ANNAMALAI AYEE CHATRAM BY TRUSTEES, N.N.C.AR.RM. ARUNACHALAM CHETTIAR AND ORS. Vs. K. RAMABHADRA VANDAYAR AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE three petitions have been heard together as they raise a related point as regards the effect and construction of the Madras Cultivating Tenants (Amendment) Act, XIV of 1956. The precise questions involved in the Writ Petition and in the Civil Revision Petitions are slightly different and they would therefore, be dealt with separately. I shall first deal with W.P. No. 39 of 1957.

(2.) THE petitioners are landlords in the District of Tanjore in their character as trustees of a chatram charity which owns about 42 acres of wet lands. These lands were leased to certain persons who were cultivating tenants as defined by the Tanjore Tenants and Pannaiyal Protection Act (XIV of 1952) which I shall hereafter refer to as the Act. The tenants filed on 26th June, 1956, a petition before the Conciliation Officer, Kumbakonam, under Section 13(1) of the Act invoking the jurisdiction of the Officer to settle their dispute with their landlords as regards certain remissions of rent which they claimed, based on the poor harvest of the land leased to them and also a further claim to deduction for the cost of the manure put in by them. The Conciliation Officer held on enquiry and recorded findings which in a large measure gave relief to the tenants. This order was passed on 20th September, 1956. Section 13(2) of the Act enacted:

(3.) THIS 1955 Act was, compared to the Tanjore Act, less elaborate. Its operative sections were only two - -Section 3 protecting cultivating tenants against eviction, except for stated reasons and by application to the Revenue Divisional Officer and Section 4 which conferred on cultivating tenants a right to be restored to possession - -again subject to conditions and by application to the Revenue Divisional Officer of the area. It would thus be apparent that the Cultivating Tenants Protection Act, 1955, left wholly unaffected the provisions of the Tanjore Tenants and Pannayal Protection Act.