SANKARA VARMA Vs. ABDULLAKUTTY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This revision under S.103 of the Kerala Land Reforms Act, Act 1 of 1964 as amended by Act XXXV of 1969 (for short 'the Act') is directed against the judgment of the Appellate Authority (Land Reforms) Trichur, dated 10th January 1977 and made in A. A. No. 639 of 1975, reversing the order of the Land Tribunal, Kozhikode, dated 20th November 1973 and made in O.A. No. 739 of 1970, which was an application filed by the revision petitioner under S.16 of the Act for resumption of an extent of 4.80 acres of land, it being item No. 3 in the schedule to Ext. A1 lease deed, dated 6th July 1871. The Land Tribunal allowed the application; but, as already noticed, in reversal of that order the Appellate Authority dismissed the application. It is aggrieved by the decision of the Appellate Authority that the present revision has been filed by the land owner. What weighed with the Appellate Authority to come to the conclusion that the land owner was not entitled to resume the land from the cultivating tenant was its finding that in terms of the lease deed (Ext. A1) the land owner was not entitled to resume the land, it being a lease in perpetuity.

(2.) The counsel for the revision petitioner submitted that it is nobody's case that the revision petitioner did not require the holding bona fide for cultivation by himself; or that the respondents were not in possession of land exceeding the ceiling area; or that by the resumption the total extent of land in the possession of the petitioner would be raised above the ceiling area; or that the total extent of land in the possession of the respondents would be reduced below the ceiling area by the resumption. His argument is that when there is no violation of any one of these conditions mentioned in S.16 of the Act, an order for resumption should automatically follow upon an application being filed by the petitioner (land owner) in that behalf.

(3.) S.16 of the Act provides: