(1.) WHAT is assailed in these petitions filed under Articles 226 and 227 of the constitution is certain orders passed by the (1st respondent, the State of Kerala, under Rule 113 (1) (b) and (2) of the Defence of India Rules of 1971, for short, the 1971 Rules, regarding the cultivation of paddy in certain reclaimed paddy lands in the Vembanad lake in Kuttanad in the Alleppey District. The main petition is O. P. No. 4194 of 1972. Counter and reply affidavits have been Filed only in that original petition. The Government Pleader appearing on behalf of the respondents and counsel appearing for the petitioners in all these petitions agreed in submitting when these petitions were heard that as the fate of the other petitions depended upon that in O. P. No. 4194 of 1972 it would be sufficient if they were disposed of according to the decision in O. P, No. 4194 of 1972. In other words they said that if O. P. No. 4194 of 1972 was allowed, the other petitions also may be allowed and if it was dismissed, the other petitions also may be dismissed.
(2.) THE land involved in O. P. No. 4194 of 1972 is in "t" block. It is surrounded on all sides by water. Agricultural operations in Kuttanad are peculiar. Immediately after the harvest which usually takes place in January the lands are ploughed. When ploughing takes place the internal bunds are also laid. Thereafter water is let into the lands. For several months thereafter the lands would be under water. After repair of the outer bunds the lands are dewatered. Thereafter seeds are sown.
(3.) EARLY this year under the auspices of the Marxist Communist Party a "land Grab agitation" was started in the State. Compaigns for forcibly taking lands held by land-holders in excess of the ceiling area fixed in the Land Reforms Act were organised by the Party. Threats were issued to cultivators that they would not be allowed to carry on agricultural operations peacefully. In a statement issued by Sri a. K. Gopalan, a leader of the Marxist Communist Party, and published in the newspaper, Mathrubhoomi, dated August 1, 1972, Ext. P-1, he said that even though members of his party were not against landholders raising cultivations in such excess lands, they would not allow the land-holders to take the yield from the lands.