JUDGMENT

Hariprasad, J.

No civilized society could view indigency with disdain. From time immemorial, our ancestors too were compassionate to indigent persons. This view was statutorily recognized for the first time in the Code of Civil Procedure , 1882, despite the operation of the Court Fees Act, 1870 with full vigour. When the Code of 1882 was completely replaced by the 1908 (in short 'the Code') the legislative empathy towards such persons (then described as paupers) was actually enlarged. Under the Code, in order to qualify a person indigent, he need not be in abject poverty. Legal requirement under Order XXXIII Rule 1 of the Code to consider a person indigent is that he should not be possessed of sufficient means (other than property exempt from attachment in execution of a decree and the subject matter of the suit) to pay the fee prescribed by law for the plaint in a suit that he proposes to file.

2. Familial disharmony is the root cause of this litigation. Appellant is the mother of the respondents. Appellant alleges that two documents were caused to be executed in the names of her daughters (respondents) by perpetrating fraud and misrepresentation regarding the contents o