PATHIYOOR KARSHAKA SANGHAM Vs. DY S P KAYAMKULAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The office refused to number these petitions on the ground that the petitions are filed on behalf of unregistered societies or sanghams and that all the members constituting the sangham must eo nomine figure as petitioners on payment of court fee.

(2.) One of the petitions is filed by Pathiyoor Karshaka Sangham represented by its President, R. Madhusoodoanan Pillai. As per the averments in the petition, the sangham is having a total strength of 80 members of small scale agriculturists. Out of them 63 own and cultivate less than one acre of land each. The remaining 17 members are cultivating only a few cents of land each. The total extent of land held by them is 55 acres. They decided to pool their resources for collective cultivation of their lands on a cooperative basis. When they wanted to use tractors for ploughing their lands, the traditional labourers of the locality objected to it stating that their implements, bullocks and buffaloes must be made use of for ploughing the areas. So, they want protection from them. In the second petition the petitioner is one B.G. Vasudevan, Convenor of Kochuputhankary Padasekhara Committee. That committee is stated to be one constituted under the Kerala Irrigation Works (Execution By Joint Labour) Act, 1967. The works in the Padasekharam was being conducted in accordance with the recommendations evidenced by Ext. P1. When the Padasekhara Committee wanted to have the paddy fields ploughed by tractors, the agricultural workers headed by respondents 4 and 5 obstructed to the same. They also seek protection from the workers headed by respondents 4 and 5.

(3.) In the first petition, owners of the properties having less than one acre took a decision to organise collective cultivation of their lands on cooperative basis. The lands held by each member of the sangham is so small that no tractor can be put to use. Only if all the lands belonging to them are taken as a compact area can tractors be utilised for ploughing it. So, each member may not be entitled to seek help from police to have their small bits of land ploughed with tractor. Only when those plots are pooled together can a tractor be put to use.