Point of Law: Writ petition - Court fee - Members of association - Registry not justified in insisting the petitioner in such a writ petition to produce a list of its members and remit court fee for all of them - No.

ORDER :

Petitioner, though styled as an association in the writ petition, is a society registered under the Travancore-Cochin Literary, Scientific and Charitable Societies Registration Act, 1955 (the Act). The members of the petitioner society are distributors of Liquefied Petroleum Gas in the State and they seek in the writ petition, for the benefit of its members, directions to the respondents to implement Ext.P1 guidelines formulated by the oil marketing companies.

2. The registry insisted the petitioner to produce a list of its members and remit court fee for all of them treating the writ petition as one instituted by the members jointly. The counsel for the petitioner took exception to the said stand of the registry pointing out that since no relief is sought in the writ petition individually for any of the members of the petitioner, the writ petition cannot be treated as one instituted jointly by the members of the petitioner.

3. In the light of the aforesaid stand of the counsel for the petitioner, the registry placed the matter before the court for an adjudication as to the sustainability of the stand taken by the counsel for the petitioner to the defect noted by the registry.

4. The learned counsel for the petitioner reiterated the stand aforesaid, viz, that since no relief is sought in the writ petition individually for any of the members of the petitioner, the writ petition cannot be treated as one instituted jointly by the members of the petitioner. In other words, according to the learned counsel, when a writ petition is instituted by an association of persons for the common benefit of its members, court fee shall not be insisted to be paid for all the members of the association.

5. Article 11 (i) (iii) of Schedule II of the Kerala Court Fees and Suits Valuation Act, 1959, the court fee payable on writ petitions is Rs.100/- per petitioner. Rule 147A of the Rules of the High Court of Kerala enables more persons than one to join in one writ petition as petitioners in whom any right to relief in respect of or arising out of the same act or transaction is alleged to exist, whether jointly, severally or in the alternative, where, if such persons present separate writ petitions, any common question of law or fact would arise. Rule 147A, however, clarifies that court fee shall be paid for such writ petitions for each persons joining as petitioner therein, as if each of them had filed a separate writ petition.

6. In Kerala Electric Trades Association, Kochi and Others v. State of Kerala and Another, 2010 (1) KHC 248, a learned Single Judge of this court expressed the view that a writ petition instituted by an association for the common benefit of its members is liable to be treated as one instituted jointly by all its members and court fee is therefore liable to be levied on the same for all its members. Referring to the decision in Kerala Electric Trades Association, in Maradu Market Traders' Association v. State of Kerala and Others, 2018 (3) KHC 530, a Division Bench of this court, placing reliance on Rule 147A of the Rules of the High Court of Kerala, treated a writ petition instituted by an unregistered association of persons claiming reliefs individually for its members as one instituted by them jointly, and directed the petitioner to remit court fee for all the members of the association.

7. It appears that in the light of the order passed by this court in Maradu Market Traders' Association, in terms of the common order passed in W.P.(C) Nos.8757 of 2018 and 8983 of 2018, a learned Single Judge of this court directed the registry that whenever a writ petition is filed by any association seeking relief on behalf of individual members of such association, the writ petitioner shall be insisted to produce a list of the members of the association on whose behalf such reliefs are sought. It was also directed in the said order that such writ petitions shall not be numbered without ensuring that court fee is paid in respect of ea