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Showing contexts for: declaratory acts in Gurudatta Housing Society vs Maruti Bali Kokate on 11 December, 1979Matching Fragments
18. Coming to the question of the application of Article 1 of Schedule I, it shall have to be borne in mind that Schedule I deals with different kinds of cases attracting ad valorem Court-fees, while Schedule II enumerates the cases in which fixed Court-fee is payable. Any question of application of Article 1 of Schedule I cannot arise unless the mode of computation of the value of the subject-matter in dispute is traced. No other Article of Schedule I also was relied on. Mode of computation contemplated under Section 7(1) of the Court-fees Act is already rejected by us, holding that the dispute as to title cannot amount to disputes as to compensation, the amount of which cannot reflect the value of the dispute. We have already held that the dispute in reference on the question of title under the Act is of a declaratory nature in which no consequential relief is required to be claimed, as the compensation amount goes to that person automatically who is found so entitled under the decision in reference proceedings. The situation is comparable to the subject matters in disputes covered by Section 7(4)(c)(iii) or Article 17(iii) of Schedule II of the Indian Court-fees Act. Under the Scheme of Section 7(4)(c) of the Indian Court-fees Act, the plaintiff is at liberty to put his own valuation for the purposes of the relief claimed thereunder. As held by the Supreme Court in the case of Sathappa Chettiar v. Ratnanathan Chettiar .
The theoretical basis of this provision appears to be that in cases in which the plaintiff is given the option to value his claim, it is really difficult to value the claim with any precision or definiteness.
19. This is truer still of the subject-matter falling under Article 17(iii) of Schedule II of the Court-fees Act involving declaratory prayers without consequential reliefs. But the Bombay Court-fees Act does not contain any analogous provisions. The declaratory relief thereunder are now classified into several categories, under Section 6(iv) to 6(j) of the Act. None of these clauses can have any application to the dispute of the present nature, not arising out of any suit. The mode adopted by Rajasthan High Court in this behalf cannot be followed.