Statement of Objects and Reasons.-The principal object of this Bill is to prescribe a simple mode of valuing suits relating to land for the purpose of determining the jurisdiction of those Courts with respect to them. Most of those suits are of course cognizable exclusively by Civil Courts but some of them, as for instance, suits in the Punjab under section 9 of the Specific Relief Act, may be tried by Revenue Courts.It has been brought to the notice of the Government that, while the Civil Courts Acts of the several Provinces, with the exception of that in force in the Presidency of Madras prescribe no special rules for fixing the value for jurisdiction of the subject-matter of land suits, but simply define the limit of the jurisdiction of each grade of Court by the money value of the subject-matter in suit, thus leaving the market value to be the strictly legal criterion, a practice has sprung up, generally in the inferior Courts, of accepting in the absence of any express provision of law to the contrary the Court-fee valuation as laid down in section 7, paragraph (v) of Act 7 of 1870, for purposes of jurisdiction also.The generally admitted result is that land suits are undervalued and dispose of by Courts not strictly competent to try them. In order to remedy this state of things the present Bill has been prepared. It empowers (section 2) the Local Government to frame rules, subject to the sanction of the Governor General in Council, for determining the value of land in the territories under its administration for purposes of jurisdiction in the suits mentioned in section 7, paragraphs (v) and (vi), and paragraph (x), clause (d) of the Court-fees Act, 1870, namely, suits for possession of land, to enforce a right of pre-emption, and for specific performance of an award relating to land. These rules are to be made after consultation with the High Court; and the Bill provides (section 7) a procedure for the publication of proposed rules, so that the Courts and the public may have an opportunity of preferring any objections which they may have to them before the rules are made. The Bill further declares (section 3) that where a suit mentioned in paragraph (iv) of section 7 of Article 17 of Schedule II of the Court-fees Act, relates to land, the amount at which for purposes of jurisdiction the relief sought in the suit is valued shall not exceed the value of the land to which the suit relates as determined by the rules under the Act.In addition to the foregoing provisions which relates exclusively to land suits section 4 provides that in other suits in which Court-fees are payable ad valorem, the value for purposes of jurisdiction shall be estimated in accordance with the rules which regulate the value for Court-fee purposes.Section 5 of the Bill is taken from sections 206-208 of the North-Western Provinces Rent Act, 1881, and has been inserted at the suggestions of Sir Charles Turnels, late Chief Justice of Madras. It lays down a special procedure, for cases in which the objects that a suit was not properly valued for purposes of jurisdiction is taken in an appellate Court, an objection which the Bill declares may not be entertained unless it was taken in the Court of first instance.Lastly, the Bill (section 6) repeals section 14 of the Madras Civil Courts Act, 1873 which enacts the rule of valuation which it is the object of this Bill to abolish, namely, the valuation for jurisdiction in the case of land suits shall be in accordance with the Court-fee valuation prescribed by section 7, paragraph (v) of the Court-fees Act, 1870. In order, however, to prevent hardship or inconvenience to suitors it is provided that this repeal shall not affect any suit instituted before the rules under the proposed Act take effect.[11th February, 1887]...An Act to prescribe the mode of valuing certain suits for the purpose of determining the jurisdiction of Courts with respect thereto .Whereas it is expedient to prescribe the mode of valuing certain suits for the purpose of determining the jurisdiction of Courts with respect thereto; It is hereby enacted as follows:
