- (1.) Whether the lands belonging to the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board are exempted from the purview of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural Lands Record of Tenancy Rights Act ? and Whether the tenant of an agricultural land belonging to the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board is entitled for protection under the Tamil Nadu Cultivating Tenants Protection Act, 1955 ?. These are the interesting questions involved in this writ petition.
(2.) The facts of the case are as follows:- Mr.M.Chidambaranathan (deceased the first respondent herein) claimed that he was a cultivating tenant of the land comprised in S.No.1111 at Vikramasingapuram, Ambasamudram Taluk, Tirunelveli District, measuring 0.68 acres. According to Mr.M.Chidambaranathan, he had been in possession and enjoyment of the suit property as a cultivating tenant for more than two decades. The land admittedly, belongs to the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (hereinafter referred to as the TNEB). He was also paying rent regularly to the TNEB.
(3.) While so, the Assistant Engineer (Civil), of TNEB, Papanasam issued a memo to Mr.M.Chidambaranathan calling upon him to hand over vacant possession of the land. There was also an attempt to dispossess Mr.M.Chidambaranathan from the said land. Therefore, Mr.M.Chidambaranathan filed a Civil Suit in O.S.No.300 of 1971 on the file of the learned District Munsif, Ambasamudram against TNEB seeking a decree for permanent injunction to restrain the TNEB and its officials from interfering with his possession and enjoyment of the property as the cultivating tenant and for other reliefs.;