A Lease Sat With the Collector of Stamps for Eight Years. The Bombay High Court Says the Registration Clock Did Not Run.

Kalpataru Gardens signed a 999-year lease of land in Bhandup on 14 July 2017 and sent it for stamp adjudication on 9 August 2017. The Collector of Stamps passed the final order on 3 April 2025. The Sub-Registrar then refused to register the lease because the four months allowed by the Registration Act had long run out. On 29 September 2026 the Bombay High Court held that the adjudication time must be left out of that count, and set the refusal aside.

The case

The judgment is in Writ Petition No. 1962 of 2026, Kalpataru Gardens Limited & Anr. v. The State of Maharashtra & Ors., 2026:BHC-OS:21314-DB, CNR HCBM020207242025. A Division Bench of Chief Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi and Justice Advait M. Sethna heard it, reserved it on 23 September 2026 and pronounced it on 29 September 2026. The Chief Justice wrote the judgment. It runs to 16 pages.

The petitioners are the two parties to the lease: the lessor and the lessee. The respondents are the State, the Collector of Stamps and the Joint Sub-Registrar.

The eight years, in the court's order

The court set out the record (paragraphs 4 to 15):

• 14 July 2017. Indenture of lease for 1,050 square metres at Survey No. 201 (part), CTS No. 283/A (part), Village Bhandup, Taluka Kurla, for 999 years, at Rs 1 a year rent and a one-time premium of Rs 5 crore.
• 9 August 2017. The lease is submitted to the Collector of Stamps for adjudication, on an application dated 24 July 2017.
• 15 December 2017. The Collector fixes stamp duty at Rs 60,59,350.
• 14 February 2018. Appeal to the Additional Controller of Stamps under Section 32B of the Maharashtra Stamp Act, 1958. Allowed on 16 August 2018, with the matter sent back.
• 7 December 2018. Interim order: market value Rs 8,65,62,000, duty Rs 43,28,100. The lessor asks on 2 January 2019 how the value was worked out. The order records no reply.
• COVID-19. The petition says the proceedings could not be finished during the pandemic.
• 31 January 2024. Application under the Maharashtra Stamp Duty Amnesty Scheme 2023. Interim order of 21 March 2024: duty Rs 32,46,075 plus a penalty of Rs 6,66,527. The lessor objects.
• 24 March 2025. Revised interim order: duty Rs 22,25,888. Paid on 27 March 2025 and endorsed on the lease on 1 April 2025.
• 3 April 2025. Final order. It also records that, under a circular of the Inspector General of Registration dated 22 December 2011, the lease is not eligible for registration.
• 24 April 2025. The Joint Sub-Registrar refuses registration: the lease was not presented within the time in Sections 23 and 24 of the Registration Act, 1908, and Section 25 only lets the delay be forgiven for up to four more months.

The State argued that the clock should run from the first stamp order of 15 December 2017 (paragraph 19).

What the court held

The court read Sections 23, 25 and 26 of the Registration Act together. Section 23 allows four months from execution. Section 25 lets the Registrar accept a document up to four months late, for urgent necessity or unavoidable accident, on a fine of up to ten times the registration fee. The court held that registration "cannot be refused if the delay" is bona fide, not deliberate, and "beyond the control of such party" (paragraph 25).

It relied on the Supreme Court's decision in Raj Kumar Dey v. Tarapada Dey, AIR 1987 SC 2195, where six years that an arbitration award spent in a court's custody were left out of the count, and on the Bombay High Court's own decision in Nestor Builders, 2015 SCC OnLine Bom 3480 (paragraphs 26 and 27).

On the facts, the delay "was purely attributable" to the Collector of Stamps (paragraph 28). The period from 9 August 2017 to 3 April 2025 "cannot be held against" the lessor (paragraph 29). "Mere delay cannot defeat substantive justice" (paragraph 30). The time the Collector took must be excluded and the lease "ought to have been registered" (paragraph 31).

The petition was allowed in terms of prayers (A) to (C): the Collector's order is set aside to the extent it says the lease is not eligible for registration, the Sub-Registrar's refusal of 24 April 2025 is set aside, and the respondents are directed to register the lease without charging any penalty (paragraphs 3 and 32).

What it means for an NRI owner

Many NRI sale deeds, gift deeds and leases go to the Collector of Stamps before registration, because the value is disputed or the paper was signed abroad. This judgment deals with what happens when that step runs past the four months. The court's answer, for a party who kept pursuing the adjudication, is that the stamp office's time is not the owner's delay.

The judgment also quotes Section 26 of the Registration Act, which covers documents executed outside India: the registering officer may accept one presented within four months of its arrival in India (paragraph 25). The decision did not turn on Section 26, but the section sits in the same scheme the court read.

The record the court relied on was a paper trail: the application date, the appeal, the letter asking how the value was computed, the amnesty application and the payment receipt. Our Kerala High Court report on a power of attorney signed abroad covers a related registration question. The Bombay High Court's stamp duty refund ruling on a cancelled flat booking and the Delhi High Court's stamp penalty ruling on a GPA and agreement to sell are related records. For what a power of attorney can do on a sale, see whether a general POA can transfer title.

A document refused for registration belongs with a lawyer who can read the dates on your own file.

FAQ

What did the Bombay High Court decide on 29 September 2026? That the time a lease spent before the Collector of Stamps, from 9 August 2017 to 3 April 2025, must be left out when counting the four months allowed for registration. It set aside the Sub-Registrar's refusal and directed that the lease be registered without penalty.

What is the normal time limit to register a document? Section 23 of the Registration Act, 1908 allows four months from execution. Section 25 lets the Registrar accept a document up to four more months late, for urgent necessity or unavoidable accident, on a fine of up to ten times the registration fee.

Why did the Sub-Registrar refuse? Because the lease of 14 July 2017 was presented in April 2025, beyond both the four months and the four-month extension. The Collector's final order had also recorded that the lease was not eligible for registration under a 2011 circular.

Does the ruling cover documents signed abroad? The court quoted Section 26, which lets the registering officer accept a document executed outside India if it is presented within four months of arriving in India. The court did not decide the case under Section 26; it excluded the adjudication time under the Registration Act read with Raj Kumar Dey (paragraph 29).

Which Supreme Court case did the court follow? Raj Kumar Dey v. Tarapada Dey, AIR 1987 SC 2195, which left out the years an award spent in a court's custody.

66 MG Road newsdesk

Sources

• Kalpataru Gardens Limited & Anr. v. The State of Maharashtra & Ors., Writ Petition No. 1962 of 2026, 2026:BHC-OS:21314-DB, CNR HCBM020207242025, Bombay High Court, Ordinary Original Civil Jurisdiction, Mahesh Chandra Tripathi CJ and Advait M. Sethna J, pronounced and uploaded 29 September 2026, 16 pages. Court PDF (175,303 bytes, sha256 965d02328c6e3663…) read in full on 30 September 2026. Listed on the High Court's recent judgments page: https://bombayhighcourt.gov.in/bhc/front/recentjudgment
• The Registration Act, 1908, Sections 23, 25 and 26, as quoted in paragraph 25 of the judgment.