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1961 (12) TMI 99
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....1956. Their lands are situate in Hosdrug and kasargod Taluks which have now been made part of the Cannanore District in the State of Kerala. They hold large areas of lands, the major part of which is held by them as ryotwari parradars, of Madras under the Board's Standing Orders of that State. In these lands they have areca and pepper plantations besides rubber plantation. They also grow other crops on some of the lands. The Act is being attacked on the ground that it contravenes Arts. 14, 19 and 31 of the Constitution. Besides this, it is also contended on behalf of the petitioners that the Bill which became the Act lapsed under the provisions of the Constitution, and therefore the assent given to the Bill by the President was of no effect and did not result in the Bill becoming an Act. We do not think it necessary to set out the details of the attack on this last score in the present petitions as the matter has been considered in full in the judgment in the connected Writ Petition No. 105 of 1961. The petitioners further submit that their lands which they hold as ryotwari pattadars are not estates within the meaning of Art. 31A (2)(a) of the Constitution and therefore the Act....
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....urable legislation and the State Legislature was competent to enact the Act under item 18 of List II and item 42 of List III of the Seventh Schedule and there is no acquisition of money by the state under the Act and reference is made to s. 80 of the Act in this connection; and lastly, that the discrimination alleged with respect to plantations, the fixation of ceiling and the deductions from compensation payable under Chapters II and III is really no discrimination at all and the provisions in that behalf are based on an intelligible differentia which is in accordance with the object and purpose of the Act. Re. (1). The question whether the Bill which finally received the assent of the President on January 21, 1961, had lapsed because the legislative assembly which originally passed it was dissolved and a new legislative assembly which came into being after the general elections reconsidered and re-passed it under Art. 201 of the Constitution has been considered by us in Writ Petition No. 105 of 1961, judgment in which has just been delivered and it has been held there that the bill did not lapse and therefore it validly became law when the President assented to it. The attack o....
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....ctions are made from the purchase price payable by the tenant under s. 45 and from the market value before compensation is arrived at for payment to the land owner under s. 52 and to the person surrendering excess land under s. 64. But if one looks at the purpose and object of the Act it will be clear that the main provisions of the Act are clearly within the legislative competence of the State legislature under item 18 of List II and item 42 of List III. The scheme of the Act so far as Chap. II dealing with extinction of the land- owner's right is concerned is that the land- owner's right vested in the State under ss. 41 and 42 on a day to be notified by the Government in that behalf. Thereafter, s. 43 provides that cultivating tenants of the lands which have vested in the State shall have a right to assignment of the right, title and interest so vested in the State on payment of a certain price which is calculated under s. 45 and is called the purchase price. After the purchase price is determined, the compensation to be paid to the land-owner is provided by s. 52 and there is reduction in the purchase price for the purpose of given compensation. It is however obvious tha....
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....t the compensation provided by the law is not adequate: See Art. 31(2). It is only because the compensation provided under s. 52 is a percentage of the purchase price as calculated unders. 45 that it appears as if the State is taking away a part of the compensation due to the landowner. Section 52 is however only a method for determining compensation and the whole compensation due to the land-owner is to be found in s. 52 and it cannot therefore be said that any part of the compensation is being taken away by the State. Similarly the scheme of Chap. III which provides a ceiling is that any land in excess of the ceiling shall vest in the Government under s. 62. Thereafter the land so vested in Government can be assigned under s. 70 to persons who do not possess any land or possess land less than 5 acres of double crop nilam or its equivalent. It is true that Government may assign the lands to those who apply under s. 70but it is not bound to do so and here again there will be a time lag between the vesting of the excess land in the Government under s.62 and its assignment to those who are eligible unders. 70. The charge that in this Chapter there is a device for taking away the com....
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.... and s 72 but what is provided ins. 52 and s 64. The adequacy of that compensation cannot be challenged in view of Art. 31(2), and there is therefore no justification for saying that the money due to the landowner or the person from whom the excess land is acquired is being taken away by the State. That argument would only be possible if the compensation was the whole amount arrived at unders. 45 or under s. 72 and from that the Government deducted money due to the landowner. That however is not so and the compensation to which the landowner or the person from whom the excess land is acquired is to be found only in ss. 52 and 64 and there is thus no question of taking away any money due to the landowner. Further, whatever unfairness might appear because of the difference between ss. 45 and 52 on the one hand and ss. 64 and 72 on the other and the manner in which the compensation is shown as a percentage of the purchase price or the market value is removed by the provision in s. 80 of the Act. That section provides for the constitution of an agriculturist rehabilitation fund in which the surplus, if any, of the purchase price after the disbursement therefrom of the compensation is ....
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.... affected by the Act and therefore even the apparent result of the difference between ss. 45 and 62 and ss 64 and 72 is taken away by the constitution of the fund under s. 80, and it cannot be said at all under the circumstances that any device has been employed in the Act to take away the moneys of the landowners or the persons from whom excess land is taken away for the purpose of adding to the revenue of the State. We are therefore of opinion that the Act" cannot be struck down as a colourable piece of legislation which is beyond the competence of the State Legislature. Re. (3). Article 31A was inserted in the Constitution by the Constitution (First Amendment) Act, 1951, with retrospective effect so that it must be deemed to have been in the Constitution from the very beginning, i.e., January 26, 1950. The article was further amended by the Constitution (Fourth Amendment) Act, 1955 which was also made retrospective and therefore Art. 31A as it stands today must be deemed to have been part of the Constitution right from the start, i.e., January 26, 1950. We are not concerned in the present petitions with cl. (1) of Art. 31A, which was extensively amended in 1955 but only w....
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....elation to an estate by the use of the words "other intermediary". Therefore, when the words "raiyat, under raiyat " were added in sub-cl. (b) in 1955, it was further enumeration within a class already there; further as held in The State of Bihar v. Rameshwar Pratap Narain Singh, their inclusion in the circumstances and in the particular setting showed that the words "or other intermediary" did not necessarily qualify or colour the meaning to be attached to these new tenures. The meaning of the word "estate" has however to be found insub-cl. (a) and it is the words used in that sub- clause only which will determine its meaning irrespective of whether any intermediary existed in an estate or not. The meaning of the word "estate" in sub-cl (a) is the same as it might be in the existing law relating to land-tenure in force in a particular area. Where therefore there is an existing law in a particular area in which the word "estate" as such is defined the word would have that meaning for that area and there is no necessity then for looking for its local equivalent. But if in existing law of a particular area the word "est....
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....re governed by the Standing orders of the Board of Revenue. Eventually, in 1908, the Madras legislature passed the Madras Estate Land Act, No. 1 of 1908, which was later amended from time to time. It contains a definition of the word "estate" as such in s. 3(2) and when the Constitution came into force the relevant part of the definition was as follows:- "Estates' means:- (a) any permanently settled estate or temporarily settled zamindari; (b) any portion of such permanently settled estate or temporarily settled zamindari which is separately registered in the office of the Collector; (c) any unsettled palaiyam or jagir; (d) any inam village of which the grant has been made, confirmed or recognised by the British Government, notwithstanding that subsequent to the grant, the village has been partitioned among the grantees or the successors-in title of the grantee or grantees." This Act applied to the entire Presidency of Madras except the Presidency town of Madras, the district of Malabar and the portion of the Nilgiri district known as South East Wynaad. It thus applied to the district of South Canara from where these petitions come. So far therefo....
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....State of Madras. We are therefore of opinion that the word "estate" in the circumstances can only have the meaning given to it in the Act of 1908 as amended up to 1950 in the State of Madras as it was on the date the Constitution came into force. We have already said that the Act of 1908 dealt with landlord tenures of Madras and was an existing law relating to land-tenures. The other class of land-tenures consisted of ryotwari pattadars which were governed by the Board's Standing Orders, there being no Act of the legislature with respect to them. The holders of ryotwari pattas used to hold lands on lease from Government. The basic idea of ryotwari settlement is that every bit of land is assessed to a certain revenue and assigned a survey number for a period of years, which is usually thirty and each occupant of such land holds it subject to his paying the land-revenue fixed on that land. But it is open to the occupant to relinquish his land or to take new land which has been relinquished by some other occupant or become otherwise available on payment of assessment, (see Land Systems of British India by Baden-Powell, Vol. III, Chap. IV, s. II, p. 128). Though, theoret....
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.... history of the matter, for it is not in dispute that the ryotwari system was introduced in South Canara district in the early years of this century. The history will be found in the Book "Land Tenures in the Madras Presidency" by S. Sunderaraja Iyengar, IIEdn., pp. 45-47, where it is said that "after the introduction of the ryotwari system into South Canara, no distinction now exists between the wargadar, the mnulawargadar and kudutaledar and they are all ryotwari pattadars" Therefore, when the Constitution came into force the ryotwari pattadars of South Canara were on the same position as the ryotwari pattadars of the rest of the State of Madras. Further, as the Act of 1908 was in force in South Canara also, though there may not be many estates as defined in that Act in this area it follows that in this area also the word "estate" would have the same meaning as in the Act of 1908 and therefore ryotwari pattadars and their lands would not be covered by the word "estate". Further, there can be no question of seeking for a local equivalent so far as this parts of the State of Kerala which has come to it from the former State of Madras is conce....
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....tate was principally planted with cashewnuts tree and be a contiguous area not below 10 acres) will continue to be owned or held as before, though the ceiling in such cases would be reduced to half of that provided in s.58. These provisions inter alia confer benefits on those who hold plantations as defined in s. 2(39) and also on those who have cashew estates as defined in the Explanation to s. 59(2). The contention on behalf of the petitioners is that there is no reason why the same benefits which have been conferred on plantations as defined in the Act should not be conferred on those who hold areca and pepper plantations, and that there are no intelligible differentia which would justify the State legislature in treating the pepper and areca plantations differently from rubber, tea and coffee plantations. Article 14 has been the subject of consideration by this Court on a number of occasions and the principles which govern its application have been summarised in Shri Ram Krishna Dalmia v. Shri Justice S. R. Tendolkar, in these words:- "(a) that a law may be constitutional even though it relates to a single individual if, on account of some special circumstances or reaso....
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....ase agricultural production, and to create conditions for evolving as speedily as possible an agrarian economy with a high level of efficiency and productivity (see p. 178 of the Second Five Year Plan). It is with this object in view that ceiling on land-holdings has been imposed in various States. Even so, it is recognised that some exemptions will have to be granted from the ceiling in order that production may not suffer. This was considered in the Second Five Year Plan at p. 196 and three main factors were taken into account in deciding upon exemptions from the ceiling, namely:- (1) integrated nature of operations, especially where industrial and agricultural work are undertaken as a composite enterprise, (2) specialised character of operations, and (3) from the aspect of agricultural production the need to ensure that efficiently managed farms which fulfil certain conditions are not broken up. Bearing these criteria in mind it was recommended in the Second Five Year Plan (see p. 196) that the following categories of farms may be exempted from the operation of ceiling namely: "(1) tea, coffee and rubber plantation; (2) orchards where they constitute reasonably c....
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....er which was largely a household garden crop has emerged as a plantation crop and fairly large sized plantations of pepper exist in the submontane eastern parts of North Malabar and the Hosdrug taluk of South Canara, (the area from which these petitions come). In Hosdrug taluk in particular pepper is grown mostly on large scale plantations and it is here that the finest and the best organised pepper plantations in India exist. Some of the largest plantations among them have an area of a 100 to 150 acres. Pepper vines commence yielding usually from the third year, the yield increasing gradually until the vines come to full bearing in about ten years. The economic life of a vine varies from place to place. From the tenth to the 25th year, the vines are in full bearing, and the yield begins to decline after the 30th year. The initial outlay on pepper plantations is heavy and the pepper crop requires continuous attention and care. The total area under pepper is over 2 lakhs acres out of which about 20,000 acres are under pure pepper plantations. The initial expenditure on laying out a pepper plantation can be recovered only after several years and the best organised and most extensive ....
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....t of tea, coffee and rubber plantations, orchards, specialised farms and efficiently managed farms, arecanut gardens be also similarly exempted from ceiling. The Sub- committee also noticed that arecanut cultivation involved heavy capital outlay in establishing, maintaining and protecting the arecanut trees. This recommendation of the Sub-committee came up for consideration before the Indian Central Arecanut Committee on January 23, 1958, and was accepted. Thus these proceedings show that fixation of ceiling on arecanut gardens would hamper production which would be detrimental to national economy. It is in this background therefore that we have to consider whether the non-inclusion of areca and pepper plantations in the definition in s. 2(39) with the result that areca and pepper plantations do not enjoy similar benefits as others, is discriminatory. From what we have said above it has not been shown that there is any appreciable difference between the economics of tea, coffee and rubber plantations and areca and pepper plantations. It is true that plantations in areca and pepper are not so widespread as tea, coffee and rubber plantations but it is equally true that in this parti....
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....n given in support of the opinion that 10 acres is the optimum area for a pepper plantation is that one planter in that region was of the view that unless the price of one candy of pepper remained at a high level of anything between ₹ 1,500/- and ₹ 2,000/- it will be impracticable and unprofitable to maintain large scale plantations of pepper in these regions, and if prices go down for below this level, large scale pepper plantations may have even to be abandoned. This does not afford a sufficient basis for holding that 10 acres is the optimum holding for a pepper plantation. In the first place, it is mentioned at p. 8 of the bulletin that pepper began to be grown on plantation scale when the price rose to about ₹ 700/- per candy in 1928. Therefore even if the price falls below ₹ 1,500/- to ₹ 2,000/- per candy there is no reason why pepper cultivation on a plantation scale should become impracticable, particularly as it is unlikely that the cost of only pepper will fall and not all other commodities. At p. 72 the bulletin mentions that the cost of cultivation of pepper can be brought down only if the general price level is brought down substantially. N....
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.... while areca and pepper are mostly grown on a small scale. We find from the report of the Plantation Inquiry Commission, 1956, that small holdings exist in tea, coffee and rubber plantations also and are in fact the majority of such plantations. For example, in the report of the Plantation Inquiry Commission relating to coffee at pp. 9 and 14 we find that out of the total number of registered estates more than 4,500 are between 5 acres and 25 acres while only about 2,200 estates are above 25 acres. Further there are more than 24,000 estates below 5 acres. Similarly at p. 97, Chap. XI, Part III of the Report dealing with rubber, out of the total of over 26, 709 rubber estates, 23,300 are up to 5 acres, 1,900 up to 10 acres and only about 1,500 above 10 acres. So it appears that the large majority of plantations whether they be of coffee or rubber are below 10 acres and that is also the case with area and pepper plantations. Thus there is no reason for giving preference to plantations of tea, coffee and rubber over plantations of area and pepper for the conditions in the two sets of plantations whether for the purpose of ceiling under Chap. III or for the purpose of acquisition of la....
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....of the same family but belong to different families. The joint Hindu family does not merely consist of the husband, wife and unmarried minor children; it consists at least of the husband wife and all the children whether married or unmarried and whether minor or adult. The definition of "family" therefore in the Act is an artificial one which does not conform to any of the three kinds of families prevalent in the State. Turning now to s. 58, the ceiling has been fixed in two ways. The first is by reference to a family as defined in the Act of not more than five members which is allowed 15 acres of double crop nilam or its equivalent with an addition of one acre of double crop nilam or its equivalent for each member in excess of five, so however that the total extent of the land shall not exceed 25 acres of double crop nilam or its equivalent. The second is by reference to an adult unmarried person who is allowed 7.50 acres of double crop nilam or its equivalent. It has been urged on behalf of the State that the provisions as they stand do not make any discrimination whatsoever for there is the same provision for all adult unmarried persons and the same for all families a....
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....crimination will result on the application of these provisions to joint Hindu families. Similar would in our opinion be the case with Marumakhathayam and Aliyasanthana families where as we have already pointed out the husband and wife do not belong to the same family as known to personal law. Discrimination therefore is writ large on the consequences that follow from the provisions of s. 58(1). We are therefore of opinion that s. 58(1) is violative of the fundamental right enshrined in Art. 14; as that section is the basis of entire Chap. III the whole Chapter must fall with it. This would be an additional reason why Chap. III should be struck down as violative of Art 14 in its application to ryotwari landas which have come to the State of Kerala from the State of Madras. Re. (6) It is contended that the manner in which the compensation is cut down progressively in ss. 52 and 64 of the Act is violative of Art. 14. The Compensation payable under s. 52 is determined in this manner. First the purchase price is arrived at under s. 45. Thereafter s. 52(2)(b) provides that the landowner or the intermediary, except in the case of religious, charitable and educational institution of a pu....
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....ld suffer reductions at a different rate which reductions become progressively higher as the purchase price or the market value increases. We could understand once the purchase price or the market value had been determined a uniform cut therefrom for all persons entitled to compensation. That would then raise the question of adequacy of compensation and unless the cut was so large as to make the compensation illusory the cut may be protected by Art.31(2). But in the present case there is not a uniform cut on the purchase price or the market value for all persons, the cut is higher as the purchase price or the market value gets bigger and bigger after the first slab of ₹ 15,000/-. This difference in cut in being justified on behalf of the State on the same principle on which (for example) the slab system exists for purposes of income-tax. We are however of opinion that there is no comparison between the slab system of income-tax rates and the present cuts. Taxation is a compulsory levy from each individual for the purpose of the maintenance of the State. We may therefore reasonably expect that a rich man may be required to make a contribution which may be higher than what may ....
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.... their lands resulting in larger production to the benefit of the national economy. Secondly, the object of the Act is to provide land for the landless and to those who may have little land by taking excess land from those who have large tracts of lands so that peasant proprietorship may increase with consequent increase in production due to greater interest of the cultivator in the soil. But these objects have no rational relation which would justify the making of different cuts from the purchase price or the market value for the purpose of giving compensation to those whose interests are being acquired under the Act. We can therefore see no justification for giving different compensation based on different cuts from the purchase price or the market value as provided in ss. 52 and 64 of the Act. We may in this connection refer to Kameshwar Singh v. The State of Bihar, in which similar question with respect to compensation provided in the Bihar Land Reforms Act, 1950, came up for consideration. There the Act provided compensation at different rates depending upon the net income. The landowner having the smallest net income below ₹ 500/- was to get twenty times the net income....
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....te of Kerala, one set of hearing costs. SARKAR, J.-I wish to say a few words on two of the questions that arise in these cases. The Act, the validity of which is challenged, provides for acquisition of lands for equitable distribution among the people who require it for cultivation by themselves. It provides for payment of compensation to those whose interests are acquired. It also provides for a mode of valuation of these interests. Then it provides by ss. 52 and 64 for payment of compensation at a progressively smaller rate for larger valuations. For the higher slabs in the valuation made as provided by the Act, less and less is paid by way of compensation. It is said that these provisions for progressively diminishing compensation are discriminatory and unconstitutional. This is the first point with which I propose to deal. The question is whether the payment of compensation at a progressively smaller rate as the valuation is higher offends Art. 14 of the Constitution. Now it is not disputed that progressively higher rate of taxation by an Act taxing income is not unconstitutional. I think such taxation is too well recognised now to be challenged. If that is so-and that was t....
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....es the State resources are benefited, in one by augmentation and in the other by prevention of larger depletion. Therefore, I would accept the learned Attorney-General's argument that ss. 52 and 64 of the Act cannot be held to be discriminatory and void for the same reason on which progressive rates of taxation are held not to be so in the case of an Income-tax Act. The next question on which I wish to say a few words concerns those provisions of the Act which exempt plantations of tea, coffee, rubber or cardamom or such other kinds of special crops as the Government may specify, from certain provisions of the Act. Plantations have been defined in s. 2(39) of the Act as land used by a person principally for the cultivation of tea, coffee, rubber or cardamom or other notified crops. No other crop appears to have been notified yet. Section 58 of the Act provides the ceiling area of land which may be held by any individual proprietor. Land above the ceiling has to be surrendered to the Government. Section 57 of the Act provides that this provision would not apply to plantations as defined ins. 2(39). Again, Ch. 2 of the Act which gives the tenants the right to purchase land from ....
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.... the Planning Commission's Report that other kinds of crops might profitably be grown as plantation crops. In any case, a general understanding even if there was one, is not sufficient basis for discrimination. With regard to the other statements of the State, it is enough to say that the Act does not make a discrimination because of the size of the plantations. Therefore, there is no point in saying that areca and pepper are not grown on a plantation scale. For these reasons I think the provisions in the Act making a discrimination in favour of tea, coffee, rubber and cardamom plantations cannot be upheld. For the same reason, I think the discriminatory treatment made in favour of cashew plantation also cannot be sustained. Sections 3(viii), 57(1)(d) and 59(2) of the Act are therefore, in my opinion, invalid. I think however that these provisions are severable from other parts of the Act. I think it cannot be reasonably said that the legislature would not put the Act into operation if these provisions are taken out of it. The deletion of the provisions does not further make it impossible for the rest of the Act to operate. I am, therefore, unable, to hold that because the sec....