Once a writing crosses the threshold of being an instrument chargeable under Section 3, the question shifts from whether to how much — and that answer lives in the Schedule. The Rajasthan Stamp Act, 1998 taxes each named instrument by its own article: a conveyance at eleven percent of market value, a settlement at the gentler Bond rate, a power of attorney at a flat fee unless it is dressed as a sale. This note walks the high-frequency articles — conveyance (No. 21), gift (No. 31), mortgage (No. 37), lease (No. 33), partition (No. 42), power of attorney (No. 44), release (No. 48) and settlement (No. 51) — pairing each rate with the Supreme Court authority that decides classification, because in stamp law the rate follows the name, and the name follows the substance.
How the Schedule Sets a Rate
Section 3 makes the listed instruments "chargeable with duty of the amount indicated in the Schedule as the proper duty therefor". The Schedule does the arithmetic in three modes. Some articles fix a flat sum (a charter party at twenty rupees, a notarial act at ten). Some charge a defined percentage of market value — conveyance of immovable property at eleven percent. And many borrow another article's rate by cross-reference: a mortgage with possession is charged "the same duties on a conveyance (No. 21)", a settlement "the same duty as on a Bond (No. 14)", and a release in the open market "same duty as on conveyance (No. 21)". This borrowing technique means you must trace the chain — name the instrument, find its article, follow any cross-reference, and only then compute.
The base reference rates are themselves examinable: Bond (Article 14, as defined in s.2(vi)) carries five percent of the amount or value; Conveyance (Article 21) carries eleven percent of the market value of immovable property, half a percent for movable property, and ten percent on an amalgamation order under section 394 of the Companies Act, 1956. Because so many articles defer to Bond or Conveyance, those two rates effectively anchor the entire fiscal structure of the Schedule, and a candidate who fixes them can derive most others.
Conveyance — Article 21
Conveyance is the workhorse and the costliest head. Article 21 charges, for immovable property, eleven percent of the market value of the property; for movable property, half a percent of market value; and for an amalgamation ordered by the High Court under section 394 of the Companies Act, 1956, ten percent of the market value (deemed to be the total value of shares issued by the transferee plus any consideration). The choice of "market value" rather than the consideration recited in the deed is deliberate anti-avoidance drafting, and it is why an under-stated price does not lower the duty — the machinery of Section 51 stands ready to substitute the true market value.
The breadth of the conveyance head was settled by the Supreme Court in Hindustan Lever v. State of Maharashtra, (2004) 9 SCC 438, which held that a court order sanctioning an amalgamation is itself an instrument and a conveyance because it vests property and has "all the trappings of a sale"; duty attaches to the writing, not the deal. Rajasthan has codified that result by naming s.394 orders in both the definition of conveyance in s.2(xi) and in Article 21 itself. The residuary character of the head — it captures any inter vivos transfer "not otherwise specifically provided for by the Schedule" — means conveyance is the default classification, and the rate that avoidance schemes most often try to escape.
Agreement to Sell and the Possession Fiction
The most heavily-tested feature of Article 21 is its Explanation (i): an agreement to sell immovable property, an irrevocable power of attorney, or any instrument executed in the course of conveyance — including allotment letters, patta and licence — is deemed to be a conveyance, and stamped accordingly, wherever possession of the property is transferred before, at the time of, or after execution. The proviso applies Section 51 to such deemed conveyances mutatis mutandis, and allows the duty already paid to be adjusted against the eventual conveyance. The legislative target is the notorious "GPA sale".
This codifies the reasoning of Suraj Lamp & Industries (P) Ltd. v. State of Haryana, (2012) 1 SCC 656, where the Supreme Court condemned sale-cum-GPA-cum-will transactions, holding that immovable property can be transferred only by a registered deed of conveyance and that GPA sales "do not convey any title nor create any interest". Rajasthan's response is fiscal: rather than recognise the GPA as a transfer, the Schedule taxes it as if it were a conveyance the moment possession passes, removing the duty incentive to use the device. For aspirants the rule is mechanical — wherever possession accompanies an agreement to sell or an irrevocable POA over immovable property, apply the eleven-percent conveyance rate, not the nominal agreement or POA rate.
Power of Attorney — Article 44
Power of attorney, as defined in s.2(xxx), is ordinarily a low-duty instrument: Article 44 charges ten rupees for a single-transaction or registration POA, thirty rupees for up to five attorneys acting in more than one transaction, fifty rupees for six-to-ten attorneys, and ten rupees per person otherwise. The sting is in clauses (e) and (ee). Under clause (e), a POA given for consideration and authorising the attorney to sell immovable property attracts "the same duty as on a conveyance (No. 21) for the amount of the consideration" — full ad valorem duty. Clause (ee), inserted by the Rajasthan Finance Act, 2005, charges a gratuitous POA to sell or transfer immovable property to a non-relative at two thousand rupees, but at two percent of market value for a stranger, with adjustment against a conveyance executed within three years.
The graded structure exists precisely because a sale-empowering POA is a conveyance substitute, and Suraj Lamp warned against letting it masquerade as a mere agency document. Read with the Explanation to Article 21, the effect is that an irrevocable sale POA coupled with possession is taxed as a conveyance, while a consideration-backed sale POA is taxed at the conveyance rate on the consideration — two independent routes to the same anti-avoidance end. The examiner's trap is to apply the flat ten-rupee rate to every POA; the correct method is to ask whether the POA empowers a sale of immovable property and whether consideration or possession is present.
Mortgage Deed — Article 37
Article 37 charges a mortgage deed (as defined in s.2(xxiv)) by whether possession passes. Clause (a) — where possession of the mortgaged property is given or agreed to be given — attracts "the same duties on a conveyance (No. 21) for a consideration equal to the amount secured", i.e. the full ad valorem conveyance rate. Clause (b) — possession not given — attracts "the same duty as on a Bond (No. 14)", the lower five-percent rate. An Explanation deems the mortgagor to give possession where he grants the mortgagee a power of attorney to collect rents or a lease of the mortgaged property, closing an obvious avoidance gap. Clause (c) taxes a collateral or auxiliary security, where the principal security is already stamped, at a nominal slab of ten rupees per thousand secured.
The possession-based split mirrors the economic reality that a possessory mortgage approaches an outright transfer, while a simple mortgage merely creates a charge. The multi-lender problem under a single security document is governed not by Article 37 alone but by the distinct-matters rule: in Chief Controlling Revenue Authority v. Coastal Gujarat Power Ltd., (2015) 10 SCC 700, the Supreme Court held that a single mortgage executed in favour of a security trustee for a consortium of thirteen lenders comprised distinct transactions, each separately chargeable. That outcome flows from Section 6 (several distinct matters), discussed in the liability note, and is a favourite cross-over question linking Article 37 to the charging rules.
Lease — Article 33
Article 33 covers a lease, under-lease, sub-lease and any agreement to let, and its rate turns on the consideration structure. Where rent is fixed and no premium is paid, the duty tracks Article 14 (Bond) computed on the amount payable, scaled by term — a short lease being charged on the whole rent payable, longer leases and perpetual or unspecified-term leases attracting progressively higher treatment. Where a premium is paid, the premium is charged as on a conveyance. A lease for agricultural cultivation, including a lease of trees for food or drink, is exempt. The interplay of rent, premium and term makes lease one of the more computation-heavy articles.
Classification matters because a transaction styled a "licence" but conferring exclusive possession may in substance be a lease, and the converse, so duty follows the legal character of the rights created rather than the label. This is the substance-over-nomenclature discipline that pervades the Schedule and that Section 53 enforces administratively by empowering the Collector to determine the "correct nature of the document". Where a so-called lease in fact effects a transfer of the leasehold by assignment, Article 55 taxes the transfer of lease by assignment at the conveyance rate on the market value, preventing the lease label from buying a discount on what is really a sale of the leasehold interest.
Settlement — Article 51
Settlement, defined in s.2(xxxiv), is taxed under Article 51 at "the same duty as on a Bond (No. 14) for a sum equal to the amount or value of the property settled" — five percent of the settled value, materially below the eleven-percent conveyance rate. A proviso caps the duty on a settlement executed in pursuance of a duly-stamped agreement to settle at ten rupees, avoiding double charge. A revocation of settlement under clause (b) is charged as a Bond on the value concerned but capped at fifty rupees. Crucially, the Article exempts a deed of dower (mahr) executed on the occasion of a marriage between Mohammedans — a Rajasthan-specific exemption worth memorising.
The concessional rate is the prize that avoidance seeks, so the boundary with conveyance is fiercely policed. A deed labelled "settlement" that in substance sells property for a price is stamped as a conveyance; the defining feature of a true settlement is its provisioning purpose — marriage, distribution of family property, provision for a dependant, or religion or charity — not its title. Where a settlement burdens the beneficiary with the settlor's debts or an annuity, that consideration can convert it, pro tanto, into a conveyance. The classification turns on the operative recitals, as explained in the companion note on the definitions.
Gift — Article 31
A gift, under Article 31 (and not being a settlement under Article 51), attracts "the same duty as on a conveyance (No. 21) for a market value equal to the market value of the property" — the full conveyance rate, because a gift is a present inter vivos transfer of ownership, merely without price. A pointed proviso defeats a common drafting trick: where an instrument of gift contains a provision for revocation of the gift, the market value is computed "as if no such provision were contained in the instrument". A donor cannot, therefore, depress the duty by reserving a power to revoke.
The gift-versus-settlement line is the high-yield distinction here. A transfer out of natural love and affection to a single donee is a gift, taxed at the conveyance rate; the same generosity structured to distribute property among family members for their provision is a settlement, taxed at the gentler Bond rate. Because Article 31 expressly carves out settlements, the classification is dispositive of a roughly six-percentage-point swing in duty, and Section 53 allows the Collector to recharacterise a misclassified deed and recover the deficient duty with penalty. The lesson is that the provisioning purpose, not the affection, drives the article.
Partition, Release and Exchange
These three transfer-adjacent heads recur in family-property questions. An instrument of partition (Article 42, defined in s.2(xx)) is charged as a conveyance on the value of the separated share or shares, with the largest share notionally treated as the one from which the others are separated; a partition following a duly-stamped agreement, or in pursuance of a court or arbitral partition order already stamped, attracts only a nominal ten rupees. A release (Article 48), whereby a co-owner, co-sharer or co-parcener renounces an interest in favour of another co-owner, is charged at a flat one hundred rupees where the release is of ancestral property among the specified close relatives, but "same duty as on conveyance (No. 21)" on the market value of the share renounced in any other case.
The release rate hinges on whether the renunciation is a true relinquishment among co-owners or an operative transfer. In Kuppuswami Chettiar v. Arumugam Chettiar, AIR 1967 SC 1395, the Supreme Court held that a release deed can operate as a conveyance where it transfers an interest for consideration, so a "release" by a stranger, or one carrying consideration, is taxed as a conveyance. Exchange of property (Article 29) is charged "as on a conveyance (No. 21)" computed on the market value of the property of greater value exchanged. Across all three heads the pattern holds: the concessional family rate attaches only to a genuine internal adjustment among co-owners or kin, and any element of outward transfer or consideration pulls the instrument up to the conveyance rate.
One Deed, Several Charges
Identifying the article is only half the exercise; the charging rules then calibrate quantum. Section 6 provides that an instrument comprising several distinct matters is chargeable with the aggregate of the duties payable on separate instruments for each matter — the basis of Member, Board of Revenue v. Arthur Paul Benthall, AIR 1956 SC 35, and of Coastal Gujarat Power. Section 7 provides that an instrument falling within two or more Schedule descriptions, where the duties differ, is chargeable only with the highest. And Section 5 provides that where several instruments are employed to complete a single transaction of sale, mortgage or settlement, only the principal instrument bears the Schedule duty and the others are exempt — a Rajasthan feature distinct from States that charge the ancillaries a nominal sum.
The sequencing matters: first apply Section 7 to pick the governing description where heads overlap, then Section 6 to aggregate genuinely distinct matters, then Section 5 to relieve the ancillary instruments of a single transaction. A deed that both conveys and leases distinct properties is two matters under Section 6; a deed that could be read as either a conveyance or a settlement is one instrument taxed at the higher rate under Section 7. These rules are developed in the liability of instruments note and are routinely combined with the article rates above in problem questions.
Market Value and Undervaluation Machinery
Because the costliest articles — conveyance, gift, exchange, possessory mortgage, open-market release — are pinned to "market value", the Act needs machinery to police understatement, and Section 51 supplies it. A registering officer who, while registering an immovable-property instrument chargeable on market value, has reason to believe the value has not been truly set forth may refer it to the Collector, who after enquiry determines the true market value and the duty, and may levy a penalty not exceeding ten times the deficient duty. The Collector may also act suo motu or on a reference from any authority receiving evidence, and the Explanation to Article 21 applies this very machinery to deemed conveyances arising from agreements to sell and irrevocable POAs.
The constitutional validity of analogous market-value machinery was upheld in Government of A.P. v. P. Laxmi Devi, (2008) 4 SCC 720, where the Supreme Court sustained the reference power as a legitimate anti-evasion measure under the State's taxing competence, striking down only a pre-condition requiring deposit of half the differential duty as arbitrary under Article 14. The companion Section 53 lets the Collector determine the "correct nature of the document" where it has been misclassified — the administrative arm of the substance-over-form principle, enabling recharacterisation of a mislabelled settlement, gift or release and recovery of the deficient duty with penalty. Together, Sections 51 and 53 ensure that neither under-valuation nor mis-naming defeats the article rate, and they round out any answer on duty on specific instruments alongside the time and mode of stamping.
Frequently asked questions
What is the stamp duty on a conveyance of immovable property under the Rajasthan Stamp Act, 1998?
Article 21 of the Schedule charges eleven percent of the market value of immovable property, half a percent for movable property, and ten percent on a section 394 amalgamation order. Duty is computed on market value, not the recited price, and undervaluation can be corrected by the Collector under Section 51.
How is a power of attorney to sell immovable property stamped?
Ordinary POAs carry nominal duty under Article 44, but clause (e) charges a POA given for consideration to sell immovable property the same duty as a conveyance (No. 21) on the consideration. Read with the Explanation to Article 21, an irrevocable sale POA coupled with possession is taxed as a conveyance — the legislative answer to GPA sales condemned in Suraj Lamp & Industries v. State of Haryana, (2012) 1 SCC 656.
Why does a settlement attract lower duty than a conveyance?
Article 51 charges a settlement at the Bond (No. 14) rate of five percent of the settled value, against eleven percent for a conveyance, because a settlement is a non-commercial disposition for marriage, family provision, dependence or charity. But a deed styled 'settlement' that in substance sells property for a price is stamped as a conveyance — substance over nomenclature.
When is a mortgage deed charged at the conveyance rate?
Under Article 37, a mortgage where possession of the property is given or agreed to be given is charged the same duty as a conveyance (No. 21) on the amount secured. A mortgage without possession is charged at the lower Bond (No. 14) rate. Granting the mortgagee a rent-collection POA or a lease is deemed to give possession.
Is a release deed always exempt or concessionally stamped?
No. Article 48 charges only a hundred rupees for a release of ancestral property among specified close relatives; any other release attracts conveyance-rate duty on the market value of the share renounced. In Kuppuswami Chettiar v. Arumugam Chettiar, AIR 1967 SC 1395, the Supreme Court held a release can operate as a conveyance where it transfers an interest, so a release for consideration or by a stranger is taxed as a conveyance.
What happens if an instrument is undervalued or misclassified?
Section 51 lets the Collector determine true market value and levy duty plus a penalty up to ten times the deficient duty; Section 53 lets the Collector determine the correct nature of a misclassified document and recover the shortfall. The validity of such market-value machinery was upheld in Government of A.P. v. P. Laxmi Devi, (2008) 4 SCC 720.