Gujarat High Court Civil Manual (subordinate court practice), 1960
The following is a summary of the existing law and rules as to the cancellation and use of Court-fee labels and impressed stamps :— (i) Section 42 of the Bombay Court-fees Act, 1959, is as follows :— "No document requiring a stamp under this Act shall be filed or acted upon in any proceeding in any Court or office until the stamp has been cancelled. Such officer as the Court or head of the office may from time to time appoint shall, on receiving any such documents forthwith effect such cancellation by punching out the figure-head so as to leave the amount designated on the stamp untouched, and the part removed by punching shall be burnt or otherwise destroyed.". (ii) Impressed stamps used for denoting Court-fee need not be cancelled or punched otherwise than as required by section 42 of the Court-fees Act. (iii) The Court or office issuing copies, certificates and other similar documents liable to duty, is, before issue, to cancel labels affixed thereto by punching out a portion of the label in such a manner as to remove neither the figure-head nor that part of the label upon which its value is expressed. As an additional precaution, the signature of the officer attesting the document, with the date, should be written across the label and upon the paper on either side of it, as is frequently done by persons signing stamped receipts. (iv) Before records are forwarded by a Subordinate Court to the District Court as required by paragraph 476 of Chapter XXIV, they should be checked for ascertaining that no stamp is left unpunched. At the end of the Roznama in each case a note should be made by the Suit or Darkhast Sheristedar that all the Court-fees stamps have been punched. Similarly, in District Courts the clerk who completes the Roznama should check the punching of stamps and make a similar note. The Record Keeper of the District Court should examine one out of every ten cases received by him and should endorse on the Roznama of the examined case and in the General Record Register that he has checked the punching of stamps in the particular case. A test inspection of cases received by the Record Keeper of the District Court should be made by the Clerk of the Court of the District Court at the end of each quarter. (vii) When two or more impressed stamps are used to make up the amount of the fees chargeable under the Court-fees Act, a portion of the subject-matter shall ordinarily be written on each stamped sheet. Where this is impracticable or inconvenient, the document shall be written on one or more sheets bearing impressed stamps of the highest value, and the remaining stamps shall be punched and cancelled by the Court and filed with the record, a certificate being recorded by the Court on the face of the first sheet, of the document to the effect that the full Court-fee has been paid in stamps. The writing on each stamped sheet shall be attested by the signature of the person or persons executing the document. (viii) In future, stamps should be cancelled on the day of presentation or within a reasonable time from the date of presentation but invariably before the document is filed or registered or otherwise acted upon.