The term "weaker sections of society" in a Notification issued by the State Government exempting certain categories of persons from payment of court fees should be interpreted broadly to include citizens who suffer social disability in other ways, including those belonging to backward classes.

( 1 ) THE plaintiff prayed for exemption from payment of court-fee in the trial Court and his prayer was accepted. In doing so, the Court below placed reliance on two Notifications of the State Government, being Notification No. F. 9-1-83-B-XXI, dated 1st April, 1983 (published in Madhya Pradesh Rajpatra (Asadharan), dated 1-4-1983) and No. F 8-5-25-4-84, dated 26th Dec. , 1984 (published in M. P. Rajpatra Part I, dated 8-2-1985), hereinafter referred to as Notifications 'a' and 'b' respectively.

( 2 ) BECAUSE Notification 'a' is of immediate and crucial relevance to the controversy the text thereof deserves to be extracted in extenso, with a portion duly emphasized:"in exercise of the powers conferred by S. 35 of the Court-fees Act, 1870 (No. 7 of 1870), the State Government hereby remits in the whole of the State of Madhya Pradesh, the Court-fees mentioned in Articles 1-A and 2 of the first schedule and Articles 3, 17 and 21 of the second schedule to the said Act payable on plaint by the following categories of persons whose annual income immediately preceding the date of presentation of plaint from all sources does not exceed rupees six thousand, namely :- (i) member of Scheduled Tribes; (ii) member of Scheduled Castes; (iii) minors; (iv) women; (v) artisan; (vi) unskilled labourer; (vii) landless labourer; (viii) person belonging to the weaker Sections of society. Explanation :- For the purposes of this notification :- (i) "member of Scheduled Castes" means a member of any caste, race or tribe or part of or group within caste, race or tribe specified as such with respect to the State of Madhya Pradesh under Art. 341 of the Constitution of India; (ii) "member of Scheduled Tribes" means a member of any tribe, tribal community or part of or group within a tribe or tribal community specified as such with respect to the State of Madhya Pradesh under Art. 342 of the Constitution of India. "

( 3 ) BY Notification 'b', issued in pursuance to the provisions of Arts. 15 (4) and 16 (4) of the Constitution, the State Government has declared the classes of citizens included in the Schedule thereof as "socially and educationally backward classes. " The Schedule contains as many as 82 entries, including entry No. 33 of which clause (b) reads - "mali (Saini) Marar". The plaintiff non-petitioner was held entitled to the exemption prayed as he admittedly belonged to the class of citizens by were known as "mali" by caste and on that, round he was considered by the trial Court as belonging to "weaker Sections of the society. "

( 4 ) THE short question for decision in this, revision therefore, is what meaning has to be attributed to the term "weaker Sections of the society" of clause (viii) of Notification 'a' and whether the trial court acted without jurisdiction in extending to the plaintiff benefit of the said Notification on the ground that the plaintiff was a person belonging to backward class, covered by entry No. 33 (b) of Notification 'b'.

( 5 ) SHRI A. K. Shrivastava, vocal and vociferous as he always is, has very strenuously urged that the trial court interpretation of the term "weaker Sections of the society" is ultra vires the Notifications as also the Constitutional provision and exemption from payment of court-fees granted to the plaintiff non-petitioner is illegal and without jurisdiction.

( 6 ) HOWEVER, the arguments of the learned counsel have not appealed to me for more than one reason. Firstly, the term "weaker Sections of the society" is subject to the general qualification which applies to all classes of all cases covered by the Notification 'a'. Thus, the first condition to be satisfied to avail the benefit of Notification 'a' is that the plaintiff must satisfy the Court that his annual income from all sources did not exceed Rs. 6,000/ -. Secondly, the fact is that the term "weaker Sections of the society" is not defined anywhere in the two Notifications as also in Arts. 15 and 16 of the Constitution though i