Report No. 114

6.15. Court-fees.-

There was a lively debate whether court fee should be levied in the proceedings before the Gram Nyayalaya. In the past, the Minister of Law and Justice of the Government of India was an ardent votary of abolition of court fee. Nothing concrete has been achieved in this direction so far. Even the exercise undertaken by the Conference of Chief Justices, Chief Ministers and Law Ministers held in the year 1985 has not revealed a consensus in this behalf. A number of States stoutly opposed the proposal. Those who are votaries of abolition of court-fees contend that court fee is a tax on justice and no civilised society can tax justice. Another view was that an indigent person suffers serious handicap in access to justice by not being able to pay court-fees.

Keeping aside the wider issue of the justification or otherwise of levying court fee, there was near unanimity with the view expressed by the Commission that in respect of proceedings before Gram Nyayalaya, which will be catering largely to the needs of the rural poor, the levy of the court-fees would be anachronistic. The approach may not be misinterpreted to suggest that the Commission is against levy of court-fees. In fact, the elite and the corporate sector, who use courts for a shadow-boxing in respect of issues which are unreal, heavy court-fees should be levied and it must be so high as to make them pay the entire cost of the court establishment. There is nothing new or startling in this suggestion.

A beginning has already been made in California (U.S.A.) in this behalf. Having regard to the discernible tendency of corporate sector aggrandizing court time arguing non-issues, this view will have to be developed later on. However, in the proceedings before the Gram Nyayalaya, looking to the nature of disputes, the class of litigants, the economic status of the parties ordinarily coming before it, the levy of court-fees would be inappropriate. It is the considered view of the Commission that no court-fees shall be levied in the proceedings before the Gram Nyayalaya.