UNION OF INDIA (UOI) Vs. MIRZAMAL GOURI PROSAD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Reference was made by the Registrar of the Calcutta High Court as the Taxing Officer under Section 5 of the Court-fees Act. The Taxing Officer in view of the general importance of the question raised before him referred the matter for the order, of the learned Chief Justice who by an order under Section 5 of the Court-fees Act has nominated this Court to hear, the Reference.. The question involved is what is the proper court-fee payable on memoranda of appeals and revisions and vakalatnamas filed in Calcutta High Court but arising from suits or proceedings in. Purulia, a territory which has been transferred to West Bengal under the Bihar and West Bengal Transfer of Territories Act, 1956. The questions framed by the learned Taxing Officer are as follows:

(2.) The Bihar and West Bengal Transfer of Territories Act, 1956, received the assent of the President on August 31, 1956, and was published in the Gazette on September 1, 1956. The appointed day on which the transfer of territories became effective is November. 1, 1956, as laid down in Section 2, Clause (a) of the Act. By Section 3 of the Act, as from the appointed day the Purulia subdivision of Manbhum district excluding certain thanas was added to the State of West Bengal and ceased to form part of the State of Bihar. But the laws in force in the transferred territories continued to be the same as before in spite of such transfer, in view of the provisions of Section 43 of the Act which runs as follows:

(3.) Under Section 44 of the Act the appropriate Government may, before the expiration of one year from the appointed day, by an order make such adaptations and modifications of the law in respect of the transferred territory as may be necessary. No such adaptation or modification of the law applicable to Purulia has been made by an order of the West Bengal Government. After the expiry of the period of one year any alteration in the existing law in the transferred territories must be made by the legislature. No law has also been passed applying the West Bengal laws to the transferred territories of Purulia and Kishanganj. Accordingly, the Court-fees Act with Bihar amendments, which was in force in the transferred territories, continued to be in force in such territories. There is no doubt therefore that in respect of suits and appeals filed in any courts situated within the transferred territories' as the court of Munsif or Subordinate Judge, Purulia, the court-fees payable would be according to the Court-fees Act as modified in Bihar. The question however is what should be the court-fees payable on memoranda of appeals and vakalatnamas filed along with, the appeals which are filed in the Calcutta High Court after the appointed day. Section 4 of the Court-fees Act provides that the High Court in its appellate jurisdiction shall not accept any document which requires to be stamped under schedule I or II of the Court-fees Act unless it is properly stamped in accordance with the scale prescribed in the schedule. Accordingly, when a memorandum of appeal or a vakalatnama is filed in the Calcutta. High Court, the proper authority of the Calcutta High Court must see that it is properly, stamped in accordance with the scale prescribed in the schedules to the Court-fees Act and necessarily reference will be made to the schedules in force in West Bengal where the Calcutta High Court is situated.