PART 7
INSTRUMENTS NOT DULY STAMPED
Examination and impounding of instruments
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 or her opinion with duty, is produced or comes in the performance of his or her functions, must, if it appears to him or her that such instrument is not duly stamped, impound the same.
[23/2011]
(2)  For the purpose of subsection (1), every such person must examine every instrument so chargeable and so produced or coming before the person 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.
(3)  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 in the Gazette exempt from that subsection.
[23/2011]
(4)  Nothing in this section is deemed to require any Magistrate or Judge of a criminal court to examine or impound, if he or she does not think fit to do so, any instrument coming before him or her in the course of any criminal proceeding.
(5)  In the case of a Supreme Court Judge, the duty of examining and impounding any instrument under this section is to be performed by the Registrar or Deputy Registrar.
[40/2019]
Instruments not duly stamped inadmissible in evidence
52.—(1)  Subject to this section, an instrument chargeable with duty must not be admitted in evidence for any purpose by any person having by law or consent of parties authority to receive evidence, and must not be acted upon, registered or authenticated by any such person or by any public officer, unless the instrument is duly stamped.
(2)  Any instrument mentioned in subsection (1) must, subject to all just exceptions, be admitted in evidence on payment of the duty and the penalty (if any) chargeable in respect of that instrument under section 46.
(3)  When a contract or agreement of any kind is effected by correspondence consisting of 2 or more letters and any one of the letters bears the proper stamp, the contract or agreement is deemed to be duly stamped.
(4)  Nothing in this section prevents the admission of any instrument in evidence —
(a)in any criminal court; or
(b)in any court when the instrument has been executed by or on behalf of the Government, or of any other government or country, or where it bears the certificate of the Commissioner as provided by this Act.
Instruments impounded how dealt with
53.—(1)  When the person impounding an instrument under section 51 has by law or consent of parties authority to receive evidence and admits the instrument in evidence on payment of duty and penalty (if any), the person must, as soon as may be convenient, send the instrument, together with the amount of the duty and penalty (if any) paid in respect of the instrument, to the Commissioner.
(2)  The Commissioner must stamp the instrument in accordance with section 46 and must return it to the person who sent it to the Commissioner.
(3)  In every other case in which an instrument is impounded under section 51, the person impounding the instrument must send it immediately to the Commissioner.
(4)  The Commissioner, on payment of the duty and penalty (if any) chargeable in respect of the instrument under section 46, must stamp the instrument and must return it to the person who sent it to the Commissioner, but if such duty and penalty (if any) is not paid, the Commissioner must retain the instrument.
54.  [Repealed by Act 26 of 1996]
Recovery of duty and penalty
55.—(1)  When any duty or penalty has been paid in respect of any instrument by any person (X), and by agreement or under the provisions of this Act or of any other law in force at the time when the instrument was executed or first executed some other person (Y) was liable to pay the duty on the instrument, X is entitled to recover from Y the amount of the duty or penalty so paid.
(2)  For the purpose of any recovery mentioned in subsection (1), any certificate granted in respect of the instrument by the Commissioner is conclusive evidence as to the amount of the duty and penalty paid and the person by whom they were paid.
Liability of any person to pay full duty or penalty unaffected by erroneous assessment
56.  The liability of any person to pay the full amount of duty or penalty due on any instrument is not affected by any erroneous or under assessment of that duty or penalty or the failure to assess that duty or penalty by the Commissioner, and the correct amount of duty or penalty due on the instrument is recoverable by the Commissioner.