Pune land deal: Parth Pawar’s firm stares at Rs 42 crore stamp duty

the deal’s cancellation, following flak from opposition parties. He said his son has decided to cancel the deal and submit an affidavit. Though Parth holds majority stake in Amadea Enterprises, an FIR was lodged against his partner and close relative Digvijay Patil. The FIR has also been lodged against suspended tehsildar Suryakant Yeole, sub-registrar Ravindra Tatu and power of attorney holder Sheetal Tejwani.

Though the notice does not mention the actual amount to be paid by Parth’s firm, Pune District Collector Jitendra Dudi confirmed that the amount is around ₹42 crore. “The Department of Registration has not mentioned the amount in the notice served to the firm. It is 7 per cent of the valuation of the deal. But it has confirmed that the firm will have to pay stamp duty of ₹21 crore for when the deal was signed and which was not waived earlier. And now for the deal’s cancellation, the firm will have to pay Rs 21 crore as stamp duty. The Department is also seeking legal opinion. The notice has been served as the firm has applied for cancellation of the deal,” Dudi told The Indian Express.

Joint District Registrar Santosh Hingane said, “In the notice, the amount of stamp duty to be paid is not mentioned. It will be like passing a judgement before taking a decision. The notice mentions that ₹500 stamp duty levied earlier is not valid.”

Asked whether they will have to pay stamp duty even if the sale deed is cancelled, Hingane said, “Divergent views are emerging on this aspect. But in general parlance, when a sale deed is completed and cancelled after some days, we regard it as another purchase. In this case, we will have to check what kind of cancellation document they submit, what are the law points raised by them, then IGR (Inspector General of Inspector) will take the decision. Prima facie, it seems the stamp duty will be as per mentioned in the notice. Still, this is not final or conclusively decided.”

Hingane said, “This entire cancellation thing involves a legal procedure. The firm has an option of appealing to the competent authority.” Hingane added that officially they have not communicated the figure of ₹42 crore to the firm in the notice. “Everyone knows what the amount will be and it is not a fine amount. It is the stamp duty,” he said.
The notice said, “Since the application for cancellation has been submitted and the purpose of setting up a data centre stands scrapped, it is necessary to pay stamp duty and penalty at 5 per cent, plus one per cent for local body and metro rail, collectively at 7 per cent under Section 25 (b) (1) of the Maharashtra Stamp Act.” The firm has also been told to the pay the previous dues for registration of the property.

Milind Gaikwad, who heads the Mahar Watan Adhikar Parishad, said, if the land is Mahar Watan and is being sold, then the Mahar Watandar’s permission is mandatory. “Importantly, 50 per cent of the total cost of land is to be paid to the government. Therefore, in this case the land has been sold for ₹300 crore, which means the firm will have to pay ₹150 crore besides the unpaid stamp duty. It should be kept in \mind that Mahar Watan land cannot be sold without the permission of the district collector.”

Echoing similar views, activist Vijay Kumbhar said, “A Mahar Watan land sale requires the district collector’s prior permission and in this case, it seems the permission was not taken. Besides, the purchasers have to pay 50 per cent of the current market value of the land as ‘nazarana’ or transfer fee. I think in this case the total amount Amadea Enterprises will have to pay stands at ₹192 crore.”

The role of the sub-registrar suspended in this case, has come under the scanner. Gaikwad said a probe was necessary into whether the sub-registrar was pressured into getting the deal to go through and waiving off the stamp duty to a staggering Rs 21 crore.
A top official, who earlier headed the Inspector General of Registeration, said, “It is possible that the IGR was not aware of the deal. IGR does not check the deals on day to day basis. IGR only comes to know when the stamp duty is paid.”
Asked whether the IGR monitors the working of the sub-registrar, the official said, “Sub-registrar is the final deciding authority. Everything is in his power. If he wants, he can decide on the evaluation of the stamp duty. In this case, the sub-registrar should have opted for adjudication, which means he refers the stamp duty levy to a higher authority or Joint District Registrar, who then conducts a valuation of the land. In this case, it seems he decided the stamp duty on his own. Even if exemption is granted for a data centre, there is no exemption on cess levied.”

The official said, “When a stamp duty goes above Rs 25 lakh, the document is directly reported to the income tax. They don’t directly come to the IGR who gets monthly reports. The IGR does not get reports from sub-registrar on a daily basis… This case seems to have been done painstakingly as it involves power of attorney taken from 272 people.”

Though the sale agreement was executed in May, 2025, its implementation did not take place. The official said, “The mutation in this cannot take place as it is a government land. It has to be seen whether they have applied for mutation (updating government records) by submitting a sale deed.”