The main legal point established is that tenancy issues related to agricultural land must be referred to the competent authority under the Goa, Daman and Diu, Agricultural Tenancy Act, 1964, and the jurisdiction of the Civil Court is ousted from deciding such issues.

( 1 ) PARKAR S. S. , J. : - Rule. By consent, rule is made returnable forthwith. By consent of the parties, the petition is heard finally and is being finally disposed of. Counsel for the respondents waive service;

( 2 ) THE petition is filed challenging the order dated 12th March, 2003, disallowing the application dated 20-2-2003 made on behalf of the plaintiff to frame issue of tenancy. That application was made in the following circumstances : the suit was filed by the plaintiff/petitioner for a declaration that he was a lessee of an agricultural land, leased to him by defendants Nos. 1 and 2 who has in the agreement for sale agreed to sell the said land to the plaintiff. Defendant No. 3 was impleaded in the suit as the person to whom the said property was sold by defendants Nos. 1 and 2. It was the case of the petitioner/plaintiff that since he is the tenant in respect of the agricultural land and because of the clause in the lease deed, defendant Nos. 1 and 2 could not have sold the property to defendant No. 3. After institution of the suit, defendant no. 3 also sold the suit property to the parties who are proposed to be impleaded as party defendants. 2-A. Since the plaintiff is claiming to be a tenant of the suit land which is an agricultural land and the defendants had denied that he is a tenant of the suit land, an application was made to frame the issue of tenancy and refer the same to the Tenancy Court under the provisions of the Goa, Daman and Diu, agricultural Tenancy Act, 1964 (hereinafter, referred to as the Tenancy Act ). The application had to be made because in the written statement the claim of the petitioner/plaintiff as tenant of the agricultural land was denied. That application having been rejected by the trial Court by the impugned Order, the present petition is filed.

( 3 ) IN order to succeed in the suit, the plaintiff has to establish that he wan an agricultural tenant within the meaning of the provisions of the Tenancy act, in which case he is entitled to have first option to purchase the property which was leased to him and the same cannot be sold to any third party unless he does not exercise that option and the requisite permission under the Tenancy Act is obtained. It is not in dispute that neither the defendant no. 3 nor the persons to whom defendant No. 3 had sold the property are tenants as such. A reference may be made in this respect to the provisions of section 13-A of the Tenancy Act whereby a tenant has a first option to purchase the agricultural land when the landlord intends to sell any land cultivated by a tenant.

( 4 ) THE application was rejected on two grounds. Firstly by relying on the decision of this Court in the case of (Arjun Mahadev Manjrekar through his l. Rs. v. Ramchandm Chimno Padwal), 1990 (1) Goa. L. T. 243, the trial Court held that such issue can be framed and referred to the Tenancy Court only if the defendant claims tenancy. That was a case where the suit was filed by the landlord and the defendant claimed to be the tenant. This Court held that the civil Court had to necessarily frame the issue of tenancy. The trial Court has misunderstood the aforesaid judgment. Simply because in that case the issue arose because of the claim made by the defendant to be tenant within the provisions of the Tenancy Act, does not mean that the issue can be raised or referred to the Tenancy Court only when the defendant claims tenancy right.

( 5 ) SECTION 7 of the Tenancy Act reads as under : "question of tenancy - If any question arise whether any person is a [or was] tenant or should be deemed to be a tenant under this act the mamlatdar shall, after holding an inquiry, decide such question. " section 7 provides that if any question arises whether any person is or was tenant or should be deemed to be a tenant under the Act the Mamlatdar shall, after holding an inquiry, decide such question. Section 68 of the Tenancy act bars the jurisdiction of any other Court, except that of t