Chapter II LIABILITY TO PAY FEE

4. Levy of fee in Courts and public offices.—No document which is chargeable with fee under this Act shall— (i) be filed, exhibited or recorded in, or be acted on or furnished by, any Court including the High Court, or (ii) be filed, exhibited or recorded in any public office or be acted on or furnished by any public officer, unless in respect of such document there be paid a fee of an amount not less than that indicated as chargeable under this Act: Provided that, whenever the filing or exhibition in a Criminal Court of a document in respect of which the proper fee has not been paid is in the opinion of the Court necessary to prevent a failure of justice, nothing contained in this section shall be deemed to prohibit such filing or exhibition.

1[4A. Levy of fee at the time of institution of suit.-Notwithstanding anything contained in any other provisions of this Act, the amount of fee to be paid on plaint at the time of institution of suit shall be one-tenth of the amount of fee chargeable under this Act and the balance amount shall be paid within such period, not later than fifteen days from the date of framing of issues or where framing of issues is not necessary, within such period not exceeding fifteen days as may be specified by the court: Provided that the court may, for sufficient reasons to be recorded in writing, extend the period up to thirty days: Provided further that if the parties settle the dispute within the period, specified or extended by the court for the payment of the balance amount, the plaintiff shall not be called upon to pay such balance.]

5. Fees on documents inadvertently received.—When a document on which the whole or any part of the fee prescribed by this Act has not been paid is produced or has, through mistake or inadvertence, been received in any Court or public office, the Court or the head of the office may, in its or his discretion at any time, allow the person by whom such fee is payable or any interested party to pay the fee or part thereof as the case may be, within such time as may be fixed; and upon such payment, the document shall have the same force and effect as if the full fee had been paid in the first instance.

6. Multifarious suits.— (1) In any suit in which separate and distinct reliefs are sought based on the same cause of action, the plaint shall be chargeable with a fee on the aggregate value of the reliefs: Provided that, if a relief is sought only as ancillary to the main relief, the plaint shall be chargeable, only on the value of the main relief. (2) Where more reliefs than one based on the same cause of action are sought in the alternative in any suit, the plaint, shall be chargeable with the highest of the fees leviable in respect of any one of the reliefs. (3) Where a suit embraces two or more distinct and different causes of action and separate reliefs are sought based on them, either alternatively or cumulatively, the plaint shall be chargeable with the aggregate amount of the fees with which plaints would be chargeable under this Act if separate suits were instituted in respect of the several causes of action: Provided that, where the causes of action in respect of reliefs claimed alternatively against the same person arise out of the same transaction, the plaint shall be chargeable only with the highest of the fees chargeable on them. Nothing in the sub-section shall be deemed to affect any power conferred upon a Court under rule 6 of Order II of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (Central Act V of 1908). (4) The provisions of this section shall apply mutatis mutandis to memoranda of appeals, applications, petitions and written statements. Explanation.—For the purpose of this section, a suit for possession of immovable property and for mesne profits shall be deemed to be based on the same cause of action.

7. Determination of market value.— (1) Save as otherwise provided, where the fee payable under this Act depends on the market value of any property, such value shall be determined as on the date of presentation of the plaint. (2) The 1[market value of agricultural land] in suits falling under section 25 (a), 25 (b), 27 (a), 29, 30, 37 (1), 37 (3), 38, 45 or 48 shall be deemed to be ten times the annual gross profits of such land where it is capable of yielding annual profits minus the assessment if any made to the Government. (3) The market value of a building shall in cases where its rental value has been entered in the registers of any local authority, be ten times such rental value and in other cases the actual market value of the building as on the date of the plaint. 2[(3A) The market value of any property other than agricultural land and building failing under sub-sections (2) and (3) shall be the value it will fetch on the date of institution of the suit.] (4) Where the subject-matter of the suit is only a restricted or fractional interest in a property, the market value of the property shall be deemed to be the value of the restricted or fractional interest and the value of the restricted or fractional interest shall bear the same proportion to the market value of the absolute interest in such properly as the net income derived by the owner of the restricted or fractional interest bears to the total net income from the property.

8. Set off or counter claim.—A written statement pleading a set off or counter claim shall be chargeable with fee in the same manner as a plaint.

9. Documents falling under two or more descriptions.—Subject to the provisions of the last preceding section, a document falling within two or more descriptions in this Act shall, where the fees chargeable thereunder are different, be chargeable only with the highest of such fees: Provided that, where one of such descriptions is special and another general, the fee chargeable shall be the fee appropriate to the special description.