TOKEN / BOOKING RECEIPT FOR COMMERCIAL SPACE

Amount received: __________

Place: __________

Date: __________

1. The parties

1.1 The Landlord

• Name: __________
• Address: __________

• Capacity: __________.

1.2 The Prospective Tenant

• Name: __________
• Address: __________

1.3 The Landlord and the Prospective Tenant are together called "the parties".

2. The premises

2.1 This receipt relates to the following commercial premises ("the Premises"):

__________

2.2 The Premises are at __________, in __________.

2.3 Where the Landlord holds the Premises jointly with others, under an allotment from a development authority or the Estate Officer, or under a head lease, the Landlord confirms that holding the Premises off the market and receiving this token on the terms below needs no consent, permission or no-objection certificate that has not already been obtained.

3. The token money received

3.1 The Landlord acknowledges having received from the Prospective Tenant a sum of __________ as token or booking money, on __________, by way of Bank transfer (NEFT / RTGS / IMPS / UPI).

4. What this receipt is, and what it is not

4.1 This money is paid and received solely so that the Landlord holds the Premises off the market for the Prospective Tenant, on an exclusive basis, until __________ ("the Hold Period"), pending the signing of a written term sheet and, after it, a registered Lease Deed or Rent Agreement (together, "the Lease Documents").

4.2 This receipt is not the term sheet and is not the Lease Documents. It does not fix the rent, the term, the security deposit or any other condition of the tenancy, and none of those is to be inferred from it. Neither the Landlord's receipt of this money, nor anything else in this receipt, obliges the Landlord to lease the Premises to the Prospective Tenant, or obliges the Prospective Tenant to take the Premises on lease, on any particular terms or at all — that obligation, if any, arises only when the Lease Documents are signed.

4.3 No possession of, or access to, the Premises — including for measurement, inspection, fit-out or storage — is given or agreed to be given under this receipt. Possession will pass only under the Lease Documents.

5. Exclusivity during the Hold Period

5.1 Until the earlier of the date the Lease Documents are signed and the end of the Hold Period, the Landlord will not market the Premises, will not accept a token, booking amount or advance from any other party in respect of the Premises, and will not sign an agreement or a lease in respect of the Premises with anyone else.

5.2 This exclusivity is what the token money buys, and it is the Landlord's only binding commitment under this receipt.

6. If the Lease Documents are signed

6.1 If the term sheet and the Lease Documents are signed within the Hold Period, the token amount will be __________, and the Landlord will not ask for it again at any stage.

7. If the Prospective Tenant does not proceed

7.1 If the Prospective Tenant decides not to take the Premises on lease, or does not sign the Lease Documents before the end of the Hold Period, for a reason other than the Landlord's default under Clause 8, the token amount is __________.

7.2 Where Clause 7.1 records a partial refund, If this receipt records no percentage, fifty per cent of the token amount is forfeited to the Landlord and the balance is refunded.

7.3 A sum forfeited under this Clause 7 is retained as a genuine pre-estimate of the Landlord's loss from holding the Premises off the market during the Hold Period, and not as a penalty, and is in every case a retention out of money already received and never a claim for money that has not been paid.

8. If the Landlord does not proceed

8.1 If the Landlord decides not to lease the Premises to the Prospective Tenant, lets or agrees to let the Premises to any other party, or otherwise withdraws the Premises from this hold before the end of the Hold Period, the Landlord will refund the whole of the token amount to the Prospective Tenant within 15 days of that event — regardless of what is recorded in Clause 7.1 — and neither party will owe the other any further amount under this receipt.

9. How a refund is paid

9.1 A refund due under this receipt will be paid by bank transfer or account payee cheque into the same account the token money came from, or into another account the Prospective Tenant confirms in writing. A refund of Rs 20,000 or more will not be paid in cash, because section 269T of the Income-tax Act, 1961 does not permit it.

9.2 On receiving a refund in full, the Prospective Tenant will return the original of this receipt to the Landlord, or give a written acknowledgement that nothing further is owed.

10. Tax and cash payment rules

10.1 Section 269SS of the Income-tax Act, 1961 does not permit an advance of Rs 20,000 or more, given in relation to the transfer of an interest in immovable property, to be taken in cash; and section 269ST does not permit anyone to receive Rs 2,00,000 or more in cash in respect of a single transaction. Both carry a penalty equal to the amount received, on the person who receives it. The parties confirm that the mode of payment in Clause 3.1 complies with both.

10.2 Where the Landlord is registered under the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, the Landlord should check whether tax is payable on this amount at the time it is received, as money received in connection with a future taxable supply of renting the Premises. This receipt does not deal with that tax, and it is a matter for the Landlord and the Landlord's tax adviser.

10.3 If, on adjustment under Clause 6.1, this amount comes to be treated as rent or as an advance against rent, the Prospective Tenant should check whether tax is to be deducted at source on it under section 194-I or section 194-IB of the Income-tax Act, 1961, as the case may be.

11. Notices

11.1 A notice under this receipt must be in writing and sent to the other party at the address in Clause 1, by registered post with acknowledgement due, by a reputed courier, or by email or messaging application in addition to one of those.

12. Governing law and courts

12.1 This receipt is governed by Indian law. A dispute about this receipt or about the token money is a civil suit, to be brought before the Civil Judge at __________; for a dispute concerning the Premises themselves, section 16 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 fixes the court within whose local limits the Premises are situated.

12.2 A suit to recover this money is generally to be brought within three years, under Article 113 of the Limitation Act, 1963. A stalled booking should not be left to drift.

13. The whole understanding

13.1 This receipt records everything the parties have agreed so far about the token money, the exclusivity and the Hold Period. No change to it is valid unless in writing and signed by both parties. If any clause of this receipt is found to be unenforceable, the rest of it continues to apply.

SIGNATURES

Both parties have read and understood this receipt and sign it on __________ at __________.

LANDLORD — acknowledges receipt of __________

Signature: ______________________________

Name: __________

[Affix a Re 1 revenue stamp here and sign across it]

PROSPECTIVE TENANT

Signature: ______________________________

Name: __________

WITNESS 1

Signature: ______________________________

Name: ______________________________

Address: ______________________________

WITNESS 2

Signature: ______________________________

Name: ______________________________

Address: ______________________________

Both parties should sign each page of this receipt. Keep the original with the Prospective Tenant and a signed copy with the Landlord, together with the payment proof — the payment proof and the paper only work together.