KHARKA Vs. YELLAPPA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE learned lawyers for the parties heard. A suit was filed by the Respondents against the Appellants for possession of a fifth share of the Plaintiff in the joint family property belonging to the parties who are brothers. As there are five brothers the Plaintiff's share is one fifth. The property was valued by the plaintiff on the basis of market price and he submitted that the value of his one -fifth share fell below Rs. 2,000/ - thus enabling the Munsif's Court to hear and dispose of the suit and it is within the competence and pecuniary jurisdiction of that Court. The Defendant objected to the valuation on various grounds and submitted that as the value of the one -fifth share would amount to more than Rs. 2,000/ - the case can only be heard by a higher court. The trial Court appointed a commissioner for the valuation of the property, except one Panmalla. According to the parties Panmalla means a land on which betel leaves (Pan) are grown. Having received the report of the commissioner about valuation, the trial Court determined the value of the Plaintiff's share to be less than Rs. 2,000/ - and proceeded to hear the suit. The Defendant has, therefore, come up in revision before me.

(2.) THE manner adopted by the Munsif's Court of determining the valuation of the Panmalla was twenty times the amount of the revenue payable on the land on which those betel leaves are grown. The Appellant contends that in view of the first portion of Section 4(5) of the Hyderabad Court -fees Act, the valuation of the Plaintiff's share would be one -fifth of the market value of this Panmalla and the Plaintiff also valued this Panmalla in his plaint on the same basis. It is, however, contended by the learned lawyer for the Respondent that he erred in originally putting the market value on the Panmalla and in fact he can avail of the provisions of Section 4 (5) (a) of the Hyderabad Court Fees Act and therefore the valuation determined by the Trial Court is in accordance with law. He cited - ', 40 Deccan LR 242 '.

(3.) IT will be observed that Clause (5) of Section 4 mentions three kinds of properties and the differentiation of these properties is emphasised by the fact that they appear together in the same clause. The three properties are House (Makan), Garden (Bagh) and land (Aarazi). The clause lays down that on all these three kinds of properties court -fee will be leviable on the value of the property and the valuation will be determined in the following manner: when the property 1o be valued is land (Aarazi) on which revenue is payable, the valuation would be twenty times the amount of the revenue payable. It is rightly contended that this condition of the valuation to be twenty times of the. revenue applies only to the case of land and not in case of house or garden, although usually a house or a garden is built or constructed on land. A careful reading of this part of the section indicates that Sub -clause (a) would only apply if the property under dispute is a land on which revenue is payable without a garden on it. If Panmalla is a garden, the valuation must be determined according to the market value; if not the land would be a mere land for purposes of Court Fees Act and if revenue is payable on that land the basis of determining the valuation would be the annual revenue and not the actual value of the land. It was contended before me that Panmalla is a garden. I am not prepared to accept that view for the simple reason that, there is no reason why a Panmalla should be considered to be a garden and not as any other field - paddy field or a jawar field. Simply because the cultivation of betel leaves is a luxury and not a food crop or other necessity, the cultivation of that luxury does not render that field into garden. To my mind a garden would need some kind of construction or some formation of trees where fruit, flowers or other vegetables are grown for purposes of profit, gain or decoration. In any case while it may be very difficult to define the word "garden", certainly it cannot mean the same thing as a paddy field or a gram -field or a betel field and Panmalla is nothing more than a field.