P K VIJAYAN Vs. KAMALAKSHI AMMA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) This appeal by special leave arises from the order of the High Court of Kerala dated August 18, 1988 made in C.R.P. No. 2220 of 1987B. (reported in 1988 (2) Kerala LT 498). The respondent-landlords filed R.C.P. No. 19 of 1974 under S. 11 of Kerala Buildings (Lease and Rent Control) Act, 1965, for eviction of the appellant-tenant. Under the proviso thereto if the tenant denies the title of the landlord or claims right of permanent tenancy, the Rent Controller shall decide whether the denial or claim is bona fide. Recording of such a finding positively in favour of the tenant will require the landlord to sue for eviction of the tenant in a Civil Court. The Rent Controller had accepted the plea of the tenant to be bona fide and relegated the respondents to seek eviction by a civil suit. Before its initiation, the appellant filed DA No. 11730 of 1986 before the Land Tribunal under the Kerala Land Reforms Act claiming that the lease was of the agricultural land and as a cultivating tenant, he is entitled to get assignment of the title of the land under S. 72B of the Land Reforms Act which postulates that the cultivating tenant of any holding or part of a holding, the right, title and interest in respect of which have vested in the Government under S. 72, shall be entitled to assignment of such right, title and interest. The "cultivating tenant" is defined to mean a tenant who is in actual possession of, and is entitled to cultivate the land comprised in his holding.

(3.) The Land Tribunal, by an order dated November 29, 1976, found that the lease was of commercial building and it is not an agricultural land. Therefore, the appellant was not entitled to the assignment of the right, title and interest in the holding and accordingly dismissed the petition.