Fees for succession certificate challenged

A division bench comprising Justice S Manikumar and Justice Subramonium Prasad, before whom the plea came, directed the Additional Government Pleader (AGP) E Manoharan to obtain necessary instructions on the averments and secure files relating to fixation of different court fee, one for ‘probate’ and other for ‘succession certificate’.

Earlier, the bench brought to the attention of the petitioner’s counsel the submission made by AGP that the Registration Department would be the competent department to prescribe the court fee and related matters. Following this, the petitioner’s counsel submitted that steps would be taken to implead the department as a party respondent in the writ petition.

The petitioner had sought to declare Article 7, Schedule 1 of the Tamil Nadu Court Fees and Suits Valuation Act, 1955, as unconstitutional and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution (equality before law) in so far as it provides for court fees payable on petitions for succession certificates beyond a sum of Rs 25,000.

The plea also sought for a direction to refund Rs 3.13 lakh paid as court fee in a case in the district Court in Udhagamandalam in excess of the sum of Rs 25,000.