HARASAPAKARAM PILLAI AND ORS. Vs. SRI HARASABHA VIMOCHANA PERUMAL KOIL AND ANR. BY ITD EXECUTIVE OFFICERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These revision petitions are placed before the Bench for a decision as to whether the tenants who are entitled to permanent occupancy rights by virtue of a custom from a temple are entitled to the benefits of the Tamil Nadu Cultivating Tenants Arrears of Rent (Relief) Act, 1972 (Tamil Nadu Act XXI of 1972.) The Petitioners are cultivating certain lands belonging to the Respondents -temples. The tenants claim that they cannot be evicted by the trust and they have got a right to permanent occupancy. This is not disputed by the Trust.

(2.) To answer the question it is necessary to trace the recent course of legislations dealing with tenancy under various tenures in the State. The Legislature felt that the tenants were being unjustly evicted and they needed protection. In order to protect the tenants from eviction, a series of enactments were passed by the Tamil Nadu Legislature. In 1946, the Tamil Nadu Tenants and Ryots Protection Act (Tamil Nadu Act XVII of 1946) was enacted. The preamble provided that it was necessary, pending further legislation, to provide for the temporary protection against eviction of tenants to whom the Malabar Tenancy Act, 1929 applied and of tenants of private lands in estates governed by the Tamil Nadu Estates Land Act, 1908 and against sale of the holdings of such tenants and of ryots in such estates and to provide for the stay of suits and other proceedings relating to such eviction and sale, and therefore the enactment was made. The purpose of this legislation was to protect the tenants from eviction. It applied to tenants to whom the Malabar Tenancy Act, 1929 applied and to tenants of private lands in estates governed by the Tamil Nadu Estates Land Act, 1908. The legislation was intended to prevent sale of the holdings of such tenants and ryots in such estates and to provide for the stay of suits and other proceedings relating to such eviction and sale. It may be noted that the Legislature was conscious of the different tenures in the State and made the Act applicable to tenants to whom the Malabar Tenancy Act, 1929 applied and to tenants of private lands in estates governed by the Tamil Nadu Estates Land Act, 1908 against eviction and sale of the holdings and to provide for the stay of suits and other proceedings relating to such eviction and sale. Regarding lands under the Tamil Nadu Estates Land Act, 1908, the Legislature kept a distinction between tenants of private lands in which the landlord was entitled to be in possession, but had leased it and ryots in such estates who were entitled to possession of the land, but whose holdings could be sold for arrears of rent.

(3.) The next piece of legislation was the Tanjore Pannaiyal Protection Act, 1952 (Tamil Nadu Act XIV of 1952). This Act was intended to provide for the improvement of agrarian conditions in the district of Tanjore. The preamble stated that as in the district of Tanjore, the relations between landowners and their agents on the one hand and the tenants and farm laborers on the other hand became strained resulting in the displacement of tenants and the dismissal of farm laborers and in agrarian crimes and disturbances, the enactment was made. It may be noted that intention was to prevent displacement of tenants and the dismissal of farm laborers. The Act provided that it shall be deemed to have come into force in the whole of the district of Tanjore on 23rd August 1952 and it shall corns into force in any other area in the adjoining districts in the State of Tamil Nadu on such date as the Government may by notification appoint. The Act is applicable to lands in which the landlord and their agents had a right to possession and it did not cover the case of tenants who had permanent occupancy rights.