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Judgment
A. Muhamed Mustaque, J.—The petitioner is a Petroleum Company. They entered into a lease agreement with one Ambujakshi Amma. Ext. P1 is the lease deed. In the lease deed, certain covenants are as follows:
"The lessee or dealers, contractors, their agents, licensee or other authorised representatives with the consent of the lessees shall be free and entitled to establish various customer oriented facilities such as ATM''s convenience, cyber cafes etc. At the demised premises without the consent of the lessors."
The lease deed was submitted for registration. Thereafter, the District Registrar as per Ext. P3 proceedings, impounded the instrument stating that the lease includes a covenant giving authority to the Petroleum Company to use the premises for the purpose of establishing cyber cafes and ATM''s etc., which would necessarily entail in levying stamp duty applicable to ATM. This order is challenged before this Court. In fact, the reference is made by the District Registrar in the order, based on the Schedule 5 (e) of the Kerala Stamp Act, which provides as follows:
Agreement or memorandum of an agreement:-
a) XXX
b) XXX
c) XXX
d) XXX
e)
If relating to installation of ATM machine, between a bank and the landowner or renewal thereof
Two thousand and five hundred rupees per year
It has to be understood that the lease agreement only give an authority to the Petroleum Company permitting them to establish ATM''s and cyber cafes etc. There is no agreement between the lessor and lessee governing relationship in respect of ATM''s and cyber cafes etc. The schedule 5(e) would come into force when there is an agreement between the parties for establishing ATM''s and cyber cafes etc. The stipulation as above in the lease deed is only with the intention to safeguard the interest of the Petroleum Company that the lessor shall not object establishing such ATM''s and cyber cafes in the premises at later stage. The permission given as per lease agreement cannot be understood as a transfer of interest or transfer in any other manner. The permission is different from an actual agreement between two legal persons to have the enjoyment of the interest in the immovable property. Therefore, it appears that the District Registrar has misconceived while issuing the order that an authority given to the Petroleum Company to establish ATM''s and cyber cafes etc. would amount to entering into an agreement or transferring the permises for the enjoyment of ATM. Thus, the impugned order is set aside. After completing the formality for registration, the document shall be returned to the petitioner forthwith.
The writ petition is disposed of as above.