Stamp-court fee payable by Syndicate

Stamp and court fee market is under the grip of syndicates. A severe stamp crisis has emerged in the country’s subregistry and court arenas. In view of the severity of the crisis, the High Court Division has written a letter to Bangladesh Bank. It has been asked to take measures to ensure the supply of stamps, cartridge paper, court fees and folios to the Supreme Court and subordinate courts on an urgent basis. Victims feel that stamp crisis is not supposed to happen naturally. The crisis created may be artificial. This crisis has been systematically created through stamp syndicate manipulations to extract extra profits.

Sources from the Supreme Court administration and Bangladesh Bank said that there has been a shortage of court fees and stamps across the country. The Supreme Court Administration has written to the Governor of Bangladesh Bank to take immediate action in this regard. At present court fee is used in 34 cases. Financial suits, compensation, immovable property with or without market value, possession-restoration, prohibition, foreclosure under Muslim law, cancellation of deeds, amendment of deeds, rescission of contract, declaration post-suit remedies, contract validity, easement rights, discharge of mortgage, foreclosure , Stamps and court fees are used in cases filed in various fields including dowry, maintenance, recovery of conjugal rights, divorce, guardianship, general declaration, partition and separate possession, rent, annulment of decree, declaration and prohibition, appeal and revision. As such, judicial stamps and court fees (like postage stamps) are essential materials. Once upon a time, all the courts of the country, including the Supreme Court, were covered in fake judicial stamps and court fees. Fraud circles were formed around courtrooms and lawyers’ associations. The government was losing thousands of crores of rupees in this.

In this situation, the Supreme Court administration took a special initiative to stop the use of fake judicial stamps and fake court fees. Last year, 1,200 EED light detectors were provided to all courts simultaneously to detect fake stamps and fake court fees. At that time many of the fraudsters were arrested by conducting raids with the help of the police. As a result, the use of fake stamps and court fees almost stopped.

But for the past one week, there has been an extreme crisis of judicial stamps and court fees in almost all the courts of the country. Several letters have come to the Supreme Court administration from different districts informing about the crisis. The litigants are suffering due to stamp and court fee crisis. The Supreme Court administration has written to the Governor of Bangladesh Bank to provide judicial stamp and court fee under special arrangements from the Supreme Court administration on an urgent basis to resolve the situation. The letter signed by Supreme Court High Court Division Registrar (Judiciary) SKM Tofail Hasan came to the office of the Governor of Bangladesh Bank.

According to the letter, the judiciary is one of the three organs of the state. Judicial and non-judicial stamps and court fees are required to be added every working day in both the divisions of the Supreme Court and the subordinate courts of the 64 districts of the country for the filing of cases and other petitions on behalf of the people seeking justice. The government gets a huge amount of revenue through stamps and court fees filed in court. Due to judicial and non-judicial stamp fraud, the government was losing huge amount of revenue. Bangladesh Supreme Court, Bangladesh Postal Department, Security Printing Corporation Bangladesh Limited (SPCBL), Department of Currency Management and Payment System Department, some short-term and Some long term planning is done. In continuation of this, Bangladesh Supreme Court provided training to Subordinate Court Judicial Officers and District Bar Association Presidents/Editors for detection of fake stamps and court fees using ICD UV LED Flash Light (UV-365 nm) devices and ICD UV LED Flash Light ( UV-365 nm) delivered by the device.

When asked whether any initiative has been taken to resolve the judicial stamp crisis, Supreme Court Registrar General Md. Golam Rabbani told reporters, “We have informed the newly appointed Chief Justice about the judicial stamp and court fee crisis.” He asked Bangladesh Bank Governor and concerned parties to provide judicial stamp and court fee on urgent basis. We have informed the Chief Justice’s directive to the Governor of Bangladesh Bank and the Ministry of Law. I hope this crisis will be over soon.

Meanwhile, a kind of anarchy has been going on for a long time around judicial, non-judicial and court fees. There are no clear rules on who is printing the court fee, who is supplying it, who is marketing it, how control and revenue collection is going on. As a result, all types of stamp forgery could not be stopped or minimally controlled. There are occasional reports of arrests of suppliers of fake stamps, but no exemplary punishment is known against the person arrested. Analysts believe there are multiple reasons behind this forgery and stamp anarchy. The main reason is legal.

Sources in the Ministry of Law said that although the use of stamps is widespread, the printing, marketing and regulation of stamps and court fees is still under the hundred-year-old law. It is also priced as per the Stamp Act of 1899. The ‘Department of Internal Resources’ under the Ministry of Finance changes the amount of stamps from year to year. According to established practice, the stamp is owned by the Internal Revenue Department of the government. But this department of the Ministry of Finance does not print any stamps or court fees. They are also not involved in marketing. In case of any offense committed in this regard neither Internal Resources Department nor NBR can take any effective action. Currently Bangladesh Postal Department is printing all types of stamps as per the requirement of Internal Resources Department. However, although the postal department has its own printing press, the stamps are printed by another organization of the government, ‘Security Printing Press’. After printing, the stamps remain in the custody of the postal department. But there is enough security crisis here. The District Administration Representative (NDC) from the Postal Department receives the stamps from the Postal Department on demand. Keep it in the ‘treasury’ of the DC office. There is also a lack of security here. Stamp vendors purchase stamps by depositing money through treasury challans to banks for retail sale. Licensed vendors earn commission at the rates set forth herein. The fact is, stamp users are buying stamps at prices higher than the value mentioned on the stamps. Whose pocket is this money? No one has an account of it. Second, there is a ‘chain’ of printing, storage, transport, marketing and retailers. Existing ‘chains’ have no specific regulatory or accountability authority. As a result, there are huge gaps in every field. Stamps are required for transfer of land, transfer of flats, various office work. There is no effective control over printing, buying and selling of these important materials. Judicial stamps have some security features to facilitate instant recognition. But there is no way to catch it with the naked eye if you don’t look carefully. Non-judicial stamps also do not have special security features. In this case, it is difficult to distinguish between genuine and fake stamps. Those involved in the anti-counterfeit stamp campaign said that widespread use of counterfeit stamps is not possible without their involvement in printing, storage, transportation, distribution and retailing. Secondly, there is no specific authority regarding stamps in the Act. On this occasion fake or fake stamps are spreading everywhere. Sometimes there is scope for manipulation at any stage of the chain from print to consumer. There is considerable danger of looting more money by creating an artificial crisis. They fear that the current crisis is a crisis created by the syndicate itself.