(1.) The following question has been referred to this Bench for opinion :
(2.) The respondent filed a suit against the appellant for rendition of accounts of a dissolved partnership firm or, in the alternative, for dissolution of the firm and rendition of accounts in the Court of First Additional District Judge, Jabalpur. The claim was valued at Rs. 75,000/-. The defendant (who has since died and is now represented by the appellants) resisted the suit; but ultimately a decree was passed declaring that the partnership stood dissolved with effect from 2910- 1970 and directing the defendant to render accounts of the partnership to the plaintiff. The defendant preferred an appeal in this Court valuing the relief at Rs. 300/- only on the ground that the appeal was in respect of dissolution of the partnership alone and not in respect of accounts because the plaintiff- respondent himself was an accounting party. On an objection raised by the respondent regarding proper valuation of the claim for purposes of the appeal, a question arose whether, in an appeal by the defendant arising out of a suit for accounts, it is open to the defendant to put his own valuation on the claim. As the matter was not free from difficulty and there has been some divergence of opinion on the point, the Division Bench hearing the appeal referred the aforesaid question to this Bench for opinion.
(3.) Before we proceed to take into consideration the divergent views expressed by different High Courts on this question, it would be pertinent to refer to the relevant provisions of the Court-fees Act. It is not disputed that a suit for dissolution of partnership and accounts falls under Section 7 (iv) (f) of the Act, Section 7 of the Act reads as under: