No document which ought to bear a stamp under this Act shall be of any validity, unless and until it is properly stamped.
But if any such document is through mistake or inadvertence received, filed or used in any Court or office without being properly stamped, the presiding Judge or the head of the office, as the case may be, or, in the case of a High Court, any Judge of such Court, may, if he thinks fit, order that such document be stamped as he may direct;
and on such document being stamped accordingly, the same and every proceeding relative thereto shall be as valid as if it had been properly stamped in the first instance.
Legal Commentary & Landmark Judgments: Section 28
Section 28 of the Court-Fees Act, 1870 provides for the curative validation of documents that have been inadvertently received, filed, or used in any court or public office without being properly stamped.
Upon such stamping, the section commands that 'the document and every proceeding relative thereto shall be as valid as if it had been properly stamped in the first instance', conferring complete retrospective validity upon the defective document and all intermediate judicial proceedings founded upon it.
Section 28 is the ultimate statutory safeguard against ministerial stamping oversights. Where a document was inadvertently registered with deficit fee, the court can direct payment of the deficit; once paid, the defect is expunged retrospectively, preserving limitation and preventing dismissal on technical fiscal defaults.