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Sardar Tajender Singh Ghambhir v. Sardar Gurpreet Singh

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal No. 8660 of 2014)Decided 12 Sept 2014
Civil Appeal No. 8660 of 2014
Chief Justice R.M. Lodha · Justice Kurian Joseph · Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman

Background

Plaintiffs amended their suit to add monetary relief, creating a shortfall in court fees. The trial court never fixed a deadline for paying the additional fee. The first appellate court allowed them to make up the shortfall, but the High Court held that payment could not be allowed after the suit had ended.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court allowed the appeal and restored the appellate court's permission to pay. The applicable court-fee provisions required the court to determine any deficiency and give the litigant time to correct it before imposing consequences for default. There had been no such direction or missed deadline here. An appeal continues the suit, and the statutory scheme expressly empowered the appellate court to order payment of additional fees.

Lesson Learnt

A court-fee shortfall need not destroy a suit where the court never gave a deadline to remedy it. An appellate court may permit correction, although litigants must comply with any time limit actually imposed.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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