GHULAM AHMAD vs MUHAMMAD HUSSAIN AND Other
The petitioner filed a pre-emption suit on 17-10-1975 with insufficient court-fee. The trial court directed the petitioner to make up the deficiency by 3-1-1976. The petitioner failed to comply within the prescribed timeframe, only rectifying the deficiency by 5-2-1976. Consequently, the trial court rejected the plaint under Order VII, Rule 11 of the Code of Civil Procedure 1908. After unsuccessful appeals and review proceedings before the District Judge and a subsequent dismissal of a civil revision by the High Court, the petitioner sought leave to appeal before the Supreme Court. The core legal question was whether the plaint was rightly rejected for failure to make up the court-fee deficiency within the court-ordered time. The Supreme Court upheld the lower courts' decisions, noting that the petitioner neither sought an extension of time from the trial court nor demonstrated sufficient cause for the delay. The Court held that in the absence of a timely application for extension or a valid justification for non-compliance, the rejection of the plaint for failure to pay the requisite court-fee is legally sound and not subject to interference.
- Can a plaint be rejected under Order VII, Rule 11 of the Code of Civil Procedure 1908 if the plaintiff fails to make up the court-fee deficiency within the time granted by the court?
- Does the mere acceptance of a court-fee payment by the court after the deadline without a formal application for extension constitute an implied extension of time?
- Order VII Rule 11, Code of Civil Procedure 1908
ORDER
M. S. H. QURAISHI, J.-The petitioner instituted a pre-emption suit on 17-10-1975 affixing court-fee worth Rs. 15 only. On 18-10-1975 the Court directed him to make up the deficiency in the court-fee in accordance with the relevant statement of annual not profits of the land, by 3-1-1976. The deficiency was made good not within the time so given by the Court but some time on or before 5- 2-1976. The effect of this non-compliance formed the subject-matter of issue No. 5 which was found against the petitioner and accordingly his plaint was rejected under Order VII, rule 11, C. P. C.
The petitioner's appeal and thereafter a review petition before the District Judge, Mianwali, having failed, he came to the High Court in civil revision but the same, too, was dismissed in limine by the impugned order dated 14-5-1978. Hence this petition for leave to appeal.
2. Learned counsel submits that the deficiency was only to the tune of Rs. 203, that the delay in making up the deficiency was on account of the fact that the statement of not profits had been made available after the due date, i.e., 3-1-1976, and that the trial Court, having taken no exception when recording in the proceeding sheet of 5-2-1976 that the deficiency had been made up, would be deemed to have extended time until that date. He, therefore, urges that the conduct of the petitioner did not verge on contumacy.
3. We find that no effort was made by the petitioner to approach the trial Court for grant of extension of time either before or after the due date, i.e., 3-1-1976. It also appears from the submissions made by learned counsel that the petitioner had applied for issue of statement of not profits after the order of 18-10-1975. In these circumstances, the concurrent view taken by the Courts below is not open to interference. The petition is dismissed.