Assignment on CPC III for Final

Submitted by:
Tanvir Mahtab
11th semester, Sum’21
Course: CPC III
ID: 181100018
Contact: 01631480648

Submitted to:

Mr. Mohammad Mamunur Rashid

Assistant Professor, Dept of Law

Eastern University.

Date of submission: 28.09.2021

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Question 1. “Village Court system in Bangladesh ensures restorative justice”. Do you

agree or disagree?

Answer:

Restorative justice is a new movement in the fields of victimology and criminology.

Acknowledging that crime causes injury to people and communities, it insists that justice

repair those injuries and that the parties be permitted to participate in that process.

Restorative justice usually involves direct communication, often with a facilitator, of victims

and offenders, often with some or full representation of the relevant affected community,1 to

provide a setting for acknowledgment of fault by the offender, restitution of some sort to the

victim, including both affective apologies and material exchanges or payments, and often

new mutual understandings, forgiveness, and agreed-to new undertakings for improved

behaviours. In its most idealized form, there are four of restorative justice:

 repair,

 restore,

 reconcile, and

 reintegrate the offenders and victims to each other and to their shared community.

The guiding principles of restorative justice are2:

1. Crime is an offense against human relationships.

2. The first priority of justice processes is to assist victims.

3. The second priority is to restore the community, to the degree possible.

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The notion of what the community is in restorative justice is one of some controversy (Weisberg
2003).
2
Restorative Justice, Restorative Justice National Institute of Justice.mht, hosted by National Institute
of Justice, 810 Seventh Street, NW, Washington, DC 20531, last visited on 29 December 2010.

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4. The offender has personal responsibility to victims and to the community for crimes

committed.

5. Stakeholders share responsibilities for restorative justice through partnerships for action.

6. The offender will develop improved competency and understanding as a result of the

restorative

justice experience.

Theoretically Village Court system in Bangladesh ensures restorative justice.

Reasonings behind this statement are:

Village court acts as a mediator to resolve the matter before formal hearing:

All restorative justice programs have some common elements. They seek healing, forgiveness

and active community involvement. According to section 6B of the Village Court Act, 2006,

at the day of charge hearing, the court shall give the parties a chance to resolve the matter

initially. The defendant may satisfy the plaintiff by compensating them if they want. This is a

pure indication of restorative justice as the process is aimed to re store the loss caused by

him. For example, defendant stole a goat which costs 8000 taka. Then, he compensates the

plaintiff with 10000 of taka. It re stores the loss of the victim.

No physical punishment:

Restorative justice is different from contemporary criminal justice in several ways such as, it

measures success differently -- rather than measuring how much punishment is inflicted, it

measures how much harm is repaired or prevented. This statement has a reflection in the

punishment prescribed in the act as there is no physical punishment for the offender. To

repair the loss, the act prescribes only fine as punishment.

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Priority is to assist the victim:

It also supports the 2nd principle of restorative justice- priority is to assist the victim. For

example, under section 6B, if the victim does not want to sit for compromise, he can initiate

the judicial proceeding against the defendant. This indicates that, the priority of the court is to

assist the victim.

Defendants are entitled to choose 2 members of the court:

General justice system never empowered the defendants with an opportunity to select some

of the members of the court. In USA, defendants are sometimes facilitated with the right to

select the jury members. This indicates that, village court is also accused friendly as its

motive is not to punish the defendant only, rather to repair the loss by a mutual

understanding.

This enactment of Village Court Act 2006 has proved to be an effective mechanism in

introducing a restorative justice system within the traditional framework of law.3 Apart from

above mentioned reasons, there are more indications that reflects the idea of restorative

justice, such as the proceeding of village court is so victim friendly and also helpful for the

defendants. However, in the socio economic and political condition of Bangladesh, a pure

application of restorative justice is not possible. For example, if the justice system becomes

friendly for the accused, he might have undue influence over the complainant.

In village court system, all the members are executive persons so restorative justice is not

always possible. There are some reflections of restorative justice in the act, but it is not an

ideal example of it.

Restorative justice mechanism is basically applicable to enforce criminal justice. Since the

first part of the schedule of the VC Act deals with the criminal cases therefore, a suitable
3
MD. AL-IFRAN MOLLAH, Administration of State Sponsored Local Justice System: An Appraisal
on the Legal Framework of Village Courts in Bangladesh, International Journal of Legal Information
44.3, (2016), p. 240.

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technique of restorative justice should be introduced in the VC Act to ensure restorative

justice. Therefore, the Village Court legal framework requires change to adopt the ADR in

order to make Village Court (VC) more worthy and fit to administer restorative justice at

grass root level. It won’t be very practicable to suggest incorporating any of such methods in

the VC Act, 2006 right now because of shortage of adequately trained man power at the grass

root level who would be able to implement such mechanism at VC level.4

Question 2. What are the foundations of determining the jurisdiction of the civil courts?

Explain the basic changes brought by the Civil Courts (Amendment) Act 2021.

Answer:

All the courts are not competent to entertain every cases. According the value of the case,

area, merits the courts are divided and entitled to entertain certain cases. Thus, determining

the jurisdiction of the court is important. Jurisdiction of the court is determined basing on the

Code of Civil Procedure and the Civil Courts Act, 1887.

Foundations of determining the jurisdiction in light of CPC:

Jurisdictions can be of several types, such as,

Territorial jurisdiction: Territorial jurisdiction refers to jurisdiction over cases arising in or

involving persons residing within a defined territory.

Pecuniary jurisdiction: Pecuniary means 'related to monetary value'. Pecuniary jurisdiction

tries to address whether a court of law can try cases and suits of the monetary value of the

4
Such observation is given by one of the panel discussants at the National Consultation on the Village
Courts Act, 2006: Challenges and Way Forward, held on July 30, 2011.

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case or suit in question. This jurisdiction is prescribed in Civil Courts Act. For example, the

District Judge can entertain suit up to 5 crore of value.

Jurisdiction as to subject-matter: Jurisdiction as to subject-matter is the power of a court to

adjudicate a particular type of matter and provide the remedy demanded. Such as, Labour

Court, Family Court etc.

Under Civil Courts Act 1887, Jurisdiction can be divided in 2 types,

1. Ordinary jurisdiction;

Under section 18 of the Civil Courts Act, read with section 15 of CPC, the ordinary

jurisdiction is determined by the lowest grade of competency. Ordinary jurisdiction refers to

the pecuniary jurisdiction of the court as mentioned under section 19 of Civil Courts Act and

The Civil Courts (Amendment) Act, 2021.

Appellate jurisdiction is always upon the higher court of the trial court. Such as, an appeal

from a decree or order of a District Judge or Additional District Judge shall lie to the High

Court Division.

2. Special Jurisdiction:

Special jurisdiction refers to such situation where the court does not attain the jurisdiction

ordinarily rather is imposed by other court or the government.

These are the foundation of determining the jurisdiction in light of CPC.

The basic changes brought by the Civil Courts (Amendment) Act 2021:

Civil Courts (Amendment) Act 2021 was brought to modify the prior act and to make it more

effective. As it was an act of 1887, some provisions might become less effective. This Act

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was intended to recover the prior Act. Some changes are brought by the Amendment Act

such as,

Section 19: it is stated under section 19 of Civil Courts Act 1887 that, the jurisdiction of a

Senior Assistant Judge and an Assistant Judge shall extend to all suits of which the value

does not exceed four lac Taka and two lac Taka, which was an outcome of Civil Courts

(Amendment) Act, 2001. Then, in the year of 2021, The Civil Courts (Amendment) Act,

2021 brought change in this section stated, the jurisdiction of a Senior Assistant Judge and an

Assistant Judge shall extend to all suits of which the value does not exceed 25 lac Taka and

15 lac Taka respectively.

Section 21:

Section 21 of the prior Act denotes that, an appeal from a decree or order of a Joint District

Judge shall lie, the District Judge where the value of the original suit in which or in any

proceeding arising out of which the decree or order was made did not exceed five lac Taka. It

is amended by the said amended Act and stated that, an appeal from Joint District Judge shall

lie to the District Judge where the value of the original suit did not exceed 5 crore Taka.

This Amendment act also repealed The Civil Courts (Amendment) Act, 2016.

These are the changes brought by the Civil Courts (Amendment) Act 2021.

Question 3. ‘Section 7 of the Court Fees Act 1870 makes Legislation exhaustive’.

Elaborate this argument.

Answer:

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Court fee is the amount that is imposed on a litigant to contest a case in the court of law. This

fee is levied by the government on the people seeking judicial remedies through a legislation.

A court of law is not presenting cases Infront of a judge and seeking immediate relief. It

involves complex and multi fold management to ensure the disposal of the huge number of

pending cases. Thus, court-fee is considered as a charge for the administration of justice. This

money is used only for the expenses incurred in carrying out the administrative work in the

court. The Court Fees Act, 1870 was enacted to determine the fee. Thus, the motive of the

whole act is to regulate the payable amount. Section 7 of this act contains the main rules for

determining the amount.

Court fees are calculated in two categories.

 For money suit.

 Other than money suit.

Section 7(i)(ii) states the amount for money suit and for maintenance and annuities or other

sums payable periodically. Section 7(iii) contains guidance for suit for moveable property

other than money. Section 7(iv) denotes rules of determining court fee for moveable property

where the subject-matter has no market-value, suit to obtain a declaratory decree or order,

where consequential relief is prayed, to obtain an injunction, for a right to some benefit to

arise out of land etc. Clause v of the same section contains rules for possession of land,

buildings or gardens. Clause vi, to enforce a right of pre-emption, Clause vii for interest of

assignee of land revenue, Clause viii to set aside an attachment, Clause viiiA to set aside

decrees, Clause ix to redeem or to foreclose, Clause x for specific performance and xi suit

between landlord and tenant.

From above mentioned discussion, it is seen that, section 7 contains rules and guidance for

determining the suit value of all kinds of civil matter. This, section actually fulfils the main

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aim behind enacting this Act as court fees can be determined by consulting this section. From

this point of view we can consider this as exhaustive. However, only this section is not

enough to determine the amount of court fee. The amount of fixed court fees and the

procedure of determining ad valorem court fee are mentioned in the Schedule of the Act.

However, if we consider the basic guidelines for determining court fee, section 7 of the Court

Fees Act 1870 makes Legislation exhaustive.

Question 4: If the court fees is submitted less or higher than that of requirement,

what will be consequences? Explain in pursuance to provisions of the Court Fees Act

1887.

Answer:

Court fee is important because it is used handiest for the charges incurred in sporting out the

executive paintings withinside the court. Thus, court fees have to be determined carefully.

Court Fees Act does not prescribe a huge amount as fees and thus it has to be paid duly. If the

court fees is submitted less or higher than that of requirement, there are specific guidelines to

mitigate the situation. Under section 8B, in every suit in which a court-fee is payable under

this Act on the plaint or memorandum of appeal the Court shall, on the date fixed for the

appearance of the opposite party or as soon as possible, and in every case before proceeding

to deliver judgment.

Under section 8C, of the Court Fees Act, 1887, If the Court is of opinion that the subject-

matter of any suit has been wrongly valued, whether higher or less, it may revise the

valuation and determine the correct valuation and may hold such inquiry as it thinks fit for

such purpose. If the court finds it necessary to run an investigation, then under section 8D,

the Court may depute, or issue a commission to any suitable person to make such

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investigation and if the costs are not deposited within prescribed time, the court may dismiss

the suit and may recover the costs as a public demand. There can be of two situations, such

as, the court fees is less or higher than that of requirement. These two situations are explained

below,

If the court fees is submitted less than that of requirement:

Under section 8F, if in the result of an inquiry under section 8C the Court finds that the

subject-matter of the suit has been under-valued the Court may order the party responsible for

the under valuation to pay of the costs of the inquiry.

 If the fees is less than that of requirement, then under section 8B (2) If the Court records a

finding that an insufficient court-fee has been paid on the plaint or memorandum of appeal

the Court shall

 stay all further proceedings in the suit until it has determined the proper amount of

such court-fee payable.

 If the plaintiff or appellant gives, within such time as the Court may allow, security,

to the satisfaction of the Court, for the payment of any additional amount for which

he may be found liable the Court may proceed with the suit,

 The court shall fix a date before which the plaintiff or appellant shall pay the amount

of court-fee due from him.

 If the plaintiff or appellant fails to give the security referred or to pay the amount within the

time allowed or before the date fixed, the suit shall be dismissed.

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Under section 11(1), if in any suit for mesne profits or for land and mesne profits, the fee

which would have been payable if the suit had comprised the whole of the relief to which the

Court finds the plaintiff to be entitled exceeds the fee actually paid, the Court shall require

the plaintiff to pay an additional fee equal to the amount of the excess, and if such additional

fee is not paid within such time, the suit shall be dismissed.

If the court fees is submitted higher than that of requirement:

Under section 8F, if in the result of an inquiry under section 8C the Court finds that the paid

amount exceeds the proper amount, the court shall refund the excess amount so paid. Under

section 11 (2), if the Court-fee paid is found to be in excess of the amount of fee which would

be payable if the suit had been valued at the amount decreed, the decree-holder shall be

entitled to the refund of the excess of Court-fee paid by him.

Under section 19A, if any person on applying for the probate of a will or letters of

administration has estimated the property of the deceased to be of greater value, and has

consequently paid too high a court-fee and if, within six months such person produces the

probate or letters to the Chief Revenue-Authority for the local area, after du procedure, repay

the same in money, at his discretion.

Above mentioned are the consequences, if the court fees is submitted less or higher than that

of requirement.

Bibliography:

1. The Code of Civil Procedure, 1908

2. The Civil Courts Act, 1887.

3. The Civil Courts (Amendment) Act, 2021.

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4. The Court Fees Act, 1870.

5. The Village Court Act, 2006.

6. MD. AL-IFRAN MOLLAH, Administration of State Sponsored Local Justice System:

An Appraisal on the Legal Framework of Village Courts in Bangladesh.

7. Review Report on Village Courts Legal Framework

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