Pendente lite interest is excluded from appeal valuation for court fee unless specifically challenged in the memorandum of appeal.

For court-fee valuation in an appeal, only the amount or value of the right actually put in dispute in the memorandum of appeal is relevant. Discretionary awards such as pendente lite interest and costs, granted under the Code of Civil Procedure, are excluded from the appeal value unless they are specifically and independently challenged. On that basis, where the memorandum does not separately dispute pendente lite interest, it cannot be added to the valuation for court-fee purposes, and no additional court fee is payable on that component.

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Issues: Whether pendente lite interest decreed by the trial court forms part of the "amount or value of the subject-matter in dispute in appeal" for computing court fee under Article 1 of Schedule I of the Bombay Court-fees Act, 1959, when the memorandum of appeal does not specifically challenge that award of interest.

Analysis: The expression "subject-matter in dispute" in the court-fees provision was construed in the context of a taxing statute and, therefore, strictly in favour of the litigant. The value of the appeal was held to depend on the rights actually put in dispute by the memorandum of appeal. Amounts such as costs and pendente lite interest, which are awarded in the court's discretion under Sections 34 and 35 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, do not form part of the subject-matter in dispute unless they are specifically and independently challenged. Since the memorandum of appeal in this case did not question the award of pendente lite interest separately, that amount could not be added to the valuation for court fee.

Conclusion: Pendente lite interest was not includible in the valuation of the appeal for court-fee purposes in the absence of a specific challenge to that component.

Final Conclusion: The memorandum of appeal was sufficiently stamped and no additional court fee was payable on the decreed pendente lite interest unless that interest was expressly put in issue.

Ratio Decidendi: For computing court fee on an appeal under the relevant court-fees provision, only the amount or value of the right actually disputed in the memorandum of appeal is relevant, and discretionary items such as pendente lite interest or costs are excluded unless specifically challenged.

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