27. This is another aspect that feeds the Court or its registry with endless opportunities to return the plaint. Valuation of a suit is covered under Order VII Rule 11 (b) and (c) and they provide for rejection of the plaint on the ground of undervaluation, and a consequent failure to correct the valuation in the plaint and/or where the plaint is insufficiently stamped with the requisite stamp paper, and the plaintiff does not make good the deficiency within the time fixed by the Court. Here the Court is required to bear in mind that at the stage of numbering the plaint, it is only required to go by the averments in the plaint, unless it has objective materials within the plaint to indicate that the suit must be differently valued. The mandate of Section 12(1) of the Tamil Nadu Court Fees and Suit Valuation Act which requires the Court to decide on the proper court fee, prior to registration of the plaint, based on the “ plaint materials and allegations ” and the accompanying valuation statement (under Section 10). If it is subsequently found at the instance of the defendant that the plaint is undervalued, the Court can always frame a preliminary issue to that effect under Section 12 (2) of the Tamil Nadu Court Fees and Suit Valuation Act, 1955, (See Divakrupamani v Sakuntala Devi, (2000) 2 ALT 275(DB), Chithra Ramalingam v Sridharane , 2010-3-LW 793). And, as and when the defendant makes his objection to valuation, the Court may decide the issue even as a preliminary issue. But that would be at a later stage and hence registering the suit cannot be halted on this ground. See: S.RM. AR. S. SP. Sathappa Chettiar v. S. RM. AR. RM. Ramanathan Chettiar [1958 SCR 1024 : AIR 1958 SC 245] ; Tara Devi v. Sri Thakur Radha Krishna Maharaj [(1987) 4 SCC 69 at page 70]; Commercial Aviation and Travel Co. v. Vimla Pannalal [(1988) 3 SCC 423 (427)].
