JACOB Vs. ACHUKUTTY ABRAHAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A rare type of case, yet one which has raised many intellectually stimulating questions. It arises out of a litigation resorted to for the protection of the plaintiffs reputation. The suit was decreed by the Trial Court but dismissed by the appellate court. The plaintiff has tenaciously pursued the matter by this second appeal before this Court.

(2.) The cause of action has arisen in the up-lands of the former Malabar area. Hard working cultivators of Travancore, confronted with a shrunken space, have massively migrated to Malabar for over half a century by now. Some have cleared forests and reared rubber plantations. Many have profitable ventures in pepper and in coffee. Even those who had thus moved with essentially planting projects, diversified their interests in later times. Some have taken to trade; some others to other avocations; transport, works contract and the like. The plaintiff in this case is one who is better known as a contractor, and as it generally happens, as a rich one of the time, and in the area.

(3.) Having settled down in Malabar earlier, and for a fairly long time, the plaintiff and his establishment had taken deep roots. He claims, and the evidence justifies the claim, that he was well known among the compact population of that newly developed area.