LONANKUTTY Vs. THOMMAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This 22-year old litigation concerns the right of two adjacent owners to catch prawns on their respective lands.

(2.) Survey No. 673 of Kadamkudi, District Ernakulam, measuring about 11 acres originally belonged to the Cochin Government but by diverse transfers the title thereto is now vested in the appellant, Lonankutty. The land is bounded on the West and South by a river. A portion of the land on the North-East can be put to agricultural use for a part of the year but the land, by and large, is water-logged and can profitably be used for prawn-fishing. In order to make fishing feasible, the appellant has constructed a bund on the western side of the land for arresting the flow of the river water. The contrivance is calculated to permit collection of water on the land, almost to the point of submerging it. The prawns enter the land with the high tide, they breed and multiply on the land and the water while receding leaves the prawns behind. The appellant then catches them, presumably under a licence from the Government of Kerala.

(3.) Survey Nos. 672, 677, 655/4 and 670 which sprawl on all sides of survey No. 673 belong to the respondents:Thomman and his mother Annam. We are concerned with the prescriptive rights claimed by them in respect of survey No. 672 which is situated towards the north-east of survey No. 673. Survey No. 672 is almost land-locked and between it and the river on the south stands the vast expanse of survey No. 673 belonging to the appellant.