The Hindu : Kerala News : Changes in Court Fee Act: notice to State Government

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Thursday, Oct 07, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Changes in Court Fee Act: notice to State Government

By Our Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI, OCT. OCT. 6. The Supreme Court has issued notice to the Kerala Government on a special leave petition (SLP) on the question of retrospective effect of Section 52 A of the Kerala Court Fees and Suits Valuation Act, 1959 on court fees to be paid on assessed income pending adjudication. A Bench consisting of Justice Y. K. Sabharwal and Justice D. M. Dharmadhikari issued the notice on the SLP preferred by K. Ravindranathan Nair, an assessee under the Income Tax Act, challenging a judgment of the Kerala High Court holding that court fees should not only be paid on the entire income but also with retrospective effect.

According to the petitioner, as per the relevant provision prior to the amendment, court fees were being paid on appeals arising out of orders of the Income Tax and Wealth Tax Appellate Tribunals only on the disputed income, viz. if the assessed income was for Rs. 10 lakhs and the disputed income was only to the extent of Rs. 50,000, court fee was paid only on Rs. 50,000. But after the amendment, an assessee had to pay court fee for the entire Rs. 10 lakhs. On a petition from Mr. Nair, the Kerala High Court, while upholding the amendment, held that such amendment would have retrospective operation, viz, from the date of the amendment dated October 26, 2002 even to such of those cases pending adjudication before the tribunals thereby affecting earlier assessments also. The High Court held that court fee should be paid in respect of all appeals to be filed either by the department or by the assessee under the Income Tax Act and Wealth Tax Act from October 26, 2002. The SLP was directed against this judgment.

Appearing for the petitioner, senior counsel K. Radhakrishnan submitted that the assessee got a vested right to file appeal from the moment the dispute commenced and the same could continue up to the apex court. Retrospective operation of the amendment would take away the vested right and moreover, compelling the assessee to pay court fee on the assessed income was arbitrary and onerous since court fee could be computed only on the disputed income.

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