Multiple petitions have been filed in the Gujarat High Court on Monday challenging a September 7 notification of the state government by way of which the government has planned to do away with physical non-judicial stamp papers from October 1 onwards. The petitioners have questioned the reasons for taking such a hasty decision and contended that it is likely to cause inconvenience to people at large. During the hearing of the petitions on Friday by the division bench of Chief Justice Vikram Nath and Justice AJ Shastri, the petitioners contended that the state government has amended the Gujarat Stamp Supply and Sales Rules and inserted a new rule '8A' that provides that the licensed vendors cannot sell stamps embossed or engraved on stamp paper (physical non-judicial stamp papers) to the public from October 1. They claimed that the rule was amended without amending the Gujarat Stamps Act and therefore, it is in contravention of norms. It was also claimed that the non-availability of physical stamp papers and the government's insistence to adopt e-stamping will cause inconvenience to people. It was argued that in the absence of internet access or a problem in connecting with the server, people would not be able to avail the facility of e-stamping or e-challan for payment of stamp duty. It was also argued that the e-stamping facility would be affected in case the government blocks internet access to curb any agitation. Meanwhile, the state government's counsel tried to justify the amendment in the rules claiming that it is not going to affect the licensed stamp vendors in any way. However, the petitioners contended that the new rule to put an end to physical stamp papers would drastically reduce the earnings of stamp vendors.

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