DASAN K M Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The common issue arising in all these cases is, whether the petitioner is entitled to have exemption from the payment of 'additional Court Fee' payable at the rate of 0.5 % to the Kerala Legal Benefit Fund, for sustaining appeal before the Tribunal.

(2.) The petitioners, who challenge the assessment orders passed by the concerned authority, lost the battle before the first appellate authority, which led to the proceedings filed before the Tribunal. The said proceedings were noted as defective, for the fact that the requisite 'additional court fee' as specified above was not paid by the petitioners. True, the petitioners had filed an application for exempting them from paying the 'additional court fee' as above, but after considering the relevant provisions of law, the Tribunal observed that there was absolutely no power or provision to accede to the request made by the petitioners and accordingly the petitions were dismissed, leading to the natural consequence of dismissing the Appeals as well, which in turn has been subjected to challenge in the present Writ Petition.

(3.) The basic question to be answered is whether the departmental authorities can impose the 'additional court fee' as stated above. The source of power is available from S.76 of the Kerala Court Fees and Suit Valuation Act. It was in accordance with above, that the SRO 225 of 2002 was issued by the Government, whereby levy of 'additional court fee' was introduced w.e.f. 16/02/2004 and ever since then, in respect of the assessment years starting from the date of operation of the above prescription, the concerned appellants are made liable to pay the 'additional Court Fee' for entertaining the matter before the Tribunal.