Unscrupulous agents thrive amid scarce e-stamping facilities

The Delhi Government last month had launched electronic- stamping facility to completely do away with stamp paper of all denominations but as infrastructure for issuance of online stamp was yet to be put in place, a parallel market selling the manual stamp papers was thriving.

"I have to pay Rs 100 for a stamp paper valued Rs 10 that too after making rounds of three court complexes," said a resident of an East Delhi locality.

When asked, a lawyer in the Kakarduma district court said there was a "huge scarcity" of stamp papers in the court after government stopped supply following introduction of e-stamping.

"The government is yet to appoint adequate number of vendors in various court complexes. As e-stamping facilities are not up to mark, people are forced to buy manual papers. But as supply of such papers has been discontinued, vendors are selling them at exorbitant rates," he said.

A lawyer in the Delhi High Court also said that people were facing lot of difficulties due to failure of the authorities to put in place facilities for issuance of e-stamping.

"It is very difficult to get manual stamp papers and the unscrupulous agents are taking advantage of the situation," said the lawyer.

He said there has been a great deal of confusion among the people about e-stamping also.

"People are confused whether e-stamping will be acceptable in case of affidavits for other legal instruments," he said.

When asked, a senior official of Delhi Government's revenue department admitted receiving complaints of unscrupulous agents selling the stamp papers at high rates and said steps are being taken to address the problem.

He said government had allowed manual stamp papers till month of July only.