Gift Deed / Transfer Deed between Blood Relations (Daan Patar)

Stamp duty

This instrument is chargeable in Punjab and in the Union Territory of Chandigarh on quite different footings, so read the limb that matches where the property lies, not where you are sitting. PUNJAB — THE PUBLISHED TABLE. The Revenue Department's table, "Document wise detail of Stamp Duty, Registration Fee and Facilitation charges" (revenue.punjab.gov.in, retrieved 6 September 2026, and bearing no date and no notification number on its face), prices a Gift exactly as it prices a Sale: stamp duty 5% of the consideration or the Collector rate, whichever is higher, plus a Social Infrastructure Cess of 1%. Two further levies ride on the same valuation: the Punjab Infrastructure Development Board fee of 1% and the Special Infrastructure Development Fee of 0.25%, both under sections 25 and 25-A of the Punjab Infrastructure (Development and Regulation) Act, 2002 (Notification No. S.O. 25/P.A.8/2002/Ss.25 and 25-A/2023 dated 28 February 2023, Punjab Government Gazette (Extraordinary) 28 February 2023 page 131, which suspended both for March 2023 alone and so confirms both are standing levies). Full freight on a Punjab conveyance is therefore 7.25%. PUNJAB — THE FAMILY REMISSION. Stamp duty is remitted IN WHOLE on an instrument transferring immovable property by an owner during his lifetime to any of his blood relations, and the order defines that class in four words: children, grand children, brothers and sisters. Source: Order No. S.O.28/C.A.2/1899/S.9/2014 dated 7 May 2014, made under section 9(1)(a) of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899, Punjab Government Gazette (Extraordinary) 8 May 2014 page 533. It extends to residential, commercial and industrial property alike: the words "residential property" in the predecessor Order No. S.O.20/C.A.2/1899/S.9/2007 dated 27 April 2007 were substituted by "residential, commercial and industrial property" by Order No. S.O.227/C.A.2/1899/S.9/2010 dated 17 March 2010, Punjab Government Gazette (Extraordinary) 18 March 2010 page 645. Those three orders were confirmed as the operative chain on 6 September 2026. Nothing in them reaches a gift upward to a parent or a gift between spouses, and the Sub-Registrar of the tehsil is the person to satisfy on any relationship at the edge of the four words before the e-stamp is generated. Note that the departmental fee table quoted above carries no blood-relation line at all, so the counter clerk may be working from a document that does not mention the exemption; take the order number with you. PUNJAB — WHAT THE REMISSION DOES NOT TOUCH. The registration fee is 1% of the value of the document, subject to a minimum of Rs 50 and a maximum of Rs 2,00,000 — Notification No. S.O. 11/C.A.16/1908/Ss.78 and 79/Amd./2019 dated 4 February 2019, Punjab Government Gazette 15 February 2019 pages 79 to 80, which is the operative fee schedule. Add the pasting fee of Rs 200, which applies to every document; the facilitation charge of Rs 1,000 up to Rs 10 lakh of consideration, Rs 3,000 from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 30 lakh and Rs 5,000 above Rs 30 lakh; and the mutation fee of Rs 600 recovered at attestation. Those three come from the departmental fee table retrieved on 6 September 2026. The 1% Punjab Infrastructure Development Board fee and the 0.25% Special Infrastructure Development Fee are levied under a separate state Act and are not stamp duty at all, so an order made under section 9 of the Indian Stamp Act cannot remit them; expect to pay both. The 1% Social Infrastructure Cess is different, because it is levied by section 3-D of the Indian Stamp Act itself as applied to Punjab, and whether a remission of "stamp duty" carries the cess with it is the genuinely open question. The press note issued with the 2014 order on 20 May 2014 was reported as saying that registration fee and infrastructure cess remain payable. Ask the Sub-Registrar what the counter will actually take before you budget. PUNJAB — HOW THE STAMP IS BOUGHT. Punjab has moved off physical stamp paper; the e-stamp is issued through Stock Holding Corporation of India Ltd as Central Record Keeping Agency at shcilestamp.com, which issues certificates for amounts exceeding Rs 49,999 under Revenue Department Notification No. 24/201/07-ST.2 dated 30 October 2014, with denominations below Rs 500 generatable by the citizen. Two dates matter and they are not obvious: an e-Registration Receipt left unlocked for more than one month from generation, and an e-Stamp Certificate left unlocked for more than four months from generation, have been locked, and unlocking is case by case (Revenue Department, Stamp and Registration Branch, No. 07/15/2026-ST-2(PF-1)/10837 dated 11 July 2026). Buy the stamp when you are ready to register, not months ahead. The valuation, the fee and the appointment all run through easyregistry.punjab.gov.in; Punjab is also one of only eight jurisdictions where the registration fee itself can be paid online. CHANDIGARH — AND THE ONE QUESTION NOBODY HAS ANSWERED. The Administration's published "Rates of Stamp Duty & Registration Fees" table (revenue.chd.gov.in/SRORegistrationFee.pdf, entries 1 to 25, retrieved 6 September 2026) carries two lines that could each govern this deed. Item 2 charges Sale, Gift, Conveyance and Sub-Conveyance at 5% on the value or the consideration, whichever is higher. Item 24 is "Transfer Deed", stamp duty "Exempted (in case of Blood relations falls under the exempted category)", registration fee 1% of the value capped at Rs 10,000. NOTHING FOUND IN THE RESEARCH DISTINGUISHES THE TWO, and no rule was traced saying when a family transfer is a Gift at 5% and when it is a Transfer Deed at nil. That is why the heading field in this form matters: draw the instrument as a Transfer Deed between blood relations, name the relationship on its face, and item 24 is at least arguable; draw the identical transaction as a plain Gift Deed and the counter may read it straight into item 2. Settle the point at the Sub-Registrar, 30 Bays Building, Sector 17, before you buy anything, because on a sector house the difference runs to several lakhs. The live UT calculator separately returns 0% for a transfer of lease rights within blood relation and 3% for a transfer of lease rights by way of gift, which is the same distinction appearing again. CHANDIGARH — THE REST OF THE FIGURES. The registration fee is 1% of the value subject to a maximum of Rs 10,000, plus a pasting fee of Rs 20, and it is payable whether or not duty is exempt. Value is taken at the collector rate where that is higher; the rates in force are the Schedule of Collector Rates effective 1 April 2026, published by the Office of the District Collector on 25 March 2026 and valid to 31 March 2027 — Rs 2,37,900 per square yard for residential Sectors 1 to 12, Rs 1,81,300 for Sectors 14 to 37, Rs 1,33,200 for Sector 38 onwards, Rs 1,53,900 for an independent dwelling unit, Rs 5,92,200 for an SCO or SCF in Sector 17, Rs 86,000 for Industrial Area Phases I and II and Rs 62,600 for Phase III, with Housing Board flats at Rs 11,000 per square foot on the ground floor, Rs 9,000 on the first, Rs 8,000 on the second and Rs 7,200 on the third and above; corner plots carry 5% extra. Do not take the tax base from the Administration's online calculator: on 6 September 2026 it was still valuing Sectors 1 to 12 at Rs 78,250 per square yard, more than a full revision cycle behind the notified schedule. CHANDIGARH — TWO CAUTIONS AND HOW TO PAY. First, the 5% figure at item 2 is contested: the Administration's own table says 5% and The Tribune's explainer of 28 March 2026 agrees, while most property portals say 6%, and no notification moving between the two has been traced. Second, that table is a PDF created on 17 May 2020 carrying no notification number, so the Rs 10,000 registration cap may since have been revised. Confirm both at the Sub-Registrar before buying stamp. As to how: Stock Holding Corporation lists Chandigarh among the places where a citizen can pay online and self-print the e-Stamp certificate, using three separate application forms depending on amount, and Chandigarh is also on the eight-jurisdiction e-Registration Fee list; but the Chandigarh Administration's own Land and Property page still describes physical stamp paper through authorised vendors up to Rs 50,000 and the Central Treasury above that, with e-Sampark issuing online certificates to citizens only up to Rs 500, and duty or any deficiency deposited by challan at the State Bank of India, Treasury Branch, Sector 17. It was not established which route the counter actually accepts for a high-value conveyance. Ask, and budget for paper. Under Rule 15 of the Chandigarh Estate Rules, 2007 the stamp duty and registration charges on a transfer of an Estate Office site are to be borne by the transferee. Under-stamping is never a saving. A document not duly stamped is impounded under section 33 of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 and stays inadmissible in evidence until the deficient duty and a penalty of up to ten times that deficiency are paid under section 35.

Registration

Compulsory, without exception: section 17(1)(a) of the Registration Act, 1908, read with section 123 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882. An unregistered gift of immovable property passes no title and cannot be received in evidence of the transfer (section 49). Present the deed within four months of execution (section 23); a further four months is possible on payment of a fine of up to ten times the proper registration fee (section 25). Once registered, the deed operates from the date of execution (section 47). IN PUNJAB the deed goes to the Sub-Registrar or Joint Sub-Registrar of the tehsil in which the property lies — in practice the Tehsildar or Naib-Tehsildar holding that charge, every Tehsildar and Naib-Tehsildar being an Assistant Collector of the second grade. Above them the Deputy Commissioner is the Registrar of the district and the Sub-Divisional Magistrate supervises at sub-division level; the Inspector General of Registration, Punjab sits at Jalandhar. Book the slot, get the property valued and pay the fee on easyregistry.punjab.gov.in before attending. Under the Punjab Transparency and Accountability in Delivery of Public Services Act, 2018 the notified registration services are registration of a sale deed, a lease deed, a general power of attorney and a partnership deed, each at one day; A GIFT DEED IS NOT ON THAT LIST, so ask at the counter whether the one-day limit is being applied to it before relying on a right of appeal. A certified copy of a registered document is a seven-day service and a non-encumbrance certificate a three-day service, with the Sub-Registrar as designated officer, the Sub-Divisional Magistrate as first appellate authority and the Deputy Commissioner as second. Registration is where the Punjab work begins rather than ends. The Sub-Registrar sends the Parcha Yadasht with a copy of the deed to the Tehsildar's office and the data flows from the registration software into the land-records application; the Office Kanungo distributes it to the Field Kanungo; the Halqa Patwari enters the mutation; the Field Kanungo, the girdawar, checks it; and the Circle Revenue Officer — a Naib-Tehsildar or Tehsildar — sanctions or rejects it. Until that intkal is sanctioned the jamabandi still shows the Donor. The mutation fee is Rs 600 and is recovered by the revenue officer at the time of attestation, and can be levied only from the person in whose favour the entry is made (section 38(2), Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887, and Punjab Land Records Manual para 7.33). A Donee who fails to report the acquisition to the patwari within three months is liable, at the Collector's discretion, to a fine not exceeding five times that fee (section 39). The notified limit for attestation of an uncontested mutation is 45 days; the Easy Jamabandi service launched on 13 June 2025 promises mutation within 30 days of deed registration, and it has not been established whether that shorter promise is a notified limit on which an appeal can be founded, so plan on the 45 days. An appeal against the Circle Revenue Officer's order lies to the Collector within 30 days, then to the Commissioner within 60, then to the Financial Commissioner within 90 (sections 13 and 14). Note also para 7.30 of the Manual: a mutation may not be used to correct a jamabandi entry, and an aggrieved party must sue. IN THE UNION TERRITORY OF CHANDIGARH the deed goes to the Sub-Registrar, 30 Bays Building, Ground Floor, Rooms 1 and 2, near the Estate Office adjoining the Central State Library, Sector 17, Chandigarh 160017, whose hours are fixed and narrow: presentation between 12.00 noon and 1.00 pm, registration between 3.00 pm and 5.00 pm, documents returned one week after presentation between 9.00 and 11.00 am. The office is cashless. A sale, transfer, gift or exchange deed of freehold urban property is presented in triplicate; every other deed in respect of freehold urban property in duplicate. Photographs of the executants and the claimants are affixed on every copy. The registration system moved to ngdrs.chd.gov.in with effect from 16 January 2025, and the revenue portal keeps separate deed-search links either side of that date. What happens next in Chandigarh depends on which of two records the property sits in, and the template asks you to choose between them. For a site or building allotted or leased by the Estate Officer, the Estate Office's Standard Operating Procedure for auto-mutation applies: the registered deed is transmitted electronically from the Sub-Registrar and triggers mutation with no application by the transferee, in 2 working days for a leasehold property with a valid no-objection certificate and 7 working days for a freehold one, and the indemnity bond the Estate Office requires is merged with the Sub-Registrar's at registration, after which no separate bond may be demanded. Auto-mutation is prospective only; a deed registered before it launched, or a transfer not made by a registered sale, gift, family transfer or exchange deed, still needs a manual mutation application. Under the Right to Service notification of 30 March 2026 (No. 28/67/1-IH(9)-2026/73238, Department of Personnel, Chandigarh Administration, superseding those of 8 March 2022 and 26 June 2025) change of ownership on a sale or gift deed is a 30-day service, a no-objection certificate for sale, gift or transfer of lease rights 50 days, a transfer requiring public notice 40 days, permission to mortgage 35 days and a No Dues Certificate 15 days, time running only from a complete application; the ladder is the Assistant Estate Officer, then the Estate Officer on first appeal, then the Secretary Estate on second. A Chandigarh Housing Board unit runs on the Board's own clock: mutation on a sale, transfer or gift deed 20 working days, a no-objection certificate for transfer of lease rights 20 working days excluding the public notice period, and a No Dues Certificate 15 days. For land or a house in one of Chandigarh's own revenue estates — the villages, and lal dora or phirni property such as that in Manimajra — none of that applies. Those holdings are recorded in a jamabandi maintained by the Revenue Department of the Chandigarh Administration at revenue.chd.gov.in, the field record is kept by a Patwari, and mutation is entered and sanctioned by the Naib Tehsildar (Revenue); the Tehsildar (Revenue) is a Right to Service designated officer in Chandigarh but does NOT mutate sector property, which is the Estate Office's job. The official Chandigarh registration checklist for a rural-area deed asks for the fard and, where required, a report of the Naib Tehsildar. Nothing here happens by itself on registration: take a fresh fard before execution and apply for the intkal afterwards, because no SMS is coming. Get the Estate Office limb right before execution, not after. Where the site is leasehold or was allotted at concessional rates, no transfer is permitted within fifteen years of allotment (Rule 7(i), Chandigarh Estate Rules, 2007) and one-third of the unearned increase is payable before the transfer is registered (Rule 7(ii)) — the unearned increase being the difference between the present value of the original premium, enhanced at 9% per annum compounded from the dates of payment, and the current market value assessed on the average auction price for the same category over the last three financial years, with notice and a hearing to the lessee on the assessment. But under Rule 7(iii), adding, deleting or substituting the name of a mother, father, spouse, son or daughter with the Estate Officer's permission is not a transfer at all, so neither the fifteen-year bar nor the unearned increase applies — and that is the provision most families in the sectors are actually relying on. Note its limits, both of them: Rule 7(iii) names only a mother, father, spouse, son or daughter, so a grandchild, a brother or a sister is outside it; and Rule 1(ii) confines the 2007 Rules to allotments and auctions made after they were published on 7 November 2007, which most of Chandigarh predates, so for an older allotment ask the Estate Office which rules govern. A dwelling unit allotted by the Chandigarh Housing Board needs the Board's own no-objection certificate and no-dues certificate from Sector 9, the allottee and the transferee applying jointly, with the five-year lock-in from the date of physical possession expired (except for the General Self Financing Housing Scheme, Sector 63, where transfer within the lock-in is allowed on payment of specified fees), no conveyance deed already executed and no title dispute subsisting — Regulation 16 of the 1979 Regulations and the Board's Citizens' Charter. Dues and property particulars can be checked beforehand through Know Your Dues and Know Your Property at estateoffice.chd.gov.in.

Notarisation

Not required for this Deed, and never a substitute for it. A notarised but unregistered gift of immovable property transfers nothing; this is the most common and most expensive mistake in this category, and no amount of stamp paper or notarial seal cures it. Notarisation earns its place only on the supporting papers, and there are several. In the Union Territory of Chandigarh the affidavit-cum-indemnity bond that accompanies the deed must be at the Sub-Registrar's counter at registration, because change of ownership at the Estate Office is triggered automatically from there and the bond is merged with the Sub-Registrar's own at that moment; nothing can be added to the file afterwards, and the Estate Office may not demand a separate bond later. Standing Estate Office practice now accepts a notarised affidavit in place of one attested by an Executive Magistrate, except where a rule or policy specifically requires otherwise, and documents already on the Estate Office record need not be resubmitted. In Punjab the papers usually notarised are the identity affidavit, a no-objection affidavit from co-owners or other family members, a guardian's affidavit where the Donee is a minor, and an indemnity affidavit where the title chain has a gap. Two traps. If the Donor cannot attend registration personally, the power of attorney authorising someone to present the document must be authenticated by the Sub-Registrar under section 33 of the Registration Act, 1908; a plain notarised power of attorney is ordinarily refused at the counter. And any document prepared or executed outside India that is to be used in an Estate Office transaction in the Union Territory of Chandigarh must first be embossed by the Office of the Finance Department, Chandigarh Administration — a routine and expensive surprise for a Donor or Donee living abroad.

Witnesses

Two attesting witnesses are mandatory on the deed itself: section 123 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882. Under the definition of "attested" in section 3 of that Act, each witness must have seen the Donor sign, or have received the Donor's personal acknowledgement of the signature, and each must sign in the Donor's presence. A witness must not be a party: never let the Donee, or the natural guardian accepting for a minor Donee, attest. Keep full names, addresses, ID numbers and contact details, because a document required by law to be attested is proved by calling an attesting witness — section 67 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, which corresponds to section 68 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, an Act repealed with effect from 1 July 2024 and no longer to be cited as live law. Registration adds a second and stricter requirement, and it is the one that sends people home from the counter. The persons executing the document must be identified before the registering officer (section 34 of the Registration Act, 1908), and under para 127 of the Punjab Registration Manual the FIRST identifying witness must come from a recognised class — in practice a Lambardar, a Sarpanch or member of the Gram Panchayat in a rural area, a Municipal Councillor, a gazetted officer or an advocate. Both witnesses must be known to each other, and the first witness must be known to the Sub-Registrar. That requirement is stated on the Chandigarh Administration's own Land and Property page and in the official checklist appended to its stamp duty table, and para 127 is a provision of the Punjab Registration Manual, which is the manual the registering officers of Punjab work to as well; confirm with the tehsil office if the first witness you have in mind is marginal. Choose that witness before you fix the appointment — a neighbour who happens to be free on the day will usually not do.