SN.Jayaram, IGR and Commissioner of Stamp, Beware: Your stamp paper could be fake

                                                                              

S N Jayaram, IG, Registration and Commissioner of Stamps, said,  "Agents buy stamp papers from Sub-registers offices, photocopy them, forge signature, seal and sell them at two or three times the price". 

There is no shortage of stamp papers. Why should people fabricate them? We have given out e-stamping franchise to banks and post offices.
 
Hundreds of transactions, ranging from sale deeds, rental agreements and name change to court affidavits take place in Bangalore every day but they may not be worth the value of the paper they are printed on. This is because fake stamp papers of all denominations are doing a thriving business in Bangalore.

Following the Rs 33,000 cr Telgi scam, stamp papers are legally produced in franking machines and sold only at 15 sub-registrars’ offices. Stamp papers can also be obtained from nationalised banks, post offices and a few sub-registrar offices through e-stamping. E-stamped papers are largely tamper-proof as they have distinct holograms.

The stamp papers produced by franking machines are duplicated on a scandalous scale. Agents buy stamp papers from sub-registrars’ offices, then get them colour photocopied in bulk and fix forged signatures and seals on them. These are then sold at two or three times their original price at various court complexes.
 
It’s an "Organised racket" which involves notaries, advocates and agents and is an open secret at the sub-registrar’s offices. “The government has put one Telgi behind bars. Now, we have hundreds of Telgis operating. In several departmental meetings, we have complained to higher-ups that our system has a loophole,’’ a senior sub-registrar said.

We realised how prevalent the scam is when we purchased two stamp papers — a Rs 20 denomination and a Rs 50 denomination — from the court premises at Mayo Hall. The deal was clinched by an advocate called Nagaraj. An agent standing near the parking stand with a bundled plastic cover fished out stamp papers of various denominations.

We paid Rs 60 for the Rs 20 stamp paper and Rs 90 for the Rs 50 stamp paper. In a sub-registrar office it would have cost not more than an additional Rs 10 (Rs 5 is service charge for any denomination paper) for both.

Stamp papers from franking machines are available at SR offices. We have 45 machines in the state. but yet people are 
not willing to take the stress of following even the easy procedure, I will look into the issue, assured Mr Jayaram