Bhubaneswar: Common people in the city have been put to untold suffering due to a massive shortage of non-judicial stamp papers. Stamp papers are an essential document with varied monetary values that are required to execute various legal deeds like lease agreements, rent agreements, buying and selling of properties, financial agreements, power of attorney, affidavits, articles of association and memorandum of association, among others.
However, the city has been witnessing an acute shortage of these papers, especially of lower denominations starting from Rs 2 to Rs 50. Many alleged that the shortage is leading to black marketing of judicial papers.
Lawyers as well as general people are facing difficulties while trying to buy stamp papers. The lawyers or their clients have no choice but to buy higher-valued stamp papers as they do not get lower-value papers. Advocate Niranjan Kanungo told Orissa POST, “The government should immediately take steps to address the problem as many legal and important works have been halted due to the shortage.”
Many people even alleged black marketing of stamp papers due to its shortage over the past few weeks. Those who are unwilling to pay more are postponing their deals and agreements. “I along with my landowner had gone to court to sign a rent agreement but had to return as there were only stamp papers valued Rs 500,” told Rakesh Kumar Patra, a contractual government employee.
There are around 45 odd vendors who sit on the premises of the court and sub-registrar office here. They buy stamp papers from the district treasury office and later make them available for the public at the court and sub registrar’s office.
Ashok Sahoo, a stamp vendor, said, “We are feeling bad while sending back hundreds of people every day due to the shortage. We apprised the authorities of the problem who informed us about non-supply of papers from the government printing press at Nasik. Printing of stamp papers has been severely disturbed due to Covid-19 pandemic.” The authorities have assured to supply stamp papers by February 15.
