The Kerala Assembly sent a proposed amendment on non-refundable additional court fees to the Subject Committee. The move follows a High Court direction and aims to settle refund issues after the money was already distributed.
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Thiruvananthapuram,Oct 12, 2026 15:16 IST
The Kerala Assembly on Monday referred to the Subject Committee a proposed amendment to the Kerala Court Fees and Suits Valuation Act, 1959, dealing with additional court fees collected in cases settled out of court.
The amendment seeks to state that such additional court fees will not be refunded. V D Satheesan said the proposal arose from practical difficulties in returning the money after it had already been distributed for other purposes.
Moving the amendment in the Assembly, Satheesan said the issue related to additional court fees paid by litigants in cases settled through alternative dispute resolution under Section 89 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908.
He said 70 per cent of the amount collected for the Legal Aid Fund was diverted to the Advocates Welfare Fund and 30 per cent to the Advocates Clerks Welfare Fund. After 10 per cent was set aside from each fund to provide basic amenities to litigants, the remaining amounts were deposited in the respective funds.
Since the money had already been distributed for various purposes, returning it to litigants posed practical difficulties, he said.
Satheesan said the High Court had directed that Section 76 of the Kerala Court Fees and Suits Valuation Act be amended to provide that additional court fees collected in such cases would not be refunded under any circumstances.
The proposed amendment seeks to insert a new Section 76A into the Act, specifying that additional court fees collected in cases settled out of court would not be refundable. However, he said, the amendment would not affect cases in which courts had already ordered refunds before the proposed provision came into force, or cases settled out of court in which judgments had not yet been pronounced.
Satheesan requested that the amendment be referred to the Subject Committee for detailed consideration. Although LDF MLAs objected to certain provisions in the amendment, they did not press their objections, following which Speaker Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan referred the matter to the committee.
The proposed change will now be examined by the Subject Committee, with the state seeking to amend the law to bar refunds of additional court fees in out-of-court settlements, while leaving unaffected cases already covered by court orders or awaiting judgment.
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