MOOLANATHASWAMY DEVASTHAM Vs. PAYANDI THEVAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is by a temple whose suit for possession and for recovery of damages has been dismissed by the trial Court and which dismissal has been affirmed by the learned Single Judge.

(2.) The plaintiff's case was that after the holding by a Division Bench of this Court in Appeal No.654/72 between the same parties that the respondents who are the defendants in the suit were not cultivating tenants; the plaintiff was entitled to approach the Civil Court for recovery of possession and that it was not necessary for the plaintiff to resort to Tamil Nadu Public Trusts (Regulation of Administration of Agricultural Lands) Act, 1961. The learned Single Judge has, after adverting to the definition of "cultivating tenant" in Section 2(5) of that Act of 1961 construed that definition as taking within its fold, even a person who is not a cultivating tenant, by relying on the reference in that definition to "any such person who continues in possession of land after the determination of the tenancy agreement". Those words "any such person" obviously refer to the person referred to in the main part of the definition which defines cultivating tenant thus:

(3.) If a person was not contributing his own physical labour or that of any member of his family in the cultivation of the land under the tenancy agreement, whether that agreement be express or implied, then such a person cannot claim to be a 'cultivating tenant' eventhough he may be a tenant otherwise, eg., who is holding over and whose entry on the land was lawful under a contractual tenancy for a limited period of time.