V P SUDHEER Vs. ACHUTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS writ petition is filed challenging the order passed by the Land Tribunal as Ext. P3 in a suit pending before the Munsiff's Court, Nadapuram. A question of tenancy arose and the matter was referred to the Land Tribunal for adjudication on the question of tenancy. It was numbered as Referred Case No. 9 of 2003 by the Land Tribunal and it had entered into a finding that defendants 1, 3 and 4 are entitled to have fixity of tenure in relation to the property. Section 125 of the Kerala Land Reforms Act deals with the reference. Under Section 125(4), the Land Tribunal shall decide the question referred to it under sub- section (3) and return the records together with its decision to the civil court. The civil court shall then proceed to decide the suit or other proceedings accepting the decision of the Land Tribunal on the question referred to it. The decision of the Land Tribunal on the question referred to it shall, for the purpose of appeal, be deemed to be part of the finding of the civil court. So, the order passed by the Tribunal on reference is finding on an issue which becomes part and parcel of a civil court judgment and therefore the order under reference cannot be challenged directly before any authority, but it shall be only challenged in appeal when an appeal is preferred against the judgment and decree of the civil court. A Division Bench of this Court in the decision reported in Mohammed v. Musthaffa (1978 KLT 168) has held that