A MANIVANNAN Vs. SIVARAJ

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners are aggrieved by the dismissal of the application underO.14, Rule 2, C.P.C. THE petitioners are the defendants 3 to 5. THE suit O.S.No.338 of 1997 filed by the respondents 1 to 7 herein is one for declaration and injunction. THE written statement was filed on 24.12.1997. On 19.4.2001, the petitioners filed an application to try the issue relating to valuation as a preliminary issue. This was dismissed by the learned Additional District Munsif, Namakkal on the ground that it was belated and that the court-fee paid is correct.

(2.) THE learned counsel for the petitioner Mr. Raman Raj submitted that the court below had failed to exercise its power under Sec.12(2) of the Tamil Nadu Court-Fees and Suits Valuation Act (Act in short). According to the learned counsel all questions relating to the valuation ought to be considered by the Trial Court before evidence is recorded. Not having decided the question at the appropriate time, it was not open to the court to dismiss the application that it was belated and that it had been filed after the evidence have been recorded. THE learned counsel submitted that when the written statement was filed before the first hearing of the suit the petitioners had raised this objection at the earliest juncture and the same ought to have been considered.

(3.) THESE judgments may perhaps support the case of the respondents. But it is not necessary to deal with them because neither in the written statement nor in the affidavit filed in support of the petition did the petitioner raise the objection that the suit should have been valued under Sec.40 and not under Sec.25. This ground was raised only before this Court. In any event, the only question that has to be decided is whether the court should have taken up the issue of valuation as a preliminary issue or not and whether the valuation has resulted in injustice or there has been a failure to exercise the jurisdiction vested in it. The other decisions relate to a power of court underO.14, Rule 2, C.P.C.