Hon’ble Delhi High Court while dealing with a case here on 17-01-2019 stated that reference if not maintainable otherwise adjudicated on merits would be detrimental in the larger interest.

This decision was given by the court in the case of In Re: CHIEF CONTROLLING REVENUE AUTHORITY  in which the court dealt with the matter related to reference and the grounds related to it.

BRIEF FACTS OF THE CASE

The Chief Controlling Revenue Authority (CCRA), Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) has made this Reference under Section 57 of the Stamp Act, 1899. The major grounds over for which the reference was made included The Delhi Laws Act, 1912, remission under clause (a) of Section 9 of the Stamp Act (vide 2 notifications in reference to 90% of the share capital rule), Union Territories (Laws) Act, 1950 and other aspects of stamp act.

The main question was to decide whether the notification no.13 of 25-12-1937 extending benefit of remission in stamp duty in case of subsidiary companies as applicable in the then province of Delhi has any continuous validity and applicability in view of notification no. GSR 894 dated 30-09-1958 by which the central government extended the Indian Stamp (Punjab Amendment) Act, 1958 replacing the previous and then prevalent stamp law in union territory of Delhi w.e.f. 01-10-1958.

DECISION OF THE COURT

Hon’ble High Court held that it is not incumbent upon us to, in spite of holding the Reference to be not maintainable, also adjudicate on merits, as the same would be detrimental in the larger interest.

Court further siting a number of precedents found that the Reference not maintainable and if still court proceed to adjudicate the Reference on merits, the same will defeat at least one of the reasons given by the court for holding the Reference to be not maintainable.

Read the full Judgement Here-

http://lobis.nic.in/ddir/dhc/RSE/judgement/17-01-2019/RSE17012019OREF22016.pdf