IJJATULLA BHUYAN Vs. CHANDRA MOHAN BANERJEE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Under Section 8 of the Suits Valuation Act, valuation for the purpose of court-fees is, in a case like the present, the same as that for jurisdiction; in a suit for mesne profits court-fees are levied on two occasions, at the institution of the suit and again when the mesne profits are ascertained. Does not that show that the value of the suit must be the total value of the mesne profits as ascertained?]

(2.) If the determination of the value is to be determined by the final adjudication, what is to be regarded as the final adjudication--adjudication by the first Court or by the final Court of appeal? The result would be extremely anomalous; the adjudication of the first Court may show the value to be beyond the limits of its jurisdiction, so that the entire trial must be taken to have been void and the plaint must be returned to be presented to proper Court. Some definite meaning must be given to the expression "value of the original suit" in Section 21 of the Civil Courts Act; the forum of appeal therefore is determined by the value of the suit and not by the amount decreed; and the value of the suit is the valuation put on the plaint except where the valuation is not bond fide but made merely to alter the venue. Section 50 of the Code says that in cases like the present the approximate rvalue stated in the plaint is to be taken as the value of the suit. Rampini, A.C.J.

(3.) The question raised in the reference to this Bench is: "Whether in a suit for possession of land and mesne profits which was originally valued at a sum below Rs. 5,000, but in which the whole amount actually found due, inclusive of mesne profits payable by the defendants to the plaintiff, is over Rs. 5,000, an appeal lies to this Court or to the District Court?"