KESAVAN Vs. PHILOMINA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) As per the order of the Land Tribunal, the applicant revision-petitioner who is admittedly a kudikidappukaran is found entitled to purchase 5 cents of land where the kudikidappu is situate, by virtue of the provisions of sub-s.(4) of S.80-A of the Kerala Land Reforms Act. This decision of the Land Tribunal is confirmed by the Appellate Authority, Land Reforms, and the applicant has come up in revision before this Court claiming that he is entitled to assignment of 10 cents of land instead of the S cents allowed by the statutory tribunals below.

(2.) The revision-petitioner was allowed to purchase only 5 cents on the finding that the respondent land-owner holds only less than 1 acre of land and there are two kudikidappukars in the land held by her.

(3.) It is not in dispute that her late husband Francis was in possession of 10.76 acres of land. Francis died in 1963. If be had died intestate, the respondent along with her two sons inherits the property left behind by her husband Francis and if her share in the total extent of land left behind by Francis is also taken into account, the respondent holds more than 1 acre of land and the kudikidappukaran will be entitled to purchase 10 cents of land instead of the 5 cents ordered by the courts below. In support of her plea, that she holds only less than 1 acre of land, the respondent produced an unregistered will dated 10-8-1961 said to have been executed by late Francis bequeathing his properties to his two sons and to the exclusion of his wife the respondent. The Will was accepted by the Land Tribunal and the Appellate Authority as true and genuine and since the respondent does not inherit the estate of her deceased husband, it was held that she holds only less than 1 acre of land and hence she is entitled to rely upon sub-s.(4) of S.80-A to contend that both the kudikidappukars together are entitled to only 10 cents of land. The applicant was therefore found entitled only to 5 cents under, S.80-A of the Act.