Jharkhand: Ramesh Bais asks Hemant Soren govt to revisit Court Fee Act

RANCHI: Amid a longstanding logjam with the state government over the issue of disqualification petition pending against the CM, Raj Bhavan on Wednesday suddenly asked the state government to revisit its decision to revise court fees.
The decision to revise fees charged in the courts has already been enacted after the bill — The Court Fee (Jharkhand Amendment) Bill, 2021 — got the governor’s assent on February 11, 2022, and notified through the state gazette notification on February 22.
Seven months after enactment of the Act, Raj Bhavan on Wednesday asked the government to revisit the provisions of the “bill” immediately. A note from the Raj Bhavan read, “This Bill was passed by Jharkhand Assembly on 22 December, 2021, assented to by Governor on 11.2. 2022. Thereafter, there was a lot of opposition against the provisions of the bill so far as court fee hike is concerned. Governor received a lot of representations and petitions against the fee hike in the bill. A petition was also received on July 25, 2022 from Jharkhand State Bar Council requesting the Governor to ask the state government to withdraw the hike in the court fees and also properly adjudicate it and decide in accordance with the law. Governor after understanding the seriousness of the matter decided to direct the state government to revisit the provisions of the bill immediately in the larger public interest of the tribal community of the state.”
The decision to hike court fee was strongly protested by the advocates and its organisations. Around 25,000 advocates in the state had abstained from court work on July 25 to protest the hike in court fees, which in some cases is as high as 10 times the old fee.
A note of the CM, attached to the bill, that was sent to governor read that since court fee is a source of revenue for the state government and it was never revised since inception of the state, it was imperative on the government to introduce judicious revision.