The Karnataka Stamp (Amendment) Act, 2023

What it does

The Karnataka Stamp (Amendment) Act, 2023 (Karnataka Act 4 of 2024) amends the Karnataka Stamp Act, 1957. It was published in the Karnataka Gazette on 3 February 2024 and came into force at once. The site's note on a power of attorney signed abroad to sell a flat in Bengaluru reads it for one change in particular: it substitutes "five hundred rupees" for "one hundred rupees" in clause (b) of Article 41 of the Schedule.

The Act also amends clauses (a), (c), (d), (f), (g) and (h) of that Article, so the lettering that a reader may have known from an earlier text is no longer the lettering in force. According to the note, the Act does not touch clause (e) or clause (eb) in the parts the note read. The note did not find a consolidated text of Article 41 after 2015, and it gives no figure for clause (eb) for that reason.

Who it binds

Anyone who executes an instrument chargeable under the Article in Karnataka, or who brings such an instrument into the State, and the officers who stamp and register it. The Act is a State law and applies to instruments that fall within the Karnataka Stamp Act, 1957. An instrument signed outside India and brought to Karnataka is within the State's Act if it concerns property in the State.

What has changed, and when

The change took effect on publication, on 3 February 2024. An instrument executed before that date is stamped at the rate that applied to it, so the date of execution is the first fact that decides the duty. A document executed abroad is treated by reference to the date it first reaches the State, in the manner the main Act provides.

What turns on it in practice

A person who lives abroad and wants to sell property in Bengaluru often does it through a power of attorney signed where the person lives. The note on that route sets out the points to be met: the instrument must be stamped within three months of first reaching Karnataka, under section 18 of the Karnataka Stamp Act, 1957, the duty is set by the Article as amended, and a general power of attorney does not itself transfer the flat. A registered deed of conveyance does that, and the attorney can sign it for the owner.

The second point is the lettering and the rate. A clause that is read from an old table of the Schedule can give the wrong figure, and the reader who relies on a pre-2024 text may use the wrong rate. The text of the Act at the source linked on this page and the current Schedule are the authorities.

The Act is a related instrument to the Karnataka Stamp Act, 1957, and a note that treats duty on a power of attorney has to be read with that Act and with the Registration Act, 1908 on what must be registered.