Instruments not duly stamped inadmissible in evidence, etc

No instrument chargeable with duty under this Act shall be admitted in evidence for any purpose by any person having by law or consent of parties authority to receive evidence, or shall be acted upon, registered or authenticated by any such person or by any public officer, unless such instrument is duly stamped: Provided that,-

1. (a) any such instrument shall, subject to all just exceptions, be admitted in evidence on payment of, -
   • (i) the duty with which the same is chargeable, or in the case of an instrument insufficiently stamped, of the amount required to make up such duty, and 1[(ii) a penalty at the rate of two percent of the amount of the deficient duty per month or part thereof for the period during which the instrument remained insufficiently stamped or twenty five percent of the deficient stamp duty, whichever is higher, but such penalty shall not exceed to two times of the deficient stamp duty.]
2. (b) where a contract or agreement of any kind is effected by correspondence consisting of two or more letters and any one of the letters bears the proper stamp; the contract of agreement shall be deemed to be duly stamped.
3. (c) nothing herein contained shall prevent the admission of any instrument as evidence in any proceeding in a criminal court, other than a proceedings under chapter IX or Part D of Chapter X of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Act No. 2 of 1974).
4. (d) nothing herein contained shall prevent the admission of any instrument in any court when such instrument has been executed by or on behalf of the Government or where it bears the certificate of the Collector as provided by section 36 or any other provision of this Act.
5. (e) nothing herein contained shall prevent the admission of a copy of any instrument or of an oral account of the contents of any instrument, if the stamp duty or a deficient portion of the stamp duty and penalty as specified in clause (a) is paid.
6. (f) nothing herein contained shall prevent the admission of any instrument in evidence in any court when stamp duty on such instrument has already been paid in advance in the form of a consolidated lump sum.
7. (g) nothing herein contained shall prevent the admission of any instrument in any court when such document has been executed by or on behalf of the Government or where it bears the Certificate of the Collector as provided by section 36 or any other provision of this Act.