ORDER :

The tone for this judgment can be set by what the following clauses 39 & 40 from the Magna Carta of 1215 read :

“To none shall we sell,

To none shall we deny

And to none shall we delay

right or justice”

2. This Reference arose from a learned Single Judge’s order dated 17.1.2017 made under Section 9 of the Karnataka High Court Act, 1961. She doubted the correctness of the Division Bench’s view in ANTHONY SWAMY vs. CHOWRAMMA, ILR 1989 KAR 1284, that ‘once a petition for grant of probate or letters of administration is contested, that petition automatically takes the form of a regular suit… in which the petitioner shall be the plaintiff and the person who appeared to oppose the grant shall be the defendant…’. Therefore, she opined that the proviso to Article 11(l)(ii)(3) of Schedule II to the Karnataka Court Fees and Suits Valuation Act, 1958 (hereafter ‘1958 Act’), would become applicable and as a consequence, ad valorem court fee is payable. Another Division Bench inter alia comprising one of us (Dixit, J.), directed ‘the Registrar (Judicial) to place the petition before the Hon’ble Chief Justice on the administrative side for necessary orders’. Hon’ble the Chief Justice, having c