Court fee valuation for cancellation of money decree must follow the specific provision, not a general declaration label.

A plaint that, in substance, seeks cancellation of a money decree must be valued under the specific provision governing cancellation of decrees, not under the general declaratory provision. The court held that substance, rather than form, controls court-fee liability: a pleading framed as declaration and injunction cannot be used to undervalue relief where the real object is to set aside a decree with money value. As the plaintiffs were parties to the decree and the challenge was directed at its validity, Section 38 applied and the deficit court fee was rightly upheld.

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Issues: Whether the suit, in substance seeking cancellation of a money decree, was liable to be valued under Section 38 of the Karnataka Court Fees and Suits Valuation Act, 1958 rather than under the general declaratory provision in Section 24(d) of that Act.

Analysis: The reliefs claimed, though couched as a declaration and injunction, were directed to have the decree set aside as null and void. The substance of the plaint, not its form, governed court-fee liability. Since the decree attacked was a money decree and the plaintiffs were parties to it, the proper characterization was a suit for cancellation of a decree having money value. A plaintiff cannot deliberately undervalue such relief by labelling it as a bare declaration, and the general provision in Section 24(d) cannot override the specific provision dealing with cancellation of decrees.

Conclusion: The suit was correctly held to fall under Section 38 of the Karnataka Court Fees and Suits Valuation Act, 1958, and the deficit court fee directed by the trial court was upheld.

Final Conclusion: The revision failed and the challenge to the valuation finding was rejected, leaving the trial court's direction on court fee intact.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a plaint in substance seeks cancellation or avoidance of a decree with money value, the suit must be valued under the specific provision governing cancellation of decrees, and not under a general declaratory provision, with court-fee liability determined by the substance of the relief claimed.

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