51.—(1) Every person having by law or consent of parties authority to receive evidence, and every public officer or officer of a statutory body, before whom any instrument, chargeable in his opinion with duty, is produced or comes in the performance of his functions, shall, if it appears to him that such instrument is not duly stamped, impound the same.
[23/2011 wef 01/01/2012]
(2) For the purpose of subsection (1), every such person shall examine every instrument so chargeable and so produced or coming before him in order to ascertain whether it is stamped with a stamp of the value and description required by the law in force in Singapore when such instrument was executed or first executed.
(2A) Subsection (1) does not apply to —
(a)
a police officer; or
(b)
such other public officer or officer of a statutory body as the Minister may by order published in the Gazette exempt from that subsection.
[23/2011 wef 01/01/2012]
(3) Nothing in this section shall be deemed to require any Magistrate or Judge of a criminal court to examine or impound, if he does not think fit to do so, any instrument coming before him in the course of any criminal proceeding.
(4) In the case of a Supreme Court Judge, the duty of examining and impounding any instrument under this section shall be performed by the Registrar or Deputy Registrar.