IN THE HIGH COURT OF KERALA AT ERNAKULAM PRESENT: THE HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE C.N.RAMACHANDRAN NAIR & THE HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE K.VINOD CHANDRAN MONDAY, THE 28TH DAY OF NOVEMBER 2011/7TH AGRAHAYANA 1933 WA.No. 260 of 2010 ( ) ====================== AGAINST THE ORDER/JUDGMENT IN WPC.1849/2009 DATED 24-07-2009 APPELLANT/2ND RESPONDENT =========================== THE KERALA LEGAL BENEFIT FUND TRUSTEE COMMITTE REPRESENTED BY ITS SECRETARY LAW(KLBF) DEPARTMENT SECRETARIATE THIRUVANANTHAPURAM. BY ADV.SRI.T.A.SHAJI RESPONDENTS/PETITIONER & 1ST RESPONDENT: ============= 1 JAYA STORES,SABAPATHY COIL STREET CHALAI THIRUVANANTHAPURAM REPRESENTED BY ITS PARTNER J.CHENDIL KUMAR. 2 THE SALES TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL, THIRUVANANTHAPURAM REPRESENTED BY ITS SECRETARY. R1 BY ADV. SRI.V.G.ARUN SRI.T.R.HARIKUMAR R2 BY G.P. SRI.BOBBY JOHN THIS WRIT APPEAL HAVING COME UP FOR ADMISSION ON 28-11-2011 , THE COURT ON THE SAME DAY DELIVERED THE FOLLOWING: C.N.RAMACHANDRAN NAIR & K.VINOD CHANDRAN, JJ. .................................................................... Writ Appeal No.260 of 2010 .................................................................... Dated this the 28th day of November, 2011. JUDGMENT Ramachandran Nair, J. The appeal is filed against judgment of the learned Single Judge directing refund of Legal Benefit Fund collected by the appellants in the form of additional court fee levied under Section 76(1) of the Kerala Court Fees and Suits Valuation Act read with Government Order SRO 226/2002 dated 5.4.2002. Even though a learned Single Judge of this court upheld the constitutional validity of the statutory provision as well as the Government Order, the Single Judge held that collection is permissible only for appeals and revisions filed for the assessment year 2002-2003 onwards. This part of the judgment was challenged by the appellant in a batch of Writ Appeals filed under leave and we have by judgment in W.A. No.734/2010 and connected cases dismissed the appeals. As a consequence of that judgment, the Legal Benefit Fund collected from respondents by way of additional court fee is refundable to them. Refund based on the earlier judgment of the 2 learned Single Judge is the subject matter decided by the learned Single Judge in the impugned judgment. Since we have upheld the judgment of the learned Single Judge in the batch case referred above, necessarily this appeal also has to be dismissed following the said judgment. However, we grant three months time to the appellant to make payment of refund. 2. Counsel for the appellant prays for leave to file appeal to the Supreme Court. In the connected Writ Appeals filed by the appellant wherein we rejected the claim on merits, we have granted certificate of fitness to file appeal to the Supreme Court. Consequently we allow the prayer in this case also certifying the judgment as one fit for appeal to the Supreme Court. Registry will issue certificate. C.N.RAMACHANDRAN NAIR Judge K.VINOD CHANDRAN Judge pms