Fees - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition fees

Definition :

Fees, perquisites allowed to officers in the administration of justice, as a recompense for their labour and trouble, ascertained either by Acts of Parlia-ment, by rule or order of Court, or by ancient usage; in modern times frequently commuted for a salary, e.g., by the (English) Justices Clerks Act, 1877.

Although, however, the officers of a court may be paid by salary instead of by fees, the obligation of suitors to pay fees usually remains, these fees being paid into the fund out of which the salaries of the officers are defrayed. In the Supreme Court they are collected by means of stamps under s. 26 of the (English) Judicature Act, 1875, and a Treasury Order of July, 1884, a judicial Order of the same year fixing the amount, and see Supreme Court Fees Rules, 1930.

The mode of collecting fees in a public office is under the (English) Public Office Fees Act, 1879 (42 & 43 Vict. c. 58) (repealing and replacing the (English) Public Office Fees Act, 1866), by stamps or money, as the Treasury may direct.

The fees of the steward of a manor were regulated entirely by custom, and a customal or list of fees to be taken, under every circumstance, was generally handed down from steward to steward. When the steward made excessive charges, the copyholder might have brought an action on the case to recover the excess, and it has been suggested that an indictment would lie for extortion colore officii. The fees of the steward of a manor who is a solicitor, but acts in the character of a steward only, were not taxable under the (English) Solicitors Act, 1843 (6 & 7 Vict. c. 73), s. 37, replaced by (English) Solicitors Act, 1932 (c. 37), s. 64. In transactions where these fees are large or numerous a special agreement was generally made, Allen v. Aldridge, (1843) 5 Beav. 401.

The (English) Copyhold Act, 1894 (57 & 58 Vict. c. 46), by s. 9 and Sched. II., provides a scale of compensation to stewards in case of compulsory enfranchisements of copyholds.

Copyholds were enfranchised by the (English) L.P. Act, 1922, s. 128, and by s. 131 of that Act stewards became entitled only to statutorily prescribed fees in respect of transactions effected after 1925. Inter alia, where the fee was customary, the customary fee is payable until the manorial incidents have been extinguished under the Act. See COPY-HOLDS.

As to barristers' fees, see BARRISTER; and as to solicitors' fees, see COSTS.

The word 'fees' does not bear a different meaning in Entries 77, List I and Entry 96, List I or Entry 3 List II and Entry 66, List II. Even if the meaning is the same, what is 'fees' in a particular case depends on the subject-matter in relation to which fees are imposed. Secretary, Government of Madras, Home Department v. Zenith Lamp and Electrical Ltd., AIR 1973 SC 724: (1973) 1 SCC 162: (1973) 2 SCR 973.

Fees are a sort of return or consideration for services rendered, which makes it necessary that there should be an element of quid pro quo in the imposition of fee. There has to be a correlationship between the fee levied by an authority and the services rendered by it to the person who is required to pay the fee, Government of Andhra Pradesh v. Hindustan Machine Tools, AIR 1975 SC 2037 (2044): (1975) 2 SCC 274.