DAULATRAM Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ON a reference by one of us sitting singly, this second appeal by the plaintiff in a suit for declaration and injunction comes up before this Bench for final disposal.

(2.) THE reference has been occasioned by an interesting, albeit, vexed question relating to the question of court-fees payable on the suit as well as the appeal under sec. 7 (iv) (c) of the Court Fees Act (THE Indian Court Fees Act 1870 having been adapted for the relevant period to this State with certain modifications which are irrelevant for our purposes by the Rajasthan Court Fees (Adaptation Act) Ordinance, 1950 (No. 9 of 1950), which admittedly governs this case, and upon which question a rather sharp divergence of judicial opinion appears to exist in the various High Courts of our country. As, however, the entire case has been referred to this Bench, we propose to state the salient facts leading up to this appeal in so far as they are material for its final disposal.

(3.) IT cannot be accepted that the Legislature could have ever intended to give the plaintiff unrestricted liberty to assign any arbitrary or capricious value he may choose to affix on his suit. For, in the first place, such a course is likely to deprive the Government of its legitimate revenue, and secondly, it would also give an unlimited choice to the plaintiff to bring his suit in a court of his choice with the consequential result that the powers of appeal however important the matter may be would be unduly limited. On this view, it is doubtless correct that under sec. 7 (iv) (c) the plaintiff at the outset is at liberty to put such valuation on the relief sought by him as he chooses, but such valuation cannot be accepted to be final or binding on the court or as the last word on the subject. Strong support is also derived in favour of this view from the language of O. 7, r. 11 C. P. C. which, inter alia, clearly permits the court where the relief claimed is undervalued to call upon the plaintiff to correct the valuation within a time to be fixed by it, and, where the plaintiff fails to do so, to reject the same.