Possession as main relief can shift court-fee liability when a bare injunction suit is amended to add possessory claims.

Where a suit initially framed for bare injunction is amended to add recovery of possession and mandatory injunction, the court-fee position turns on which relief is substantial and predominant. If the added possessory claim arises from a subsequent cause of action and cannot be treated as merely incidental, possession becomes the main relief and the injunction prayers become ancillary. On that basis, fee is payable on the principal possessory relief rather than only on the original injunction claim, and the aggregate or market-value basis may apply under the Court Fees Act where the substantive relief is possession.

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Issues: Whether, after amendment of a suit for bare injunction by adding prayers for recovery of possession and mandatory injunction, the relief of injunction remained the main relief so as to attract court fee only on that basis, or whether the possessory relief became the main relief and court fee had to be paid accordingly.

Analysis: Under Section 6 of the Andhra Pradesh Court Fees and Suits Valuation Act, 1956, where separate and distinct reliefs are sought, court fee is payable on the aggregate value, but if a relief is only ancillary to the main relief, fee is payable only on the main relief. The decisive test is whether one relief can be granted without the other and which relief is substantial and predominant. In a suit initially framed for injunction, the injunction may be the main relief; however, once substantial reliefs such as possession are added on the basis of a subsequent cause of action, the possessory relief becomes dominant and the injunction assumes an ancillary character. On the facts, the added relief of possession was the principal relief and the injunction prayers were incidental to it.

Conclusion: The relief of possession was the main relief, the injunction reliefs were ancillary, and additional court fee was rightly demanded on the market value of the property under Section 24 read with Section 6 of the Act.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a suit for injunction is amended to include a substantial possessory relief arising from a later cause of action, the possessory relief becomes the main relief for court-fee purposes and the injunction relief becomes ancillary.

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