The Delhi High Court Bar Association through its secretary on Tuesday moved the High Court seeking quashing of the Court Fee (Delhi Amendment) Act, 2012, by which the Delhi Government has increased court fees, submitting that the city Government lacked the jurisdiction to carry out the amendment to make the hike.
The petitioner, Mohit Mathur, challenged the increase on the grounds of legislative competence and charging court fees ad valorem in complaint cases.
Central legislation
The petitioner submitted that the Delhi Legislature did not have the competence to carry out the amendment to a Central legislation and also court fees could not be charged ad valorem in complaint cases. The law governing the court fees is a central legislation, the petitioner submitted.
Urging the Court to declare the amendment ultra vires , void and unconstitutional, the petition stated that the amendment was aimed at collecting revenue.
The Delhi Government, whose primary duty was to administer justice, should not do so out of public revenues and not put justice up for sale. The levy of court fees by the amendment aggravated the expenses of ligation which negated the availability and efficacy of expeditious and inexpensive legal remedies available to the citizen,” the petition stated.
The petition later came up for hearing before a Division Bench of the Court comprising Justice A. K. Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw. However, the Bench said that it would take up it for hearing on Thursday.
The Delhi Government has defended the hike saying that the new rates had been introduced on the instructions of the Delhi High Court and it will facilitate implementation of e-Court Project in the Capital.
The Government says that the fees schedules have been revised to make them more practical both in terms of language and entries as well as in terms of currency in use and on the basis of current realities and practices in various courts.
