SHANKARA BHATTA Vs. RAMAYYA SHETTY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner,who is a tenant,applied under the provisions of the Madras Cultivating Tenants(Payment of Fair Rent)Act,1956,referred to hereafter as the Act,for the fixation of fair rent in respect of a block of lands comprising wet,garden and dry lands.The Rent Court fixed fair rent only for the wet lands,but declined to fix fair rent for the garden and dry lands,stating that under Section 15 of the Act,rent for such lands cannot be fixed.This is based on a misapprehension of the scope of Section 15 which runs in these terms: - Nothing in this Act shall apply to any land during the period when such land is used for raising as main crop,sugarcane,plantain or betel vines or any crop which does not give any yield for a continuous period of two years or more from the time of cultivation or to any contract merely for collection or harvesting of the produce of any kind.

(2.) THE prohibition in it applies only to a land,during the period when the crops mentioned in it are raised.This is a case in which,at the time of the lease itself,there were bearing cocoanut and arecanut trees on the garden,and so,in any view,is outside the prohibition in Section 15 of the Act.The Rent Court failed to exercise the jurisdiction vested in it under the Act and the order,to the extent that it declined to fix the fair rent for the garden and dry lands,is hereby quashed,and the case is sent back to the Rent Court for disposal in accordance with law and in the light of the above observations.The petition is allowed.No costs.