How to Digitally Stamp a Document

In India, executing a document often attracts a legal obligation to pay stamp duty to the Government. These are taxes levied by State Governments on the execution of specific classes of documents. Non-payment of the requisite stamp duty can attract penalties, such as, the document being rendered inadmissible in evidence or the document being impounded. 

The traditional method of buying physical stamps/stamp papers as a method of payment of this stamp duty is a long and extremely cumbersome process involving purchase of stamps from authorised dealers. 

An alternative to physical stamping, Digital Stamping or e-Stamping is a process of (i) paying stamp duty online, securely and legally, and (ii) digitally rendering stamp papers that can be affixed to electronic documents. Leegality’s Bharatstamp offers a complete digital and seamless document workflow while complying with central and state stamp laws. By stamping your documents using BharatStamp, you can accelerate your documentation process and securely stamp documents from anywhere and anytime.

Let’s see how.

In your Leegality Dashboard, you can:

1. purchase stamp papers by creating a stamp series; 

2. create a dynamic stamp group to sign your document for value based stamp duty payment‍

How to Purchase Stamp Papers by Creating a Stamp Series‍

A Stamp Series is a collection of stamps of 1 denomination of 1 particular state (subject to the exception below).

For example, to order Haryana INR 100 stamp papers, you will need to create a “Stamp Series”. For Haryana INR 300 Stamp Papers, you will need to create another Stamp Series. 

Exception: Sometimes you may want stamp papers of INR 700, but our vendors do not have such papers. In that case, we procure papers of INR 500 and INR 200 and combine both of them to create a stamp paper of INR 700. These combined papers are then created into a stamp series of IVR 700.‍

Step 1: In your Leegality dashboard, on your left sidebar, click on “STAMPS”

Step 2: Next, click on “New Stamp Series” button on top right corner

You will get a stamp request form. 

Step 3: Fill out all the required fields pertaining to the stamp papers

   Step 4: Next, provide your contact details for Leegality to ship the papers to you for your records

Creating a Dynamic Stamp Group

The Stamp Series system works well when the stamp duty required for a type of agreement is of a fixed value. In such cases the stamp value you require for different transactions of the same type of agreement will be the same, even if the transaction values are different.

However, this system falls short when the stamp duty for your agreement is ad-valorem, i.e., a percentage of the transaction value. Here, the stamp duty required for each agreement differs based on that agreement’s transaction value.

Dynamic stamping allows you to affix stamp papers based on the desired stamp value. You pick the value for a particular transaction and our algorithm will pick and choose the right stamp papers to satisfy that requirement.

Step 1: In Leegality’s dashboard, go to the Stamps tab under “My drawer” and click on Groups

Step 2: Next, click on “New Stamp Group” button and follow the instructions below:

1. Set the Group Name
2. Select the state you want to associate with this Group Name 
3. Enter the maximum value for this stamp group (the highest value that can be achieved using any combination of stamp papers in this group)
4. Then select the series of concerned states to be included in this group
   

Step 3: Click on create button to finish creating your Dynamic Stamp Group.

Now that you have created the Stamp Series or Dynamic Stamp Group, it’s time to use it to stamp your relevant documents. 

How to attach digital stamp papers before sending out your document for eSigning

Step 1: On your Leegality Dashboard, click on “New Document” to start a new document signing journey.

Step 2: Attach the document you want to digitally stamp and sign. Then turn on the “Use Stamp” toggle. Depending on whether you want to use a Stamp Series or a Stamp Group, turn on the “Use Stamp Series” or “Use Stamp Group” toggle.

Step 3: Next, select the relevant Stamp Series/ Stamp Group.

Step 4: In case of a Stamp Group, enter the stamp duty value required for the document

Note: The grouping algorithm follows certain rules for collating the stamp papers:

1. Uses stamps of the lowest possible value; and

2. Minimizes the number of stamps used 

E.g. For a stamp duty of Rs.250, the algorithm will pick 2 x Rs.100 papers and 1 x Rs.50 paper instead of using 3 x Rs.100 papers or 5 x Rs.50 papers.

Step 5: Fill in the contact details of the invitees and choose the signature type you want them to eSign the document with.

Step 6: To see the final collection of stamp papers attached to your document, click on the “Load More Stamp Papers” button. 

Note: The final document will contain the Document ID and Stamp Serial Numbers for all the stamp papers attached to it.

Step 7: Once you have reviewed the document, click on “Send” to send the digitally stamped document to all the recipients you selected.