551. The attention of the Courts is invited to the provisions of sub-sections (1) and (2) of Section 371 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The words "free of cost," in that section grant an exemption only from copying charges, not from stamp duty. Costs payable on copies of judgements are of three kinds:-
(a)Court-fees payable on the application for copies,(b)Court-fees payable when the copies are filed, exhibited or recorded in any Court of Justice (Section 6 of the Court-fees Act),(c)the charges for making the copies. These charges are not Court-fees although for the sake of convenience they are levied by affixing equivalent Court-fee stamps to the copies (Part V, Chapter 26, Rule 641).In order to give effect to the provisions of Section 371, items (a) and (b) have been remitted [vide items 13 (c) and (d) and 17 in Rule 550] on copies of judgements delivered to an accused in cases other than summons cases, on copies of judgements delivered to an accused who is in jail in summons cases, and on copies of the heads of charge to the jury delivered to an accused, and item (c) has been remitted in similar cases [vide Part V, Chapter 26, Rule 641). It should be carefully noted that the remission of item (c) in Part V, Chapter 26, Rule 641 applies to copies of documents other than those laid down above, e.g., to final orders in cases under Sections 108 to 110 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, but no corresponding remission of items (a) and (b) has been made in connection with those documents and care should be taken that the correct fees are recovered.
