Tamil Nadu Court-Fees and Suits Valuation Act, 1955
No: 14 Dated: May, 16 1955
Tamil Nadu Court-Fees and Suits Valuation Act, 1955
(Tamil Nadu Act 14 of 1955)
An Act to amend and consolidate the law relating to court-fees and valuation of suits in the State of Tamil Nadu.
Whereas it is necessary and expedient to amend and consolidate the law relating to court-fees and valuation of suits in the State of Tamil Nadu.
Be it enacted in the Sixth Year of the Republic of India as follows:-
CHAPTER I
Preliminary
1. Short title, extent and commencement. - (1) This Act may be called the Tamil Nadu Court-fees and Suits Valuation Act, 1955.
(2) It extends to the whole of the State of Tamil Nadu.
(3) It shall come into force on such date as the State Government may, by notification in the Fort St. George Gazette, appoint.
2. Application of Act. - (1) The provisions of this Act shall not apply to--
(a) This clause was omitted by the Presidency Small Cause Courts, Code of Civil Procedure and the Tamil Nadu Court-Fees and Suits Valuation (Amendment) Act, 1979 (Tamil Nadu Act 43 of 1979).
(b) documents presented or to be presented before an officer serving under the Central Government.
(2) Where any other law contains provisions relating to the levy of fee in respect of proceedings under such other law, the provisions of this Act relating to the levy of fee in respect of such proceedings shall apply subject to the said provisions of such other law.
3. Definitions. - In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-
(i) "appeal" includes a cross-objection;
(ii) "Court" means any Civil, Revenue, or Criminal Court and includes a Tribunal or other authority having jurisdiction under any special or local law to decide questions affecting the rights of parties;
(iii) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act;
(iii) (a) "transferred territory" means the Kanyakumari district and the Shencottah taluk of the Tirunelveli district; and
(iv) expressions used and not defined in this Act or in the Tamil Nadu General Clauses Act, 1891 (Tamil Nadu Act I of 1891), but defined in the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (Central Act V of 1908), shall have the meanings respectively assigned to them in the said Code.
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.
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 to pay the fee or part thereof, as the case may be, within such time as ma v 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 on 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 profit shall be deemed to be based on the same cause of action.