KANTI CHANDRA TARAFDAR Vs. RADHA RAMAN SIRKAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this case, the plaintiff brought a suit for accounts against two defendants as executors of the plaintiff's grandmother. He valued his suit so far as regards the claim for accounts at Rs. 1,000 and this he appears to have done quite reasonably and correctly under Sub-clause (f), Sub-section (4), Section 7, Court-fees Act.

(2.) A preliminary decree for accounts was made against the two defendants and from this they appealed to the High Court paying full court-fee so far as regards the claim for accounts, viz., on Rs. 1,000. They paid apparently a court-fee on Rs. 1,300 altogether. A stay of execution was asked for from this Court but was refused and the suit in the Court below proceeded; after an enquiry and report by a commissioner a final decree was made in the plaintiff's favour for Rs. 6,418 as the amount due from the defendants upon the taking of the accounts. The judgment did not require the plaintiff as a condition precedent to deposit an additional court-fee within a given time nor did it order that on his failure to do so, the suit should be dismissed. It appears that there is no provision in the Statute Law requiring the Court to make an order in that form. There is, however, a provision by Section 11, Court-fees Act, which is as follows: If the profits or amount decreed are or is in excess of the profits claimed or the amount at which the plaintiff valued the relief, sought, the decree shall not be executed until the difference between the fee be actually paid and the fee which would have been payable had the suit comprised the whole of the profits or accounts so decreed shall have been paid to the proper officer.

(3.) Thereupon, the defendants bring in this Court an appeal from the final decree and the question before me is the question of the proper amount of the court-fee that they must pay upon their memorandum of appeal. It appears to me to be prima facie clear that the amount payable upon this memorandum, of appeal is governed by the same words as governed the plaintiff's liability to pay court-fee when he brought his suit. It is governed by Clause (f), Sub- section (4), Section 7, Court-fees Act: Suits for accounts according to the amount at which the relief sought is valued in the memorandum of appeal.