A succession certificate cannot be granted in respect of ornaments kept in a bank locker, as they are not debts.

ORDER :

1. The Third Assistant Judge, City Civil Court Hyderabad, directed the plaintiff to comply with the objections raised by the Office by valuing the suit and paying the Court fee under Section 24 (d) of the Andhra Pradesh Court Fees and Suits Valuation Act. It is against that order this revision petition has been filed.

2. The main allegations in the plaint are that one Suguna Bai, the mother of the plaintiff and the 1st defendant, being the eldest member of the family, has opened a locker in the Bank of Rajasthan Limited, Siddiamber Bazar Branch, Hyderabad, which is impleaded as 2nd defendant in the suit, the locker No. being 208. The said Suguna Bai died leaving behind the plaintiff and 1 he 1st defendant and they are the sole heirs of Suguna Bai. When the plaintiff and the 1st defendant approached the Bank to operate the locker the Bank asked them to get a succession certificate from the competent Court and therefore, they filed the present suit for a declaration that they are entitled to operate the locker.

3. The main point that falls for consideration in this revision petition is whether the Court below was justified in directing the plaintiff to value the suit under Section 24(d) of the AP Court Fees and Suits Valuation Act.

4. The plaintiffs filed the suit for declaration that plaintiff No. 1 is entitled to operate the Bank's locker that stood in the name of his mother, Suguna Bai. Under Scction. 370 of the Indian Succession Act, a succession certificate can be granted only in respect of debts and securities and not for any other kind of property. A succession certificate cannot be granted in respect of ornaments pledged by a deceased with a bank by way of security for the debt which the Bank had advanced. It is not a debt due from the Bank. Also, it cannot be granted in respect of ornaments kept in safe deposit locker in a Bank.

5. It is well settled that in order to determine the proper Court-fee payable on a plaint in a particular case, the true principle is that the plaint as a whole should be looked at and that it is the substance of (he plaint and not its ostensible form which really matters. Further, nothing should be imported into the plaint which it really does not contain either actually or by necessary implication Thus in construing the plaint the Court must take the plaint as it is and not as it ought to have been. (Vide: Kalu Ram v. Babulal (1) AIR 1932 Allahabad 485.

6. In this case, the plaintiffs have filed the suit for a declaration to allow the 1st plaintiff to operate the locker which stood in the name of their mother. By J virtue of the declaration the plaintiffs want to operate the locker and also want to take possession and control of the articles that were kept in the locker. Though the relief prayed for appears only for declaration but it is not a case of a declaration simplicitor to allow the plaintiff No, 1 to operate the locker.

7. The averments in the plaint show that late Suguna Bai as head of the family took the locker and the properties belong to the joint family. When the property belongs to the joint family and in the absence of any will executed by Smt. Suguna Bai to the extent of the contents of the locker, the only remedy that is available for the plaintiffs is to file a suit for partition. This is not a case filed for partition, but it is filed for declaration. Therefore, the lower Court has rightly pointed out that Court fee has to be payable as per Section 24 (d) of the AP Court Fees and Suits Valuation Act.

8. In State Bank of India v. Netai ChPorel (2) AIR 1982 Calcutta 92. it is observed as follows:

“The Bank was merely a custodian of the same. In ordinary parlance debt means a sum certain due from one person called the debtor to another called the credit. In Stroud's Judicial dictionary a debt is defined as a sum payable in respect of a liquidated money demand recoverable by action. One of the essentials of a debt is an ascertained amount or readily calculable amount”.

9.