C ABDUL HAKIM SAHIB Vs. CHATTANADHA AIYAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This matter has been posted for being spoken to. While the ruling I gave the other day applies generally to suits removed to the High Court under Clause (13) of the Letters Patent, it cannot govern cases transferred from the City Civil Court, as a special Act applies in that case. The question at present arises in such a case and I therefore desire to amplify my ruling so as to make it applicable also to case's of that description.

(2.) The questions I have to decide may be thus stated: (1) When a suit is removed and tried by the High Court as a Court of Extraordinary Original Jurisdiction, are Court-fees leviable under the Court Fees Act or under the High Court Fees Rules? (2) When a suit filed in the City Civil Court is so removed, does it follow the general rule or is it governed by any special provisions ?

(3.) I must first turn to the Court Fees Act. Chapter II of that Act relates to fees in the High Courts and in the Presidency Small Cause Courts; Chapter III to fees in other Courts and in public offices, (See titles at head of these two Chapters.) Whatwe have to deal with at present is Chapter II, which consists only of three sections. The first of those sections is Section 3. The distinction between Section 3 and Section 4 must be carefully observed. Whereas the latter section prescribes the Court-fee, the former, subject to an exception which I shall notice presently, merely regulates the mode of collection. Section 4 enacts that no document specified in the first or the second schedule of the Act as chargeable with fees shall be filed in or received by the High Court in certain cases, unless, in respect of such document, there be paid a fee of an amount not less than that indicated by either of the said schedules as the proper fee for such document. The cases are thus specified: