State of Kerala vs P.U. Ramanandan

B. Kemal Pasha, J.—The State has come up in revision challenging the exemption granted by the Taluk Land Board, Chittur in respect of 1.02 acres of land in survey No. 98/1 of the Pallavur Amsom vide order dated 15.06.2007 in C.C. 189/1973.

Exemption has been granted to the aforesaid 1.02 acres on three grounds. The first ground is that the said property was the property belonged to the joint family of the mother of the respondents namely, Sarada Amma, and the said land was acquired by the said joint family of Sarada Amma through document No. 203/1958. Later, the said properties were partitioned and 1.02 acres were allotted to the share of Sarada Amma through partition deed No. 1336/87. The said property was purchased by the 1st respondent herein. Therefore, the said property had never come into the possession of the declarant. The next ground is that the 1st respondent has purchased the property through document No. 1070/1987 from Sarada Amma and, therefore, he is entitled to claim the benefit under Section 7E of the Kerala Land Reforms Act. The third ground was that the statutory family is one coming under Section 82(1)(b) of the KLR Act and, therefore, they are entitled to get 10 standard acres equal to 15 acres.

Heard the learned Special Government Pleader Smt. Susheela R. Bhatt for the petitioner, and the learned counsel for the respondents.

The learned Special Government Pleader has pointed out that the 1st respondent, being a member of the same family, cannot claim the benefit under Section 7E of the KLR Act as the purchase is by a member of the family from another member of the very same family. The learned Special Government Pleader has rightly relied on the decision in Chellappan Nair v. Taluk Land Board [2008 (1) KLT 650]. Much discussion is not required to conclude that the benefit under Section 7E cannot be extended to the 1st respondent in this case.

The next argument resorted to by the learned Special Government Pleader is that being a statutory family coming under Section 82(1)(b) of the KLR Act, the said family of the respondents is entitled to get only 12 acres of land exempted. The said argument is based on the fact that the declarant had specified in the declaration dated 12.12.1972 that the said 1 acre and 2 cents of property in survey No. 98/1 is double crop wet land. In such case, one standard acre has to be considered as 0.75 acre only. Only in a case wherein it is single crop wet land, one standard acre will be 1.50 acres in Palakkad District.

The next question to be considered is whether the said piece of land having an extent of 1.02 acres had come into the possession of the declarant as on the date of declaration. It seems that the respondents could establish before the Taluk Land Board that the said piece of land having an extent of 1.02 acres in survey No. 98/1 was the subject matter of document No. 203/1958 in favour of the joint family of Sarada Amma, who is the wife of the declarant. It seems that, that piece of land had never ever come to the possession of Sarada Amma as on the date of the declaration whereas, it belonged to the joint family of which she was a member. It seems that only in the year 1987, a partition had taken place in that family whereby, the said 1.02 acres in survey No. 98/1 was allotted to the share of Sarada Amma. It seems that even though the declarant had declared 1.02 acres in survey No. 98/1 as the land in his possession, the same cannot be believed as there was no partition in the family of Sarada Amma till 1987. Matters being so, it has to be considered that the land in question had come into the possession of Sarada Amma in the year 1987 only. In the year 1987, the 1st respondent herein had purchased the property through document No. 1070/87. Therefore, the mere declaration made by the declarant that the said 1.02 acres of double crop wet land was in his possession, cannot be taken as a ground for not granting exemption with regard to the said 1.02 acres.

On hearing either side and on considering the aforesaid aspects, this Court is of the view that there is absolutely nothing to interfere with the exemption granted by the Taluk Land Board, Chittur through the impugned order, in respect of 1.02 acres of land in survey No. 98/1 of Pallavur Amsom. This CRP is devoid of merits, and is only to be dismissed, and I do so.

In the result, this CRP is dismissed.