In, Surender Kumar @ Salender Kumar vs Abid Khan &others, the Single Bench of Punjab & Haryana HC has held that in a suit for recovery as damages, ad valorem court fee would be payable on amount of damages claimed and dismissal of application for rejection of plaint on the ground of deficient Court fee was set aside.
Facts
Plaintiff filed a suit for declaration with mandatory injunction against the defendants. Defendant No.1, was engaged for construction of the said house on contract basis, The plaintiff, purchased the cement for use in the above said construction of the house from defendant No.2, Defendant No.2 had assured the plaintiff that the cement supplied by him is of good quality. Defendant No.1 started the construction work on the house of the plaintiff. However, when the building was got inspected by the plaintiff from the building expert, who had observed that the work assigned was not done, in a proper manner by defendant. Even, defendants had also supplied inferior quality of cement to the plaintiff. The plaintiff had to reconstruct and thus, suffered a loss. In this way, the defendants are liable to pay damages/losses suffered by the plaintiff, which are on account of loss of lintel and on account of loss of other construction work. Defendant No.2 filed an application under Order VII Rule 11 CPC, thereby making a prayer to direct the plaintiff to affix ad valorem court fee on the claimed amount and on his failure.
Aggrieved by the same, Petitioner filed the Civil Revision Petition under Article 227 of the Constitution of India and has challenged the order passed by learned Civil Judge ,whereby the petitioner has been directed to pay ad valorem Court fee, within a period of two months from the date of passing of the order.
Contention Made
Petitioner: That the plaintiff had filed a suit for declaration and mandatory injunction and therefore, learned trial Court has erred in directing him to pay the ad valorem court fee, vide the impugned order.
Court Observation
The Single Bench of Punjab & Haryana HC observed that, whenever the suit is for money, the Court fee is payable according to the amount claimed. Under Order VII Rule 11 CPC, the Court is entitled to carefully examine the contents of the plaint to arrive at a conclusion.
Further, Hon'ble Apex Court in the matter of 'State of Punjab and others Vs. Dev Brat Sharma dated 16.03.2022', wherein it has been categorically observed that in a suit for recovery as damages, ad valorem court fee would be payable on amount of damages claimed and dismissal of application for rejection of plaint on the ground of deficient Court fee was set aside.
Court Judgment
The Punjab & Haryana HC while dismissing the Revision Petition has held that, on the plain reading of the plaint, it is apparent that under the garb of suit for declaration with mandatory injunction, the petitioner is seeking recovery of specified amount as damages. Therefore, it is apparent that the suit is for the money and therefore, as per Section 7(i) Court Fees Act, 1870, the ad valorem court fee is payable, according to the amount claimed.
Hence, no ground to interfere in the order passed by learned trial Court, in exercise of the jurisdiction under Article 227 of the Constitution of India.
Case: Surender Kumar @ Salender Kumar vs Abid Khan &others
Citation: CR-2666-2022
Bench: Hon’ble Mrs. Justice Archana Puri
Decided on: 8thAugust, 2022.
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