PARKASH CHAND Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The plaintiff filed suit for possession of land measuring 8 Kanals situate at village Lehragaga comprising of Khewat No. 65, Khatauni No. 771, Khasra No. 2 of Rectangle No. 200 as mentioned in the Jamabandi for the year 1975-76. The suit was valued for the purposes of the Court-fee at 10 times the land revenue i.e. Rs. 26.70. The defendant raised an objection that the valuation fixed for Court-fee was not proper and the same should have been valued at the market price of the land in dispute. The trial Court upheld the objection of the defendant and ordered the plaintiff to pay Court-fee at Rs. 1,00,000/- which was the value of the land and the construction raised thereon by the defendant vide order dated November 18, 1980, which is under challenge in this revision petition.

(2.) The value for the purposes of Court-fees in a suit for land is to be determined as provided in Section 7(v) of the Court Fees Act. The term land is not defined in the said Act. There is, therefore, no warrant for the view that the land has to be necessarily agricultural land for assessing its value as provided in Section 7(v)(a). Any land which forms a part of estate or a definite share of an estate and is also revenue paying would be covered by this sub-clause. The matter is not res integra and a similar view was taken by Teja Singh, J. in Purshotam Lal v. Piyare Lal, 1948 AIR(P&H) 9 as would be evident from the following passage :-

(3.) Consequently, this petition is allowed and the impugned order is reversed. As there is no appearance on behalf of the respondent, I make no order as to costs.