KUNHAMMALU AMMA Vs. MANIAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal has arisen in a proceeding to fix fair rent under S.16 of the Malabar Tenancy Act and concerns the interpretation of the Explanation added to S.4(a) of the Act by the Amendment Act XXII of 1956. That Explanation reads:

(2.) To us the language of the Explanation seems to bear no ambiguity. It makes the principal crop the basis of calculations to ascertain the normal produce of the land for purposes of fixing the fair rent thereof. The adjective 'principal' means chief, main or leading. The principal crop must therefore connote that crop which gives the higher yield. The Explanation directs imperatively that the principal crop "shall be deemed to be the first crop" of the land implying thereby that the next crop of the land shall be called the second crop. It further directs that the yield of the second crop "shall be deemed to be half of that of the principal crop."

(3.) It follows that the first crop of the land is not to be reckoned with reference to either the calendar year or the agricultural year, but according to the yield of the particular land concerned. That which gives the larger yield is the first crop in the reckoning of the Malabar Tenancy Act. The Subordinate Judge has, without any reference to the yield, assumed the first crop to be the Kanni crop and, finding its yield to be 135.9 parahs per acre, fixed the yield of the Makaram crop at its moiety and fixed the fair rent accordingly. In the petition to fix the fair rent the tenant has mentioned the proportion between the Kanni and Makaram crops of the land to be 200:250, though he has given low estimates of the actual yield of both crops. The Rent Court has kept up that proportion as it fixed the yields for Kanni and Makaram crops at 120 and 150 parahs of paddy per acre respectively. The tenant has not demurred to it. On appeal by the landlord complaining the fixation of the yield by the Rent Court to be too low, the Subordinate Judge has found the yield of the Kanni crop (alone) to be 135.9 parahs per acre and that has not been objected to before us by either party and has therefore to be accepted. The yield of the Makaram crop shall then be 5/4 thereof; that is to say 169.9 parahs of paddy. For purposes of fixing fair rent the latter has to he taken as the yield of the principal or the first crop and one half thereof as the yield of the second crop, as per the Explanation referred to above.