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During hearing of a batch of pleas against enhancement of court-fees for writ petitions and writ appeals, State government of Tamil Nadu apprised Madras High Court on Wednesday that the Tamil Nadu Court-fees and Suits Valuation (Second Amendment) Act, 2021 is already before State Assembly and provides for reduction of such fee.

Before the Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P.D.Audikesavalu, State submitted that the Bill has been introduced to further reduce court-fees to be charged both for writ petitions and writ appeals.

According to it, the court fees for filing Writ Petition has been reduced to Rs. 750 and for filing Writ Appeal to Rs. 1500. The same will be applicable following passage of the Bill.

Earlier, the petitioners had alleged that against previous fees of Rs.200 for a writ petition and appeal each, they have been enhanced by the State to Rs.1,000 and Rs.2,000, respectively.

They had argued that since the remedy under Article 226 of the Constitution of India is to enforce fundamental rights that are guaranteed in the Constitution, the costs for availing such remedy should not be such as would exclude a class of persons from even availing the remedy.

They had further contended that when paltry amounts are charged for applying under Article 227 of the Constitution and for seeking bail or anticipatory bail or moving criminal appeals, the exorbitant increase in court-fees for writ petitions and writ appeals is incongruous.

Accordingly, addressing petitioners’ grievances and noting that the matter relates to policy decisions, court had earlier asked the State re-consider the enhancement of court-fees. The current development has come following the same.  

During the present hearing in two of the petitions from the batch, court noted a serious anomaly in the sense that, the quantum of court-fees was much greater than what was required to be paid for obtaining probate.

However, stating that State has dealt with that too, court said,

“Even such aspect of the matter has been addressed by the State Government and has been incorporated in the Bill by providing for a maximum ad valorem fee.”

On earlier dates, State had informed the court that fee enhancement in question was done only upon the recommendation of the Committee constituted under the Chairmanship of Justice Thiru.K.Sampath, Retired High Court Judge.

State had said that the committee was appointed for the purpose of looking into the proposed fee structure across a cross-section of matters and the committee perceived the quantum of increase in respect of writ petitions and appeals to be appropriate.

However, taking note of High Court’s observation in order dated August 30, that the quantum of increase of the above court-fee is so much that the same may be reconsidered by the State, the State Government decided to reduce the court-fees amending the Tamil Nadu Court-fees and Suits Valuation Act, 1955 (Tamil Nadu Act XIV of 1955) for the purpose. For this purpose, the Tamil Nadu Court-fees and Suits Valuation (Second Amendment) Act, 2021 was introduced in the Legislative Assembly of the State of Tamil Nadu on 7th September, 2021.

Case Title: K.Vasanth v. Government of Tamil nadu and 2 Others.

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