This Civil Revision Petition is filed against the fair and decretal order passed in S.O.C.memo in O.S.No.143 of 2003 dated 29.09.2005 on the file of the Sub-Court, Ambasamudram.
2. As the issue in this Civil Revision Petition is to refund of the half of the court fee to the petitioner, it is not necessary to go into the merits of the matter. Similarly, the issue in question is to be seen that as to whether the settlement was arrived at between the parties before the commencement of trial or after the commencement of trial for the purpose of refunding the court fee to the petitioner.
3. It is seen from the records that when the matter was posted for evidence, the petitioner has not appeared and he was set ex parte and a restoration petition was filed and after the restoration, a memo was filed stating that the matter was settled 'out of Court' and therefore the petitioner prays that he is entitled for refund of half of the court fee for which he garnered support from the judgments reported in 1982 I MLJ 126, M.Govindaswami Pillai Vs C.T.Balasubramania Thevar and 1979 II MLJ 86, M.S.Mani Vs K.N.Velayudham Chettiar.
4. In the afore-stated cases, it is specifically stated that whenever any suit is dismissed as settled out of court before any evidence has been recorded on merits of the claim, half of the amount of all fees paid in respect of claim or claims in the suit shall be ordered by the Court to be refunded to the parties by whom the same have been respectively paid.
5. In the case on hand, it is seen from the records that even before the evidence has been recorded, the matter has been settled out of the Court below and after setting aside the ex parte order, a memo was also filed to that effect and therefore, the petitioner is entitled to get the half of the court fee.
6. In the light of the above, the order passed by the court below is set aside and the Court below is directed to refund the half of the Court fee to the petitioner at the earliest possible.
7. With the above direction, this Civil Revision Petition is disposed of. No costs.
To (1)The Sub-Court, Ambasamudram.
(2)The Record Keeper, Madurai Bench of Madras High Court, Madurai..