The Hindu Women's Rights to Property Act, 18 of 1937, does not apply to agricultural land, and the devolution of agricultural land is governed by the Hindu Law and the Bengal Tenancy Act.

1. THIS is an appeal by the plaintiff, mrityunjay Chattopadhyay, whose suit for declaration of his title to plot No. 1121, a homestead land, admeasuring. 04 acre, under khatian No. 386, exhibit 5, of mouza Saonta, police station Mangalkote, within the subdivision of Katwa, and for recovery of khas possession thereof, after eviction of the defendant bisheswar Koer, has failed in the Court of first instance and also in the court of appeal below.

2. ONE Nutbehari Bagdi was the owner of the aforesaid plot. His wife, as also his two sons, Satya and Fakir, and Satya's wife too, predeceased him. So, when he died on December 13, 1945, fakir's widow, that is, Nutbehari's widowed daugher-in-law Soroshibala, was, it is said, his only heir.

Leaving aside points concluded by findings of fact and no longer insisted upon, all that need be stated now is that on November 5, 1957, Soroshibala sold the disputed plot to the appellant.

3. UPON such sale, the question arises : did Soroshibala, the widow of a predeceased son, acquire title to this homestead plot so that she, in turu could have conveyed title to the appellant by her conveyance dated November 5, 1957, exhibit 1 ?

4. THE learned munsiff, and on appeal, the learned subordinate judge find: one, Nutbehari Bagdi was an occupancy riyat, holding plot No. 848 of mouja Saonta under khatian No. 118, exhibit F. Two, the disputed land, Nutbehari's only homestead, was, therefore, agricultural land by operation of section 182 of the Bengal Tenancy Act, 8 of 1885. Three, the Hindu Women's Rights to property Act, 18 of 1937, a Central Act, does not apply to agricultural land, a matter within the legislative competence of the Provincial Legislature only, in view of entry No. 21 in the Provincial legislative List: List II: of the Government of India Act, 1935, 25 and 26 Geo. 5, ch. 42. Four, ergo, devolution of the disputed land, upon Nutbihari's death on December 13, 1945, was governed by hindu Law, not by Act 18 of 1937, with the result that Soroshibala, a pre-deceased son's widow, acquried no title and could have, therefore, conveyed no title either, to the appellant.

The point for decision, therefore, boils down to that and that only: what is this land, plot No. 1121, like ? Agricultural or non-agricultural ? The plain meaning of agriculture is the art or practice of cultivating the land. A homestead land, as the disputed plot is, can never fit such meaning. Cultivating a homestead, a "bhita", as it is called in the countryside ? Cacophony apart, it means negation of a homestead. Or take the etymological meaning. Derived from the Latin "agricultura", it is really a compound of two words-"ager" meaning a field, and "cultura" meaning cultivation. Now, a homestead, a "bhita", as the disputed land is, does not happen to be either-"ager", a field, meaning a piece of ground enclosed for tillage or pasture, or "cultura" connoting cultivation.

5. TEST it in another way too. Two elements must be there in order to make a certain land agricultural, as held by the Privy Council in (1) Raja Mustafa ali Khan v. Commissioner of Income-tax, (1948) LE 75 IA 268, and reiterated by the Supreme Court in (2) Commissioner of Income-tax v. Raja Benoy kumar sahas Roy, 1957 SCJ 740. The two elements are: (i) some measure of cultivation of the land and (ii) some expenditure of skill and labour for the purpose. The first element necessarily connotes "the basic operations of tilling, cultivating, or dressing up the land for growing the thing sought. The second element similarly connotes the subsequent operations of tending, by skill and labour, the work started by the basic operations. When both these elements are there, the land becomes agricultural; otherwise not. Miss one element and you miss agriculture. Such then is the law laid down by the highest court of the land. Translate this law to the homestead land in controversy here. And it does hot answer either to the description or to the contents of an agricultural