(1.) The legal issues which arise in all these Writ Appeals and the Original Petition is common, the facts, though marginally different, are also sufficiently similar so that it is convenient to render a common judgment in this group of matters.
(2.) For the sake of identifying the factual matrix in which the legal issues arise, we shall refer to the facts in W.A. No. 1835 of 1997, which is directed against the judgment of the learned Single Judge dated 4th September, 1997 in O.P. No. 16424 of 1994.
(3.) The first respondent (original petitioner) is the owner of a factory situated in an extent of 2.29 acres of land in Kottarakkara Taluk of Kollam District. The factory comprises several buildings like godown, office, shelling and peeling sheds, grading shed etc. with necessary machineries and equipments installed therein for facilitating the work of the factory. This factory was being run by the first respondent, upto the year 1969. Sometime in the year 1969, first respondent who was managing the factory himself, desired to go abroad. So, he leased out his factory to the second respondent - Kerala State Cashew Development Corporation, a statutory Corporation set up in the State of Kerala, for development of the cashew industry. Ext. P1 is the copy of the lease deed dated 17th July, 1970 by which the cashew factory of the first respondent was leased out to the second respondent on a monthly lease rent of Rs. 1,500/-. The lease was initially for a period of three years and, on the expiry of the said term, a fresh lease deed was executed, which too expired on 16th July, 1976. It is the case of the first respondent that, while he was running the factory, he used to provide employment to the workers for about 300 days in a year.