound the doctrine. In Thiruvengada Pillai v. Navaneethammal (2008) 4 SCC 530 the Supreme Court held that the Stamp Act prescribes no expiry date for the use of stamp paper; the six-month period in the refund provision governs only refund, so an instrument written on older stamp paper is not on that ground improperly stamped, though the age of the paper may be a circumstance bearing on the authenticity of the document. This confines mode objections to genuine non-compliance with sections 11 to 15 rather than to the vintage of the paper. On the State's interest in correct stamping, Government of Andhra Pradesh v. P. Laxmi Devi (2008) 4 SCC 720 : AIR 2008 SC 1640 upheld provisions empowering authorities to impound and recover deficit duty, emphasising that stamp legislation is a revenue measure to be construed to protect the exchequer while not destroying valuable rights. Read together, the cases tell the practitioner that mode-of-stamping rules are mandatory in form but remedial in operation: comply at execution, but if you slip, the cure lies in payment, not forfeiture.
Case Law: Adhesive Stamps, Promissory Notes and Penalty
The adhesive-stamp and impounding regime has been worked out most often on promissory notes, which under section 11 may bear adhesive stamps only when drawn or made out of India and otherwise require an impressed stamp cancelled at execution. In Gangappa v. Fakkirappa (2019) 3 SCC 788 the Supreme Court, dealing with an insufficiently stamped agreement, held that on impounding the court has no discretion to dilute the penalty fixed by the statute, the deficit duty plus the prescribed multiple must be levied before the instrument is admitted. The lesson for cancellation defaults is symmetrical: where an adhesive stamp is deemed un-cancelled under section 12(2), or an impressed-stamp instrument offends section 13, the instrument is impounded and the full statutory penalty attaches before it can be received in evidence. Careful cancellation at the moment of affixing or execution is therefore not a formality but the cheapest insurance against penalty. The mode-of-stamping provisions, in short, are best understood alongside the rules on the overall stamping framework and the time of stamping, which fix when these mode requirements must be satisfied.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between an adhesive stamp and an impressed stamp under the Rajasthan Stamp Act, 1998?
An adhesive stamp is a gummed label affixed to the paper after writing, permitted only for the five categories in section 11. An impressed stamp, defined in section 2(xvi), includes embossed or engraved stamped paper, franking-machine impressions, and impressions or prints by any method including electronic e-stamping. Most instruments must bear an impressed stamp.
What happens if an adhesive stamp is not cancelled?
Under section 12(2), an instrument bearing an adhesive stamp that has not been cancelled so that it cannot be used again is, so far as that stamp is concerned, deemed to be unstamped. If the whole duty is carried by the un-cancelled stamp, the instrument is not duly stamped and must be impounded and cured by duty and penalty before it can be admitted.
Does section 12 require any particular method of cancellation?
No. Section 12(3) allows cancellation by writing the name or initials, with the true date, on or across the stamp, "or in any other effectual manner." The test is effect: any mark that makes the stamp incapable of re-use is enough. A line or signature across the stamp at the time of affixing or execution will satisfy the section.
Is an instrument written contrary to section 13 or 14 void?
No. Section 15 deems it "not duly stamped", not void. Following Hindustan Steel Ltd. v. Dilip Construction Co. and In Re Interplay (2023 INSC 1066), the defect is curable: the instrument is inadmissible until duty and penalty are paid on impounding, after which it may be acted upon. The underlying transaction is not destroyed.
Can stamp paper become too old to use for stamping?
No. In Thiruvengada Pillai v. Navaneethammal (2008) 4 SCC 530 the Supreme Court held the Act prescribes no expiry for the use of stamp paper; the six-month limit applies only to refund. Old stamp paper is validly used, though its age may bear on the document's authenticity as a matter of evidence, not stamping.
What is denoting duty under section 16?
Where the duty on one instrument, or its exemption, depends on the duty actually paid on another, section 16 lets a party apply in writing to the Collector and produce both instruments so the paid duty is endorsed ("denoted") on the dependent instrument. This evidences, on the face of the dependent document, that it is correctly stamped, for example a release dependent on a mortgage's duty.