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Judgment
Jwala Prasad, J.—This is a reference made by the Registrar of the Cuttack Circuit Court relating to revenue.
The plaintiffs-appellants must pay ad valorem Court-fee u/s 7(iv)(c) of the Court-Fees Act. Two reliefs are sought for in the plaint, (ka) that it be declared that defendants 4 to 188 have no relationship of landlord and tenant with Defendants 1 and 2, but are "khatak" tankidars under the plaintiffs and have been paying the "tanki jama" to them; (kha) any other reliefs to which the plaintiffs may be entitled may be granted to them. The third prayer is for costs which may be ignored.
The general relief contained in (kha) does by itself subject the plaint to the liability of ad valorem Court-fee inasmuch as such a prayer is almost customary and being vague and indefinite is never deemed to be a substantial relief. The prayer (ka) is couched in terms that would maka it declaratory but the plaintiffs have obtained an ad interim injunction in the lower Court which still subsists. The plaintiffs have lost the case and in appeal seek reliefs which they had sought in the first Court. The ad interim prayer is a substantial prayer which makes the relief a consequential one bringing the case within Section 7(iv)(c) of the Court-fees Act. In the case of Krishna Das v. Hari Charan (1911) 14 CLJ 47 the plaintiff had described the suit as one for declaration of title with consequential relief, although the relief was in the nature of a declaration only. Therefore there was no dispute as to the category in which the suit fell. But the case of Deokali Kuer v. Kedar Nath (1912) 39 Cal 704 lends strong support to the view which I have taken. In that case there was no specific prayer in the memorandum of appeal for an interim injunction and there was, as in the present ease, only a prayer for declaration of plaintiff''s title. But in that case, as in the present, there was an interim injunction in the Court below on the application of the plaintiff and that was construed by Sir Lawrence Jenkins, C.J., as bringing the case within Section 7(iv)(e).
The questions put in the reference are answered as above and the plaintiff is bound to pay ad valorem Court-fee.