Law:

Section:

Sind Chief Court Rules (Original Side), rr. 127 & 128 Application for certified copy of impugned order-Estimation of copying and comparing fees-Head Copyist, held, duty bound to take overt steps to inform applicant of such estimated fees-[Tolaram v. Jaffer Khan 38 IC 464 dissented from]. It was contended that according to the practice of Karachi Bench of the High Court the Head Copyist never informs litigants under rule 127 of the former Sind Chief Court Rules, 1945, that the copying and comparing charges have been estimated and it is the litigant himself who always finds out from him whether he has estimated the requisite charges. In the instant case the application for a certified copy had been dismissed because the said charges on account of copying and comparing fee estimated by the Head Copyist had not been deposited by the appellant within the prescribed period, but the applicant had not been informed of the fact that such charges had been estimated. Held, rule 127 not only imposes a duty on the Head Copyist to enter the fees estimated on the application for a certified copy, but also to communicate them to the applicant. If the intention of the Rules had been that the applicant had to verify the fees from the Head Copyist, after the Head Copyist had entered them on the application, the Rules would not have directed the Head copyist to communicate the fees estimated to the applicant after entering them on the applica tion. It is true that unlike rule 135, rule 127 does not expressly direct the Head Copyist to publish a notice on the Notice Board of the Court a list of applications in which he has estimated such fees, but this only means that he is permitted to use his discretion about the manner, in which be has to inform the applicant. It does not relieve him of his mandatory duty to inform the applicant, nor does it prevent him from publishing on the Notice Board of the Court, a list of applications on which he~ has estimated fees under rule 127. The practice of the Head Copyist was therefore in disregard of the rules of the Court. The obligation expressly imposed on the Head Copyist under rule 127 to inform the applicant of a certified copy that…