S APPUKUTTAN Vs. THUNDIYIL JANAKI AMMA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appeals by special leave and the special leave petitions raise a common question of law regarding the scope and effect of Explanation II-A to Clause (25) of Section 2 of the Kerala Land Reforms Act, 1964, (for short the Act hereafter) as amended by Act 17 of 1972. It is, however, necessary to mention two matters even at the outset of judgment. Had the judgments in the two appeals been pronounced after the decision in Velayudhan v. Aishabi, AIR 1981 Ker 185 by a Full Bench of the Kerala High Court, the results would have been different and there would have been no necessity for these appeals being filed. Secondly, the decision in Velayudhan v. Aishabi has become final since no appeal has been preferred to this Court against the judgment therein.

(2.) What falls for consideration in all these cases is whether by reason of Explanation IIA to Section 2(25) of the Act, a person in occupation of a homestead or a hut belonging to another during the period stipulated in the Explanation would become a kudikidappukaran and be entitled to kudikidappu rights under the Act.

(3.) For a proper understanding of the issue, we may make a brief reference to the history of the Legislation and to some of the earlier decisions of the High Court. Originally, the occupants of dwelling houses or huts on homestead land belonging to others were only given a right to remove the materials of the superstructure put up by them or alternately to seek monetary compensation therefor. The restricted conferment of rights exposed the occupants of huts belonging to others to indiscriminate eviction. To afford protection to them, the erstwhile Cochin State and the Travancore State passed suitable enactments to safeguard their possession. Eventually, when the Travancore-Cochin State came to be formed, an Act known as the Travancore-Cochin Prevention of Eviction of Kudikidappukars Act, 1950 was passed. Even under that Act, protection was given only to those persons who had put up the superstructures themselves and not to persons who were occupying huts put up by the land owners. Protection was extended to that class of persons also under the Kerala Stay of Eviction Proceedings Act, 1957. The said Act was amended by the Kerala Stay of Eviction Proceedings Act, 1958. This was followed by the Kerala Land Reforms Act, 1964 (the Act). Clause (25) of Section 2 of the Act defined a kudikidappukaran and kudikidappu as under:-