Rent Agreement Stamp Duty in Puducherry

For a typical residential agreement up to 11 months, Puducherry charges 2.25% of average annual rent + 5% on advance. Per the official Registration Department Citizens' Charter: leases up to 5 years pay 2.25% of average annual rent plus 5% on any advance/deposit. In practice many parties execute unregistered 11-month agreements on nominal stamp paper since registration isn't compulsory under 12 months.

Under Section 17 of the Registration Act, a lease of immovable property for 12 months or longer MUST be registered with the sub-registrar — which costs time, registration fees, and higher stamp duty. An 11-month agreement stays below that threshold, so it can be executed on stamp paper without mandatory registration. That's the whole reason 11 months became India's default tenancy term.

Mandatory for leases of 12 months or more; not required for 11-month agreements.

E-stamping is live in all Sub-Registrar Offices of the Puducherry region; duty is payable online via gras.py.gov.in, and the department publishes a calculator at regn.py.gov.in.

An unstamped or under-stamped agreement is not admissible as evidence in court until the deficit duty plus a penalty (up to 10× the deficit in most states) is paid. Police verification, HRA claims, address proof, and eviction proceedings can all stumble on an unstamped agreement — the duty is small, so pay it upfront.

The law doesn't fix this; it's whatever the agreement says. In practice the tenant usually bears the stamp duty and registration costs in most Indian cities, though splitting 50:50 is common in some markets. Put the split in writing in the agreement itself.