Agreement made on 100 rs. stamp paper, is it valid in law?

In India, it is generally recommended to register legal documents, including agreements related to property, to make them legally enforceable and to provide stronger evidence of the agreement's authenticity. While an unregistered document may still hold some evidentiary value, it may have limitations and may not be admissible as primary evidence in certain legal proceedings.

According to the Registration Act, 1908, certain types of documents, such as those related to the transfer, sale, or lease of immovable property, need to be registered to be legally valid. However, this Act does not specifically mandate the registration of family property-sharing agreements.

Registration is not necessary where a family arrangement is oral and the same is necessary only if the terms of the arrangement are reduced to writing.

The substantial difference is that of payment of stamp duty and registration of the document recording partition. A family settlement does not require registration and stamping, however, a partition deed requires both-hence execution of the partition deed is a costly remedy.

It is important for you to know that the validity of an agreement on 100 rs stamp paper is intact, even if such stamp paper is more than six months old. Section 54 of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 just bars taking a refund after six months of purchase, but it does not restrict the use of such stamp paper for an agreement. The law does not have any prescribed period of limitation for the validity of an agreement on 100 rs stamp paper.