JUDGMENT :

P.B. SURESH KUMAR, J.

1. Petitioners seek in this writ petition, among others, a declaration that sub-section (1) of Section 76 of the Kerala Court Fees and Suits Valuation Act, 1959 (the Court Fees Act) as amended in terms of the Kerala Finance Act, 2016 does not apply to applications for compensation before the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal (the Tribunal). They also seek alternatively, a declaration that insistence of additional court fee in terms of sub-section (1) of Section 76 of the Court Fees Act for instituting applications for compensation before the Tribunal is illegal and unconstitutional.

2. The brief facts leading to the writ petition as narrated by the petitioners are the following:

The first petitioner is stated to be a victim of a motor accident that took place on 21.5.2016. It is stated that though a crime was registered by the Payyannur police in connection with the said accident, the Accident Information Report in respect of the said occurrence has not been forwarded by the officer in charge of the concerned police Station to the jurisdictional Tri