The main legal point established in the judgment is the determination of the applicable provisions of the Court-Fees Act for suits for the partition of joint Hindu family properties and the requirement for the plaintiff to pay court-fees in accordance with the relief sought.

Alfred Henry Lionel Leach, C.J.

1. This petition raises important questions with regard to the stamping of plaints in suits for the partition of estates of joint Hindu families. The petitioner is the minor son of a Hindu father. Through his mother as next friend he has filed a suit in the Court of the Subordinate Judge of Kumbakonam for partition of the family properties and for possession of his one-fifth share therein. He has joined as defendants his father, his three brothers, and twenty-two other persons. The stranger defendants are made parties either as alienees of family properties or as creditors of the family. In his plaint the plaintiff avers that the family is one engaged merely in agriculture and that before the matters complained of, it had large cash resources. He alleges that his father has engaged in reckless speculation in land, in trade, and in litigation with the result that the cash resources have disappeared, the family properties have been sold or mortgaged and numerous debts contracted. The plaintiff says that his fathers transactions are not binding on the family, but he has not in terms asked for the setting aside of the alienations of family properties or for declarations that his fathers other transactions are unenforceable against the estate. His prayers are for (i) an account of the movable and immovable joint family properties, (ii) the partition by metes and bounds of his. one-fifth share, (iii) the appointment of a receiver to manage the properties and collect the rents and income till the disposal of the suit, (iv) the costs of the suit, and (v) such further and necessary reliefs as in the circumstances may be considered necessary and proper. He values his share of the family properties at Rs. 40,000 but has merely stamped his plaint with a court-fee of Rs. 100 under Article 17B of Schedule II of the Court-Fees Act as amended in Madras.

2. On the filing of the plaint the Subordinate Judge called for a statement of the transactions which the plaintiff says are invalid as against the family and a statement was submitted. From this statement and the order of the Subordinate Judge with which this petition is concerned the following particulars have been extracted:

Person or persons Item No. Nature of alien- Amount In whose alleged to have ation or debt. Rs. favour. entered into the transaction or have been held liable. 1. Simple mortgage 45,000 5th defen- 1st defendant for dated 15-11-1932. dant. himself and as manager of the joint family. 2. Simple mortgage dated 7-3-1934 7,600 6th and 7th 1st defendant. defendants. 3. Simple mortgage dated 13-3-1934. 3,297 8th defendant. Do 4. (a) Usufructuary mortgage dated 23-12-1933. 8,800 9th defendant. Do (b) Sale in Court auction in O.S. .. 9th defendant (Not stated.) No. 15 of 1933, Sub-Court, Kumbakonam. 5. Promissory note, 4,000 10th defen- Defendants 1 and dated 14--3-1933. dant. 26. 6. Charge decree debt in O.S. No. 39 26,000 11th defendant. 1st defendant. of 1926 on the file of the Subordinate Judges Court, Kumbakonam. 7. Simple money 600 12th defendant (Not stated.) decree debt in S.C. No. 211 of Subordinate Judges Court. 8. Simple money 3,000 13th defen- 1st defendant. decree debt ai O.S. dant. No. 42 of 1933 on the file of the Sub- ordinate Judges Court, Kumbakonam. 9. Simple money 6,343-7.8 14th defen- Defendants 1 to 4 decree debt in O.S. dant. and plaintiff. No. 23 of 1933, Mayavaram Subordinate Judges Court. 10. Simple money 6,000 15th defendant. Do. decree debt in O.S. No. 10 of 1933, Mayavaram Sub- ordinate Judges Court. 11. Sale dated 29th 18,879-5-8 18th defendant. 1st defendant. July, 1934. 12. Simple money 9,000 19th defendant. Do. decree debt on the file of the Subordinate Judges Court, Kumbakonam, O.S. No. 15 of 1933. 13. Decree in O.S. No. 3,680 20th defendant. (Not stated.) 298 of 1934, on the file of the District Munsifs Court of Valangiman. 14. Sale 750 21st defendant. 1st defendant. 15. Simple money decree 675 22nd defendant.