PANNALAL LALA Vs. ABDUL GANI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The plaintiff appellant sued the defendants for an injunction restraining them from erecting a building on a piece of land on declaration of his title therein in maurashi jamai right, it being alleged by him that the defendants were mere tenants-at-will He valued the suit at Rs. 15. The suit was decreed by the Munsiff. On appeal by the defendants the Subordinate Judge set aside the decree of the trial Court and ordered that the plaint be returned to the plaintiff for presentation to the proper Court. His reason was a two-fold one : 1st, that the plaintiff had asked for declaration of title to and injunction in respect of 13 cottas of land which was worth Rs. 1,300 and so the suit should have been valued at Rs. 1,300 and was beyond the pecuniary jurisdiction of the Munsif; and 2nd, that the plaintiff had really a8ked for two declarations one relating to his own title as a maurashi tenant and the other relating to the defendants title as tenants-at-will and also for an injunction and consequently should have paid court-fee ad valorem the property. Both these grounds are challenged in this appeal as erroneous.

(2.) As regards the first of these two grounds much need not be said because Section 11, Suits Valuation Act, affords answer which is conclusive in plaintiff's favour : there is not the faintest suggestion any where in this case that the under-valuation prejudicially affected the disposal of the suit on its merits.

(3.) The salt as framed looking at its substance is to obtain an injunction with certain ancillary declarations and so comes under Section 7, Clause (iv) Sub-clause (d), Court-fees Act. It may perhaps be also regarded against the plaintiff as a suit to obtain a declaratory decree with a consequential relief in the shape of an injunction and therefore coming within Section 7, Clause (iv), Sub-clause (c) of the Act. In either view the amount of fee payable should be computed as the section states according to the amount at which the relief sought is valued in the plaint and in such a suit the section also states the plaintiff shall state the amount at which he values the relief. The plaintiff in this case valued the relief at Rs. 15.