LAHORE, Oct 30: The Lahore High Court on Thursday sought the assistance of three amicus curiae to decide a question pertaining to the court fee for recovery of dowry articles.
Since there had been no judgment on whether or not the memo of appeal was exempted from court fee, Justice Fakharun Nisa Khokhar requested Syed Afzal Haider, member of the Council of Islamic Ideology, and Advocates Almas Ali and Barrister Taqiuddin to assist the court in this regard on Nov 19.
Justice Khokhar observed while hearing two appeals that the judgments cited in this regard included the one passed by the Supreme Court for maintenance and not recovery of dowry articles. Therefore, the law question needed a fresh review.
She observed that the settlement of the issue would serve as a citation in hundreds of such cases.
The question arose out of the judgments of family and sessions courts on two suits for recovery of dowry articles.
The first was a writ petition filed by Aftab Mohiuddin against the decision of an additional sessions judge. Hina Rehman had challenged Nadeem Farooq’s appeal against the judgment of a family court. In both the petitions, the question pertained to the court fee value on the memo for appeal.
Justice Khokhar observed in the first case that Mr Mohiuddin had filed a suit for recovery of dowry articles from his former wife without showing their market value. The dowry was valued at Rs500,000 by the defendant. The family court dismissed the plea with the observation that the plaintiff had not affixed the court fee with the claim.
Mohiuddin filed an appeal with the additional sessions judge for recovery of dowry with the argument that provisions of the CrPC did not apply to family court cases.
According to the decision, Mohiuddin also argued that the appeal was exempted from court fee and the Rs15 court fee fixed on his earlier plaint met the legal requirements. The additional sessions court dismissed the plea that no court fee was required in a suit for recovery of dowry.
In the second case, where recovery of dowry articles worth Rs541,250 was sought, a family court had observed that no such fee was required in family disputes, but a district judge directed the appellant to affix a court fee of Rs15,000 on the memo of appeal. This decision was challenged through a writ petition in the Lahore High Court. Justice Khokhar observed that the issue was related to Section 7(II) of the Court Fee Act 1870. In the cases under consideration, the suits pertained to recovery of dowry articles. There was no judgment to decide such issues, the judge observed.