MUSAMMAT JAGESHRA Vs. DURGA PRASHAD SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a question as to the amount of Court-fee which the plaintiff appellant is bound to pay both upon the memorandum of appeal in this Court and on her plaint in the Court below. The plaintiff is the subsequent mortgagee of certain property. A final decree for sale was obtained by a prior mortgagee of certain property including that which had been mortgaged to the plaintiff. To that suit the plaintiff was not a party. She has now brought a suit against the prior mortgagee and has asked for the following two reliefs, first, that it may be declared by Court that the defendant No. 1 has no right to bring to sale the property mortgaged to the plaintiff, detailed in the plaint, in execution of a final decree obtained on the 3rd of August 1912, and that the said decree is not binding upon the plaintiff secondly, that an injunction may be issued to the defendant No. 1 prohibiting him from taking out execution of the final decree against the property mentioned inthe plaint The first relief was valued by the plaintiff in her plaint at Rs. 6,818-12-0, the amount of the decree sought to be set aside. The second relief was valued at Rs. 100. On the first relief the plaintiff paid a Court-fee of only Rs. 10 which is the Court-fee payable on a relief asking for a simple declaration. On the second relief she paid a Court fee of Rs 7-8-0. According to the report of the Stamp Officer an ad valorem Court-fee was payable by the plaintiff both in the Court below and in this Court on the total sum of Rs. 6,918-12-0, the value placed upon the reliefs by the plaintiff herself. It seems to me that there is no doubt whatsoever in this matter in view of the clear language of Section 7(Clause 4) of the Court Fees Act. The plaintiff s suit is--really one to obtain a declaratory decree, where consequential relief is prayed. According to the terms of the section she must pay an ad valorem Court-fee according to the amount at which the relief sought is valued in the plaint or memorandum of appeal. The section says : In all such suit the plaintiff shall state the amount at which he values the relief sought.

(2.) In the present case the plaintiff has clearly valued the two reliefs at Rs. 6,918- 12-0 and ad valorem Court-fee is payable on that amount both for the Court below and in this Court.

(3.) The question as to whether or not the plaintiff can put an arbitrary and fictitious valuation on the relief which he seeks does not in my opinion arise in the present case at all, and it is really unnecessary to express an opinion on it. All I can say is that I have considerable doubt as to whether he is entitled to put on it a fictitious value and not the correct and proper value which is known to him.