Delhi HC: Zee Group loan agreements stamped under Indian, not Maharashtra, Stamp Act

The Delhi High Court decided eight connected petitions under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, filed by four Zee Group companies and by Religare Finvest Limited, each challenging a common interim arbitral award of 28 February 2026 on a single question: whether four loan agreements of 15 March 2014 between Religare and the Zee Group companies were chargeable to stamp duty under the Maharashtra Stamp Act, 1958 or the Indian Stamp Act, 1899, and which rate applied. The agreements were first signed by the Zee Group's representatives in Mumbai and later counter-signed by Religare in Delhi. The Arbitrator had held the Maharashtra Act applied, at a fixed duty of Rs.100 per agreement. Justice Om Prakash Shukla disagreed.

Applying the territorial-nexus principle from R.M.D. Chamarbaugwala v. Union of India — that a taxing jurisdiction's connection with an instrument must be real, not illusory — the Court held that a loan agreement becomes a completed, chargeable 'instrument' only once executed by both parties, so its place of execution was Delhi, where Religare, the lender, signed last. The Zee Group's prior Mumbai signatures, without the lender's counter-signature, did not by themselves complete the instruments. The agreements were accordingly held chargeable under the Indian Stamp Act as applicable in Delhi, not the Maharashtra Act. The Court set aside the award to that extent, allowing Religare's petitions and dismissing those filed by the Zee Group companies.