Chapter II COMPUTATION OF FEES

The fees payable for the time being to the clerks and officers (other than the sheriffs and attorneys) of the High Court; or chargeable in that Court under Article 10 of the First Schedule, and Articles 11, 14, 17, 20 and 21 of the Second Schedule annexed to this Act; shall be collected in the manner hereinafter appearing.

No document of any of the kinds specified as chargeable in the First or Second Schedule annexed to this Act shall be filed, exhibited or recorded in any Court of Justice, or shall be received or furnished by any public officer, unless in respect of such document there has been 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 amount of fees payable under this Act in the suits next hereinafter mentioned shall be computed as follows:- (1) In suits for money (including suits for damages or compensation, or arrears of maintenance, of annuities or of other sums payable periodically) according to the amount claimed. (2) In suits for maintenance (with or without a prayer for the creation of a charge), and for annuities or other sums payable periodically according to the value of (16) In suits for the interest of an assignee of land revenue, thirty times his net profits as such for the year next before the date of presenting the plaint. (17) In suits to set aside an attachment of land or of an interest in land or revenue - according to the amount for which the land or interest was attached: Provided that where such amount exceeds the value of the land or interest, the amount of fee shall be computed as if the suit were for the possession of such land or interest. (18) In suits against a mortgagee for the recovery of the property mortgaged, and in suits by a mortgagee to foreclose the mortgage, or when the mortgage is made by conditional sale, to have the sale declared absolute - according to the principal money expressed to be secured by the instrument of mortgage. (19) In suits for specific performance - (a) of a contract of sale -- according to the amount of the consideration, (b) of a contract of mortgage -- according to the amount agreed to be secured, (c) of a contract of lease -- according to the aggregate amount of the fine or premium (if any) and of the rent agreed to be paid during the first year of the term, (d) of an award -- according to the amount or value of the property in dispute. (20) In the following suits between landlord and tenant - (a) for the delivery by a tenant of the counterpart of a lease, (b) to enhance the rent of a tenant having a right of occupancy, (c) for the delivery by a landlord of a lease, (d) for the recovery of immovable property from a tenant, including a tenant holding over after the determination of a tenancy, (e) to contest a notice of ejectment, (f) to recover the occupancy of immovable property from which a tenant has been illegally ejected by the landlord, and (g) for abatement of rent— according to the amount of the rent of the immovable property to which the suit refers, payable for the year next before the date of presenting the plaint.

(1) The amount of fee payable under this Act on a memorandum of appeal against an order having the force of a decree relating to compensation under any Act for the time being in force for the acquisition of land for public purposes shall be computed according to the difference between the amount awarded and the amount claimed by the appellant. (2) The amount of fee payable under this Act on a memorandum of appeal against an award of a Claims Tribunal preferred under section 173 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, shall be computed as follows: - (i) if such appeal is preferred by the insurer or owner of the motor vehicle, the full ad valorem fee leviable on the amount at which the relief is valued in the memorandum of appeal according to the scale prescribed under Article I of Schedule I; (ii) if such appeal is preferred by any other person - one-half of the ad valorem fee leviable on the amount at which the relief is valued in the memorandum of appeal according to the said scale: Provided that if such person succeeds in the appeal, he shall be liable to make good the deficit, if any, between the full ad valorem fee payable on the relief awarded in the appeal according to the said scale and the fee already paid by him; and the amount of such deficit shall, without prejudice to any other mode of recovery, be recoverable as an arrear of land revenue.

If the Court is of opinion that the subject matter of any suit has been wrongly valued or if an application is made to the Court for the revision of any valuation made, the Court may determine the correct valuation by holding such inquiry as it thinks fit for such purpose, and revise the valuation.

(1) The Court, when making an inquiry under section 8 and any person making an investigation under section 9 shall have respectively for the purposes of such inquiry or investigation, the powers vested in a Court under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, in respect of the following matters, namely:- (a) enforcing the attendance of any person and examining him on oath or affirmation; (b) compelling the production of documents or material objects; (c) issuing commissions for the examination of witnesses; (d) taking or receiving evidence on affidavits. (2) An inquiry or investigation referred to in sub-section (1) shall be deemed to be a judicial proceeding within the meaning of sections 193 and 228 of the Indian Penal Code.

If in the result of an inquiry under section 8, the Court finds that the subject matter of the suit has been undervalued, the Court shall order the party responsible for the under valuation to pay the costs of the inquiry. If in the result of such inquiry, the Court finds that the subject matter of the suit has not been undervalued, the Court may, in its discretion, order that such costs shall be paid by the Government or by any party to the suit at whose instance the inquiry has been undertaken and if any amount exceeding the proper amount of fee has been paid shall refund the excess amount so paid.

(1) The State Government may appoint generally, or in any case, or for any specified class of cases, in any local area, one or more officers to be called inspecting officers. (2) The inspecting officer may, subject to the control of the Court concerned, examine the records of any case which is pending or has been disposed of, with a view to finding out whether proper fees have been paid therein. (3) If on such examination, the inspecting officer finds that the fee payable under this Act, on any document filed, exhibited or recorded in such case, has not been paid or has been insufficiently paid, he shall report the fact to the presiding officer of the court. (4) Such presiding officer, after satisfying himself of the correctness of such report, shall record a provisional finding that the proper fee has not been paid and determine the amount of the fee payable and such further sum as he thinks reasonable as the costs of the inquiry and the person from whom the fee or the difference thereof, if any, and the costs shall be recoverable. (5) After recording the finding under sub-section (4), the presiding officer shall issue a notice to the person referred to in that sub-section to show cause as to why he should not be ordered to pay the fee and the costs determined thereunder, and if sufficient cause is not shown, the presiding officer shall confirm the finding and make an order requiring such person to pay the proper fee and the cost before a specified date. (6) If such person fails to pay the fee and the costs in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (5), they shall, on the certificate of such presiding officer, be recoverable as an arrears of land revenue.

(1) In a suit or proceeding the difference, if any, between the fee actually paid and the fee which would have been payable, on delivery of judgment, be taxed by the court and shall be leviable from the plaintiff and if not paid by him within thirty days from the date of the judgment be recoverable according to the law and under the rules for the time being in force for the recovery of an arrears of land revenue.

If an appeal or plaint, which has been rejected by the lower Court on any of the grounds mentioned in the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, is ordered to be received, or if a suit is remanded in appeal, on any of the grounds mentioned in rule 23 of Order XLI in the First Schedule to the same Code for a second decision by the lower Court, the Appellate Court shall grant to the appellant a certificate, authorising him to receive back from the Collector, the full amount of fee paid on the memorandum of appeal: Provided that if, in the case of remand in appeal, the order of remand shall not cover the whole of the subject matter of the suit, the certificate so granted shall not authorise the appellant to receive back more than so much fee as would have been originally payable on the part or parts of such subject matter in respect whereof the suit has been remanded.

(1) Where an application for a review of judgment is admitted, and where, on the rehearing, the Court reverses or modifies its former decision on the ground of mistake in law or fact, the applicant shall be entitled to a certificate from the Court authorising him to receive back from the Collector so much of the fee paid on the application as exceeds the fee payable on any other application to such Court under clause (c) or (f) of Article 1 of the Second Schedule annexed to this Act. But nothing in the former part of this section shall entitle the applicant to such certificate where the reversal or modification is due, wholly or in part, to fresh evidence which might have been produced at the original hearing. (2) The Collector shall refund such fees as provided under sub-section (1), in money which may also be made by e-payment.

Where a suit embraces two or more distinct subjects, the plaint or memorandum of appeal shall be chargeable with the aggregate amount of the fees to which the plaints or memoranda of appeal in suits embracing separately each of such subjects would be liable under this Act. Nothing in the former part of this section shall be deemed to affect the power conferred by the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, Schedule 1, Order II, rule 6.

When the first or only examination of a person who complaints of the offence of wrongful confinement, or of wrongful restraint, or of any offence other than an offence for which police officer may arrest without a warrant, and who has not already presented a petition on which a fee has been levied under this Act, is reduced to writing under the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, the complainant shall pay a fee of Rs. 10 unless the court thinks fit to remit such payment.

Nothing contained in this Act shall render the following documents chargeable with any fee- (i) Power-of-attorney to institute or defend a suit when executed by a member of any of the Armed Forces of the Union not in civil employment. (ii) Application for certified copies of documents or of any other purpose in the course of a criminal proceeding presented by or on behalf of the State Government to a criminal Court. (iii) Written statements called for by the Court after the first hearing of a suit. (iv) Probate of a will, letters of administration, and, save as regards debts and securities, a certificate under the Bombay Regulation VIII of 1827 or any corresponding law in force, where the amount or value of the property in respect of which the probate or letters or certificate shall be granted does not exceed Rs. 1,000. (v) Application or petition to the Collector or other officer making a settlement of land revenue, or to a Board of Revenue, or a Commissioner of Revenue, relating to matters connected with the assessment of land or the ascertainment, of rights thereto or interest therein, if presented, previous to the final confirmation of such settlement. (vi) Application relating to supply for irrigation of water belonging to Government. (vii) Application for leave to extend cultivation, or to relinquish land, when presented to an officer of a land revenue by a person holding, under direct engagement with Government, land of which the revenue is settled, but not permanently. (viii) Application for service of notice of relinquishment of land or of enhancement of rent. (ix) Written authority to an agent to distrain. (x) Petition, application, charge or information respecting any offence when presented, made or laid to or before a police officer, or to or before the Heads of Villages or the village police. (xi) Petition by a prisoner, or other person in duress or under restraint of any Court or its officer. (xii) Complaint of a public servant (as defined in the Indian Penal Code), a municipal officer, or an officer or servant of a railway company. (xiii) Application for the payment of money due by the Government to the applicant. (xiv) Petition of appeal against any municipal tax. (xv) Applications for compensation under any law for the time being in force relating to the acquisition of property for public purposes, other then those chargeable under Article 15 of Schedule 1.