SANTHOSH Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioners seek in this writ petition, among others, a declaration that sub-sec. (1) of Sec. 76 of the Kerala Court Fees and Suits Valuation Act, 1959 (the Court Fees Act) as amended in terms of the Kerala Finance Act, 2016 does not apply to applications for compensation before the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal (the Tribunal). They also seek alternatively, a declaration that insistence of additional court fee in terms of sub-sec. (1) of Sec. 76 of the Court Fees Act for instituting applications for compensation before the Tribunal is illegal and unconstitutional.

(2.) The brief facts leading to the writ petition as narrated by the petitioners are the following:

(3.) The case set out by the petitioners in the writ petition is that the Court Fees Act does not apply to applications for compensation before the Tribunals; that even if the Court Fees Act applies to applications before the Tribunals, sub-sec. (1) of Sec. 76 of the said Act is unconstitutional inasmuch as it is arbitrary, and that even if the Court Fees Act applies to applications before the Tribunals and sub-sec. (1) of Sec. 76 of the Court Fees Act is valid, insofar as the victims of motor accidents are compelled to remit the fee in terms of Rule 397 of the Motor Vehicles Rules and additional court fee in terms of sub-sec. (1) of Sec. 76 of the Court Fees Act on account of the failure on the part of the police officers concerned in forwarding Accident Information Reports to the jurisdictional Tribunals, action shall be taken against the erring police officers.