PARVATIBAI TRIMBAK AGASHE Vs. YESHWANT KRISHNA SHETE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) As the lower appellate Court has said that this is a novel point upon which there is no authority I propose shortly to state the facts of this case, which are admitted on both sides.

(2.) The two defendants are brothers, one a major and the other a minor. They earn at most Rs. 250 from agriculture and only Rs. 30 from the rent of two houses. One of them holds a scholarship of Rs. 15 a month in the Veterinary College, Bombay, the other is a student in the Training College, Poona and gets a stipend of Rs. 7 a month. Last year he was a school-master for about ten months and earned Rs. 9 a month. If the scholarship and stipend are added to Rs. 30 the total is Rs. 294 so that in that case the total income is not principally from agriculture. The question is, can these two brothers be deemed to be agriculturists within the meaning of the Dekkhan Agriculturists Relief Act in respect of the Rs. 15 a month and Rs. 7 a month abovementioned respectively? Clause (1) to Section 2 of the Act says : "Agriculturist shall be taken to mean a person who by himself or by his servants or by his tenants earns his livelihood wholly or principally by agriculture carried on within the limits of a district or, part of a district to which this Act may for the time being extend, or who ordinarily engages personally in agricultural labour within those limits."

(3.) In the present case it is unnecessary to consider the last clause of Section 2. The question, therefore, that arises is : do these two young men earn their livelihood from agriculture or in consequence of these stipends are they anything less than agriculturists? The Legislature in the Act have declined to give an accurate definition of what an "agriculturist" is. Far be it from me to attempt to give it any definition so as to embrace the meaning of this word under all circumstances, and I merely deliver this judgment upon the facts as now before us.