Banerjee, J. - (1.) When a Government is a litigant, it must, like any other litigant, conform to the substantive and procedural laws of the country and must not aspire to be treated as a favoured litigant. The proposition is so elementary that it does not ordinarily require re-statement. We are, however, compelled to remind the learned Government Pleader of this rudimentary proposition because of the attitude taken up by him in justification of a prayer for extension of time to put in deficit Court-fees on a memorandum of appeal.
(2.) On February 3, 1964, the petitioner State Government, as appellant, presented a memorandum of First Appeal in this Court. The appeal was valued of Rs.25,354/- and ad valorem Court-fee of Rs.1380/- was payable on the Memorandum of Appeal. The Memorandum was, however, presented with a Court-fee stamp of Rs.5/- only.
(3.) Along with the memorandum of appeal there was an application filed, which was not supported by an affidavit as required under clause (5) of Rule 18 in Chapter V of the Appellate Side Rules, in which it was inter alia stated: "1. That the requisite Court fee of the above appeal amounts to Rs.1380/-. 2. That the requisition for the amount of the requisite Court fee was duly made to the office of the Accountant General, West Bengal, but the cheuqe for the amount has not yet been received 3. In the circumstances your petitioner is obliged to file the same with a Court fee stamp of Rs. 5/-. That your petitioner expects to be able to file the deficit Court fee within 6 weeks from date.";