Amendment of Act 10 of 1960

Amendment of Act 10 of 1960.—In the Kerala Court Fees and Suits Valuation Act, 1959 (10 of 1960),—

1. (1) in section 3, after clause (ii), the following clause shall be inserted, namely:— “(iia) “e-stamp” means an electronically generated impression or challan issued by the Department of Treasuries, Government of Kerala or any other agency appointed by the Government of Kerala to denote the payment of judicial stamp duty.”;
2. (2) in the existing proviso to sub-section
3. (1) of section 76, after the words and figures “the Kerala State Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (20 of 2017)”, the following words and figures shall be inserted, namely:— “, the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963 (15 of 1963), the Kerala Tax on Luxuries Act, 1976 (32 of 1976) and the Kerala Value Added Tax Act, 2003 (30 of 2004)”;
4. (3) for section 77, the following section shall be substituted, namely:— “77. Collection of fee by stamp or e-stamp.—All fee chargeable under this Act shall be collected by stamp or e-stamp.”;
5. (4) for section 78, the following section shall be substituted, namely:— “78. Stamps to be impressed, adhesive or e-stamp.—The stamps used to denote any fee chargeable under this Act shall be impressed, adhesive or e-stamps, partly impressed or partly adhesive as the Government may by notification in the Gazette, from time to time direct.”;
6. (5) after section 80, a new section shall be inserted, namely:— “80A. Defacement of e-stamp.—(1) Any e-stamp in an instrument shall be defaced through online verification system by an officer appointed from time to time by the court or the head of the office in such manner as may be prescribed.
7. (2) Any instrument bearing an e-stamp which has not been defaced, so far as such stamps is concerned, shall be deemed to be unstamped.”.