STATE OF KERALA Vs. KUNJAYI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) For one year, the respondent plaintiff was in occupation of some land belonging to the appellant defendant, the State Government, having bought in auction the right to raise crops on that land for that year. Whether the transaction amounts to a lease, or, as seems to have been conceded by the appellant in the courts below, is only a licence, I think that the respondent was liable to pay the cesses collected from him for the year he was in occupation under the provisions of the Madras District Boards Act, 1920 and the Madras Elementary Education Act, 1920 but, for the repayment of which, the courts below have concurred in granting him a decree.

(2.) S.74B of the Madras District Boards Act says that, "in every district, a land cess being a tax on the annual rent value of lands shall be levied in accordance with the provisions hereinafter contained in this Act."

(3.) S.34(2) of the Madras Elementary Education Act only authorises the imposition of an additional tax under among other heads, the head of land cess, and the respondent's liability to pay this additional tax is entirely dependent on his liability to pay the land cess under the Madras District Boards Act.