RAJDHAR BUWA Vs. UMAKANT BHIMRAO

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an application for revision under Section 115 of the Civil Procedure Code of an order of the Court below holding that the suit has been properly valued for purposes of Court-fee and jurisdiction.

(2.) THE non-applicant Umakant had instituted a suit against his mother and the applicant Rajdhar Buwa for accounts. He had valued the suit for courtrfee and for Jurisdiction at Rs. 100/. In the schedule to the plaint ho has stated that during the years in which the applicant was in possession of the property a net saving of Rs. 51,948-9-3 must have been made by him. On the basis of this statement it was contended by the applicant before the Court below that the valuation for jurisdiction should have been Rs. 51,948-9-3 and that the same should have been the valuation for Court-fee. This contention was not accepted by the Court below. He has therefore come up in revision.

(3.) IN support of his argument Shri Chan-durkar, learned counsel for the applicant, relies upon a decision of Vyas J. in Bhikamdas Bala-ram Bamb v. Motilal Gambhirmal Kothari, 59 Bom LR 1150 : (AIR 1958 Bom 307) (A ). In the first place, that decision is distinguishable on the ground that there the plaintiff had actually valued the suit for Rs, 22,500/- for jurisdiction but at Rs. 265/- only for purposes of Court-fee; whereas in the instant case, as would be clear _from the plaint, the plaintiff had valued the suit at Rs. 100/- only not only for purposes of Court-fee but also for jurisdiction. Moreover, the view taken by the learned Judge that where a plaintiff has valued a suit for jurisdiction at a particular figure then the value for Court-fee should also be at that figure, does not appear to be based upon any authority and is directly against the language of Section 8 of the Suits Valuation Act. The learned Judge has placed reliance upon a decision in Bansilal Lalchand v. Bhikubai, 49 Bom LR 545 : (AIR 1948 Bom 3) (B ). But what was held in that case was, and this has been also noticed by the learned Judge in his order, that the determination of the value for the payment of Court-fees automatically determined the value for the purposes of jurisdiction under Section 8 of the Suits Valuation Act. What the learned Judge has done is to hold the reverse, that is to say, according to him, the specification of the value of the suit for jurisdiction automatically determines its value for purposes of Court-fees. This is not what Section 8 of the Suits Valuation Act says. That section is in the following terms :